[jmull]

> But why?

This is basic foundation building. It's true there aren't too many good use-cases for Swift on Windows or Linux now. But that can't really start to change until Swift has decent support for Windows and Linux.

Of course, it will take a lot more than this for Swift to catch on outside of its home territory. This is just one necessary step.

More broadly, I think we're still in the middle of the language wars, where the limitations of the historically dominant languages (like C, C++, Java, Javascript) have created openings for one or more newer languages. I think Apple and other Swift proponents would like Swift to become one of those newer established languages and take steps like these to at least keep it in the running.