I have my doubts there.
Microsoft is actually less hostile towards Linux since the writing has been log since on the wall there.
Personally I find using WSL v2 with a xrdp session running xfce4 to rdesktop into the X11 display makes for a killer dev environment on my corporate laptop. It's also a fraction of the cost using a Macbookpro for devops. Even running vs code Windows 10 connects to a Linux box to develop and also run Jupyter. Not perfect, but it's also not bad as a dev environment.
Though I understand what you have doubts over, Microdoft since its inception has been a company of corruption, apart frp, the shell all its software was stolen and rebranded. However it cannot look hostile towards the view points of the Public or computer users of Linux like yourself and me, that would prove suicide, but it can act in an anti competitive way.
Wine for example can downlaod and install Directx9 and run it as a compatibility layer, faster than Windows with windows programs, and the Drivers are less buggy and a fraction of the size. But Microsoft in its anti competitive and monopolistic way, found away to stop DX10 to Dx12 to be installed directly to it from Windows based files. The Geniuses in the Comunity of Linux, spend time and energy to create work arounds to make their dreams come true and catch up with Microsoft, but microsoft continue to make the work arounds more and more difficult by monopolistic practices, and they can get away with it as most of Linux is freeware.
Like I said , I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is funding it, not I Know theyare, and even more likely is Agencies like Mossad, MI6, CIA and FBI, who seem to think that spying on us is their right for "national Security!", And these are likely candidates. But I find it strange that a University would do this to linux on its own, for dubious reasons like "We were doing it as a test... Honest!" it is dangerous, unethical, and even Illegal, as Greg himself speculated.
We live in a world that thrives on obfuscation and corruption, and for a university to do something like this on its own seems absurd!
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