> I'd love if it Microsoft simply abandoned NT and threw their weight behind the Linux kernel

This entire article is an elegant argument why this would be a terrible idea. Didn't you RTFA?

> I guess a less extreme option would be for Microsoft to extend NT to be POSIX compliant

Way to expose and highlight your ignorance. :-( NT 3.1, the first release, was POSIX compliant in 1993, and every release since has been.