I would say that it's not to swallow but rather to embrace. I have been developing middleware in Java, C++ and .NET on Linux and Windows Servers using basically every possible editor/ide/debugger combination. I have always regretted the fact that Java and Linux did not have anything on par with what Visual Studio provides. Now that most of the tooling is free deciding which tool to use will be a no brainer for everyone that has just touched VS and will become extremly tempting also for anybody else. At the same time this will push adoption of .NET and I foresee that in the next 10 years .NET will erode much of Java space.

In my opinion the stategy is not to swallow Linux but rather to push .NET. On premise Servers are becoming less relevant Linux or Windows won't make much difference in the future. What will make a difference is what the cloud will support and provide.

>I have always regretted the fact that Java and Linux did not have anything on par with what Visual Studio provides.

Linux has had JetBrains IDEs for a long time now.

In any case, without Xamarin being ported to Linux and tied to VS, the embrace you're talking about is shortly followed by the other two "E"s.

Have you ever tried Jetbrains IDEs on Linux? The font support in their java swing app is so horrible it's unbearable.

I use PyCharm all the time. But... I do use a patched Java Virtual Machine to make it work well with Infinality. Yes, by default, fonts suck.

Not entirely true, visual studio without resharper is a pain, IntelliJ idea is definitely better. With resharper the experience is pretty much the same with a small advantage to visual studio.

VS 2015 with R# is a pain.

Sure, that its becoming less relevant that the dev environment is linux or windows, seems to me to be a huge win for MSFT.

Too late, another company already did the same with its own proprietary software.

Kings never fall? Ask Palm & Blackberry how they are doing...