Skype for Linux was declared dead under Palmer's, resources reduced to a minimum and new versions and features blocked. Skype CEOs and CTOs at that time are equally responsible, made millions and disappeared. It's been an uphill battle since, you can found some linux developers on LinkedIn and ask them. A joke that goes around is that Skype could die soon this year unless it turns profitable. Anyway, from a business perspective MS doesn't understand or value Linux desktop, so nothing to be surprised here.
I heard about Orleans but how much is it in use internally at MS? Lot of services are not even on Azure, yet? Ever? It's well known that new fancy modern approaches take years to be understood and absorbed int the company strategy, think Git, Agile, elastic services, REST, mobile... Don't get me wrong I'd love to see MS going back to be an innovator, and Orleans might be an oppotunity. How long has it been cooking, 2 3 years? Where's the disruptive plan to make it the new paradigm?
Interesting bits about the microsrvices approach. Other companies like Microsoft still need to wake up and understand the value of small teams, microservices deployed in isolation, real devops etc.