Your stance is a kind of funny. When people complain about certain web dev tasks being difficult on Windows we say, "Yeesh, just run Linux already! You can even use a VM."
And if you ask me that's precisely the response MS should give to requests such as yours. I mean, would you really expect them to port their SDK over so that a handful of Linux devs will consider trying it out? Doesn't seem like there would be a big payoff. I bet a majority of devs who use Linux wouldn't even consider it. After making a WP7 app at my day job I sure wouldn't.
If it's fun to develop for, I go for it. I have given up Java before writing things for Android and I can tell you it's a nice environment to play. Palm was a joy to write for. Why did you think I was a Palm developer? Because it's fun, not because I dreamed of retiring after selling a million copies of something. If I wanted a huge market, I'd cover Android an Apple.
There are developers who'll follow the money, wherever it is. Some very good ones won't.
Or, like I said elsewhere, Microsoft has the best developers money can buy. Platforms like WebOS have the best ones money can't buy.
Oh... And I'd be perfectly fine with a VM image with Windows and the WP7 dev tools. I just don't want to boot into Windows or buy a license so that I can make their product more attractive.
Would you pay the $100/year AppHub fee to publish apps for WP7 if you ended up liking it?
This sort of argument just reminds of all those who whine about having to buy a Mac to do iOS development but in reality they wouldn't be doing iOS dev anyways, they just like to loudly cite all the reasons that they're not doing it for some reason.
And if you ask me that's precisely the response MS should give to requests such as yours. I mean, would you really expect them to port their SDK over so that a handful of Linux devs will consider trying it out? Doesn't seem like there would be a big payoff. I bet a majority of devs who use Linux wouldn't even consider it. After making a WP7 app at my day job I sure wouldn't.