Microsoft would prefer to have a monopoly on operating systems, but to the extent that isn't possible/allowed a duopoly with Apple isn't so bad due to Apple's "premium" focus and special hardware. It is clear that the first priority relating to Linux is to prevent new Linux users. While they would love to have a better reputation anyway, I doubt many people will be fooled for long.
The new Microsoft makes money well beyond Windows: billing running containers and Linux (or Windows) VMs, GB/month of Azure Storage, GB/month of outbound traffic, Visual Studio professional subscriptions, and so on.
It's a clever strategy. Managers usually won't care/understand about containers, runtime environments, Active Directory, APIs, libraries, etc., but developers/devops folks do. By addressing devs, Microsoft is getting quite a competitive edge (no pun intended) in the operational part of enterprises.
Microsoft salespeople already address managers in terms of solutions in manager-lingo (synergies, CapEx/OpEx, yada, yada).
Try plugging a USB stick with an ext2 partition into Windows 10. At least in 1803, you get TWO dialog boxes asking you to format the partition, with the default being format! In between is another dialog box with just one button. This is the new Microsoft, same as the old Microsoft.