Then perhaps Windows 95 is not as **obsolete** as it is made out to be, if its old dead code is that much of a marketshare threat to frontline MS OS's almost a decade later.
I mean, if I had the choice of either keeping a customer on a MicroSoft platform (where I could at least sell them major money-makers such as MS Office) or losing said customer to Linux, then giving away Windows 95 as Open Source would be a far easier choice to me than would be the option of discounting to near $0.00 a newer OS like Windows XP.
Are you actually an MS employee? I ask only because it would actually mean something to my own business model if MicroSoft itself is content to lose platforms to Linux rather than find ways to maintain their current desktop lead.