Linux is strong on servers and phones.
This is, in part, because you can deploy tens of thousands of servers (and tear them down again) at very little cost, and Google gives Android away.
No software licensing.
Being cheap to do means not much money goes into Linux development as a result. Google is doing it to weaken Apple.
Always follow the money.
Windows still dominates desktops. This makes MS money. Not from Windows, but what goes on top: Office and Exchange and Server licences. Evidence: MS gave Win10 away for free in order to get it established.
If Linux development slows and stabilises, then it will be easier to run Linux binaries on other OSes that merely emulate Linux. (Examples: WSL, FreeBSD Linuxulator, Joyent SmartOS.)
If MS manages to make WSL a better Linux than Linux, then it strengthens the market for Windows running Linux workloads, which weakens Linux.
There are multiple markets here. You have to consider all of them and their interactions.
No, E&E is _not_ about standards and protocols. It is about money.
Netscape was free for non-commercial use. In business, you had to pay. Also, Netscape sold one of the leading web servers. That is how Netscape made money.
MS made IE free, but free is no good if the product isn't as good. So it built IE into Windows, and IIS into Windows Server, and gave them away for free, including upgrades. To make them desirable, it added some snazzy interactive stuff in the form of ActiveX (client-side) and ASP (server-side).
Result: Netscape couldn't sell its pro products any more and went broke.
Ubuntu is big on servers because Ubuntu is a good desktop, and when it came out, the other decent desktops -- e.g. SUSE -- cost money. Ubuntu took their market share but didn't make any money. Within a decade, most young techies knew Ubuntu first so they chose it for server stuff too, and servers make Ubuntu money.
Ditto Red Hat and SUSE (now). Give the desktop away for free, make money on servers.
Follow the money.
If Windows can do that better, nobody will bother with Linux. The money goes to MS instead, then RH & SUSE & Ubuntu will die, and I will be out of a job.
It is not about standards. It is about money.