Summary: Microsoft loves Linux, they say; but as Microsoft's former VP James Allchin put it: "If you're going to kill someone there isn't much reason to get all worked up about it and angry -- you just pull the trigger [...] We need to smile at Novell while we pull the trigger."

WE ALL know that Microsoft does not "love Linux"; Microsoft is just trying to turn GNU/Linux into its own thing, intended to serve Microsoft's bottom line and lock-in. It's a very old (decades-long) modus operandi and we've been seeing it stretching across to things like WSL and maybe even WINE. First, Microsoft needs to get some leverage or control over its competition, sometimes through groups that represent that competition, e.g. the Linux Foundation, OSI, SFC and so on.

"First, Microsoft needs to get some leverage or control over its competition..."As Dave Lane told me or put it (not for the first time) not too long ago, "as I like to point out #MicrosoftLovesLinux like a tapeworm loves a healthy digestive system." ⬆

Image of tapeworm by Russ Hobbs, Klaus Rohde. CC BY-SA 3.0.