...happily sitting here as a Linux guy but... I can only be so smug. It is never a good day when criminal elements win. M$, get your house in order! We all lose when they win.
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Linux is great for the back-end. Really there is no alternative.
However...
they are not attacking Linux as no one really uses it. Why go after that < 2% of desktops running it? Great secure desktop, no decent apps.
Many people would love to switch to Linux, but without real commercial application support (that most of the world uses), it’s doubtful.
Why don’t y’all get Autodesk, Adobe, Microsoft, Value/Steam and the thousands of other useful apps ported over to Linux? Always a Windows/Mac version and never a Linux version. Open-source shovel-ware just won’t cut it for most.
Until that’s done, Linux desktop use will hover around 2%
Is Linux usable as a desktop alternative to Windows or Mac? Absolutely. I'm living proof. I've been a Linux user and developer at work for 20+ years. I've been a Linux user at home for over a decade. But I'm a sample size of 1. It comes down to effort - both real and perceived.
A significant percentage of people currently using Windows at home use it primarily for web browsing and email. A significant percentage of work use involves that and typical office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Linux on the desktop is entirely capable of assuming these tasks. However there are two gotchas.
One is simply the barrier(s) to entrance into the Linux world. Want a new laptop? You can find dozens from major manufacturers or sites like Amazon or New Egg, or at local retailers like Best Buy - almost all running Windows, A relative handful running some version of Mac OS, maybe a tiny fraction offered with Linux. The upshot is, if you want to run Linux it is going to take a little work, a little extra effort. While you can easily get Win/MacOS ready to run out of the box... For most users and most devices a Linux fan would have to figure out how to download and install Linux themselves. Why bother when the computer is ready to go as is? So that extra work, minimal as it actually is, represents a significant barrier to entry. You have to really want to run Linux. Pro tip - it really isn't that difficult to download an ISO image of a popular Linux distribution, copy it to a thumb drive, boot from that thumb drive, and install Linux. It is a few steps yes, but once you understand them it is easy.
The second "gotcha" is simply the pervasiveness of Windows and MS Office tools. Even if you're a Linux fanboy, either recent convert or long-time aficionado, chances are you're going to have to work with or interact with generic Windows users. As good as the Linux applications are (eg. Libre Office) when interacting with their MS counterparts there are sometimes, perhaps even often, issues with fonts, layouts, etc. It represents an impedance mismatch that seems perennial, perhaps even pervasive.
The upshot is, given MS's position - basically having gotten there first - they are going to be the desktop, like it or not. This relegates Linux and Mac OS to basically also-ran status on the desktop. Attackers looking to skim/scam information have got to play the odds. I won't even touch the relative security postures of Win/Mac/Linux. If you want to attack systems, you play the numbers. The numbers say you'll find more, many more Win systems out there in the wild than you will anything else. So that's what the attacks are generally written for.