I think this article probably explains why MS is suddenly trying to make deals with Linux vendors. If they take this seriously, then MS is screwed in the corporate data centers. Once those go to (mainly) linux, then the corporate desktop isn’t far behind, for compatibility reasons.
If that were the case then in the 90s we would all have solaris desktops. *If* ms is scared its not about losing the desktop to linux any time soon (Apple is a far greater threat in that layer) its losing server share which has become a very important part of their business..