How many of these things came from their current CEO? Of course, many of the current executives were also from the war-on-linux days, so there is that to worry

How many of these things came from their current CEO? Of course, many of the current executives were also from the war-on-linux days, so there is that to worry about. But it is possible that Microsoft is transitioning to a services company, similar to the IBM transition a while back. In that case, if they are being friendly towards Linux, it may be useful to show them that this is the right move -- hence the current level of what seems like unreasonable support.