I think that if Microsoft makes .NET attractive to a large number of developers regardless of their preferred OS they have a headstart and constant edge on the competition in terms of services that mesh well with .NET. This increases the appeal of Azure and its services. It might be a good shortcut since they're competing with established players who have the early edge. Stealing away a lot of customers from the competition in the cloud space is going to take more than competitive pricing since you're fighting familiarity/experience, first-to-market advantages and a lack of 1:1 features on some services.