It already has the Linux kernel, a Wayland compositor, PTYs, symlinks, POSIX compliant filesystem and now a package manager. Clearly, they are interested in moving the gap.
Jokes aside, I don’t really think it’s a possibility in the near or mid future, but if Microsoft ever did show signs of pivoting towards a Linux-based Windows successor, I only pray that the NT kernel source code may be open sourced under a decently liberal license. No matter how late in time that move occurs, it will still be a boon for preserving an entire era of computing.
It will never be fully open. They got all of the three letter agencies to cooperate with... that's why they want to stay on the CPU as primary OS next to Unix on the secondary processor Intel provides called Active Management Technology (AMT). This hardware and firmware for remote out-of-band management is running the Intel Management Engine, a separate microprocessor not exposed to the user, in order to monitor, maintain, update, upgrade, and repair them using mesh networks.
And with windows 11 requiring certain processors, I'm pretty sure Intel built something even more interesting into those ones which will make AMT look like childsplay.
They could just become a BSD, like Apple did. Nothing they're doing with linux wouldn't work with some future Microsoft BSD that kept backwards Windows compatibility as a Wine-type shell. They do that, they can close up whatever they want, just like Apple.
Jokes aside, I don’t really think it’s a possibility in the near or mid future, but if Microsoft ever did show signs of pivoting towards a Linux-based Windows successor, I only pray that the NT kernel source code may be open sourced under a decently liberal license. No matter how late in time that move occurs, it will still be a boon for preserving an entire era of computing.