Microsoft's “Love” of Linux
Microsoft loves Linux because it makes them money.  I'm not sure why anyone would expect differently.<p>They won't release products like Office for Linux (though a web interface is possible), and they won't move away from Windows-only APIs.  Neither of those actions would have any tangible benefit for the primary users of those produts (Windows users and Windows developers, respectively).<p>Active Directory is so deeply integrated into the Windows stack that it will never come out.  You can authenticate Linux clients against AD, but I doubt they'll be writing a Linux AD server any time soon.  I'd imagine most corporate mail servers also support SMTP/IMAP, and Office365 has a web client.  As far as ActiveSync goes, that hasn't been a thing since 2007.