I'm quoting from memory, but IIRC when MS created the NT kernel they were targeting the traditional UNIX space, which is also why they natively supported POSIX(

I'm quoting from memory, but IIRC when MS created the NT kernel they were targeting the traditional UNIX space, which is also why they natively supported POSIX(1) at the time (which hilariously was later dropped and now we're back with the Linux subsystem). At the time, Intel servers were a relative novelty so it made sense to support other architectures. In an interesting bit of history, the reason why PuTTY exists is because the creator had an Alpha NT workstation and no native telnet client with decent terminal emulation. (1) If you ever supported NT 3/4 machines and had UNIX experience, you'd have noticed a lot of early third party software on NT were direct ports of UNIX-based code. I still have dreams about dealing with Veritas on NT and saving the day because of my UNIX knowledge.