Microsoft confirms that Surface Duo is 100% Android

In all seriousness, I don't trust Microsoft that they could pull together a proper app ecosystem were they to run one. Even the amount of native x64 apps is dwindling these days since most software released these days are either mobile apps (android/ios) or Web applications.

I was at Microsoft working with them trying to populate their Windows store and windows phone stores with apps and it was an enormously expensive operation and even despite the millions they poured in to just make their platforms attractive, it fell short.

Windows phone wasn't ready, but I liked it nonetheless and I felt that they were going in the right direction. But they didn't manage to attract any of the bigger companies to produce first party applications or if they did, they were paid for a period of time after which they were deprecated.

If Microsoft doesn't go where the masses are, nobody will buy their stuff as they get vendor locked into a barren ecosystem. That's why I'm glad that they decided to go with android, they get to produce their (in my opinion) beautiful and exciting hardware without making their customers fear for the future of their devices.