Microsoft has signed a deal with Open Source Census, a project aimed at finding out what open source programs are most frequently used by companies as well as how many companies are using them, to sponsor the initiative. Open Source Census’s goal is to use the information resulted from the study to find better ways of convincing more and more companies to use open source programs in their daily activity.

So the question seems to be why would Microsoft, a company that makes money out of selling software, want to support a project that seems to be aimed against its interests. What is obvious is that there must be something that Microsoft hopes to benefit of, since it’s well known that the Redmond-based company knows how to make money from every situation.

There are two scenarios that could both be true, and that Microsoft can take advantage of. First of all, it might be a PR stunt that the software giant uses to gain the public’s perception of it actively supporting the open source community. The company could latter use this episode to claim that it is involved in open source efforts, without contributing with what it is essential for this source of initiative: code.

The other idea could be that Microsoft would use the information discovered by the study to gain a better understanding about where it should make changes to its products to make them better than the competition, and what products it can stop focusing on, knowing that the companies prefer similar open source ones.

Which of the two, if any, is the right answer remains to be seen. What is probably true is that Microsoft would not sponsor anything just out of good will.