Overall Windows would become much more stable, they might be able to get some Mac users to switch and they could put more people on getting the UI right. Like a lot of my bolder predictions on each years list I got it way wrong.
Why would you think they would do this? NT is the architecturally more modern kernel. People should read up on the history of the NT kernel [1]. And if they should do this for non-technical reasons, I think it is more likely that they go for some permissively-licensed kernel (e.g. FreeBSD) to avoid the GPL.
In the end, Microsoft did exactly the opposite: make it possible to run Linux binaries on Windows. Windows Subsystem for Linux is a testament to the strengths of the NT kernel. NT supports multiple 'personalities' and Win32 is just one personality, the Linux ABI is another personality. One could say that the Linux ABI is almost as native to the core NT kernel as the Win32 ABI is.
At any rate, I think that the Windows desktop is getting less and less important to them. So rather than going through the massive work of porting Window on top of the Linux kernel, I think it is more likely that they put Windows in maintenance mode and make/fork something along the lines of ChromeOS or Android for client systems.
(Disclaimer: I haven't seriously used Windows since Windows 3.1. It just bothers me when people misrepresent Windows or the NT kernel.)
Why would you think they would do this? NT is the architecturally more modern kernel. People should read up on the history of the NT kernel [1]. And if they should do this for non-technical reasons, I think it is more likely that they go for some permissively-licensed kernel (e.g. FreeBSD) to avoid the GPL.
In the end, Microsoft did exactly the opposite: make it possible to run Linux binaries on Windows. Windows Subsystem for Linux is a testament to the strengths of the NT kernel. NT supports multiple 'personalities' and Win32 is just one personality, the Linux ABI is another personality. One could say that the Linux ABI is almost as native to the core NT kernel as the Win32 ABI is.
At any rate, I think that the Windows desktop is getting less and less important to them. So rather than going through the massive work of porting Window on top of the Linux kernel, I think it is more likely that they put Windows in maintenance mode and make/fork something along the lines of ChromeOS or Android for client systems.
(Disclaimer: I haven't seriously used Windows since Windows 3.1. It just bothers me when people misrepresent Windows or the NT kernel.)
[1] https://www.itprotoday.com/compute-engines/windows-nt-and-vm...