Isn't that what Netflix does for their "Linux support"?

That's what I was thinking of, yes.

It may be senseless, but it is purposeful.

Microsoft does not so much ignore Linux as view Linux as a threat, likely because Linux is open. My own opinion is that they view Linux as a threat because that openness threatens their overall business model, as opposed to a fear that Linux threatens their market.

Since they have already lost their market to Linux, in the form of Android, as well as to iOS ... you would think that they would have taken a few lessons from Lou Gertsner (former chairman of IBM).

Microsoft's main strength, in my humble, is not "Windows®." There's not a lot of brand-name equity left there. This isn't to say that they won't continue to sell millions of licenses for a long time to come, but the days of banking on a proprietary, closed system are over and done.

Microsoft's ace-in-the-hole, to me, is Microsoft Office®. And various other system-administration and sharing technologies (SharePoint® ...) which are by-the-way extremely good. There is no fundamental reason why those technologies must be tied to "Windows." Get off the Titanic and hop on board the hovercraft that is parked conveniently nearby ... it's okay. Really.

I think it's long past time for their Board to make a strategic shift of direction, including selecting a new chief to replace Steve Ballmer. (Not for ANYthing negative against the guy, bombastic though he sometimes is. But, Microsoft needs some new ways of thinking at the top. The only "threat" which they face is their own refusal to embrace markets that don't center around their own, now long in the tooth, "PC" platform. And their stubborn expectation that "Surface" will amount to anything at all. They listen far too much to themselves.

Sadly, this won't happen soon, since Ballmer is actively driving out anyone that could be dangerous to his position: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/0...90L04320130122

RE: Mooonlight's non-funtionality

Has anyone tried removing the repo-installed moonlight, going to the moonlight site and installing from there?

This appears to work on my son's old Dell with Mint-14 KDE.

I'm starting to find it disingenious that Microsoft is framing Linux both as being too poor in quality to be worth wasting anyone's time with, and as an existential threat that will lead to an mass unemployment.

... all of which is a perfectly silly position to anyone and everyone in the real-world (i.e. "get 'er done") software industry.

Microsoft Corporation is an extremely(!) well-respected player in the software industry ... from long before the time that the thought of "Windows" ever existed. If they are, officially, "carping about Linux," well, that makes no more sense than Wang Corporation "carping about WordStar."

The stated purpose of any .. and every .. corporation in the technology industry, is to continuously provide clients with what they actually want ... not to bitch at them (pardon..) for not wanting what you think they should want.

"Microsoft, get over it!" If your customers want to run "Microsoft Sharepoint" on ... Windows, OS/X, Linux, their (guess what, it's not Surface) phone ... enable them to do that! Take your millions-of-dollars and go home! And meanwhile, quit-yer-bitchin'! (You're embarrassing everybody!!)