

Embrace, extend, extinguish.
SQL Server runs on Linux. Azure supports Linux. The next step is to extend into their own distro, get everyone using it, then drop support for mainstream Linux.
Will it work? Maybe. They’ll have to make Microsoft Linux more attractive than Debian and Red Hat.
You won’t need EE knowledge, that’s all abstracted away in silicon. You just need to know how to drive the chips, and they’ll manage the inputs and outputs.
I doubt the TV OS is any kind of Linux. Usually embedded systems run something like vxworks. Sometimes Minix. Real fancy ones run Android (which is derived from Linux, yes).