Microsoft's hardware game seems to be finally picking up steam. They used to be a big step behind Apple (e.g. Zune), but now they seem to be finally competing and doing quite well on both price and quality. It will be interesting to see if they embrace selling hardware as a core source of revenue or continue to treat hardware as a way to suck customers into their ecosystem.
Microsoft is now decently involved with Linux and open source on many fronts. Certainly moreso than Apple. Macbooks are well supported by Linux in spite of Apple's wishes, not because of them. A lot of people love Apple hardware and work hard to build support for it.
Microsoft doesn't need to trouble themselves by selling Surfaces or Surface Laptops with linux pre-installed, but they could ensure that popular distros support their hardware well and are relatively well tested by release day (and publicize this, of course). This would allow them to steal some market share from Apple and Lenovo. The Linux laptop market probably isn't that huge but, like education users, it does cover a lot of people who might influence the purchases of others.
I'd be sorely tempted to buy one of these surface laptops because the hardware looks great. However, I'd have to hear some pretty glowing reviews of high compatibility to depart from a safer bet.