Not talking about quality or utility. But how gigantic the project is and how diverse its users and developers are. All that for nothing being asked in return, just some evolved monkeys satisfying their curiosity of tinkering.
Linux is the backbone of large portions of the internet so tonnes of money is poured into it. Althought Linux has a niche userbase for home PCs it is often the default choice for servers & development.
It is surprising that it has prevailed against all the billion dollar companies and their hatred for it. The many people making, maintaining and testing the kernel and all the applications should be applauded.
Looked it up and apparently that quote was from 2001, and it was specifically about GPL code infecting their precious intellectual properly. Does sound like classic Ballmer though!
They still hate it. They are just not completely braindead. They know that its much cheaper to use Linux than keep maintaining their own kernels.
This doesnt change the fact that they still actively hinder widespread adoption of Linux systems for consumers. They could just publish their kernel and allow linux, wine and proton devs to support all windows applications flawlessly but they dont.