I suspect that this is a side effect of work they are doing trying to build up their capabilities with Azure. I think the long game is to try to support docker containers that are built against Linux natively on Windows. The other interpretation is still in line with the move toward containerized services: I think they want to make it easier to build a containerized app on windows and deploy it on k8s/docker swarm/etc.
Apple has been losing their darling reputation among developers, and I think MS sees an opportunity to bring a lot of people back over who might otherwise try to make a go of Linux. If they can offer a plausible story for developing and deploying applications from windows I think it would drive more business in the cloud and enterprise areas; at the same time having more developers around on the platform will continue to ensure that they have the software to keep consumers from migrating to iOS/Android/ChromeOS type devices.
Apple has been losing their darling reputation among developers, and I think MS sees an opportunity to bring a lot of people back over who might otherwise try to make a go of Linux. If they can offer a plausible story for developing and deploying applications from windows I think it would drive more business in the cloud and enterprise areas; at the same time having more developers around on the platform will continue to ensure that they have the software to keep consumers from migrating to iOS/Android/ChromeOS type devices.