I'm surprised that they're doing this now, with how strained international relations are. I'm sure their timing will help motivate serious non-us customers to look at linux for desktop use.
I really doubt that if it was, say, the early 90s (with millions of people yet unfamiliar to computing) and MS and Linux was in its current state of development, that the masses wouldn't have found it much more frictionless just to use linux. MS is literally running on hot air, hubris, and lock-in the likes of which I don't think many others cant match, devil incarnate not withstanding.