I wouldn't make a bet based on it, but it's possible. Kernel engineering is challenging, precise and experience-based work and it's tricky to recruit and devel

I wouldn't make a bet based on it, but it's possible. Kernel engineering is challenging, precise and experience-based work and it's tricky to recruit and develop for those talents when your codebase is proprietary. A large number of companies depend on Linux, and that creates a common interest in multiple areas - reliability, architecture support, security, and so on. Under this suggestion, "Windows" as you experience it as a user might not change very much - but within the software stack, Linux would replace the existing proprietary kernel.