Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Azure Linux is Microsoft's take on the open source operating system. It is primarily used for internal purposes, but could it become (yet another) distribution option?
Directions on Microsoft analyst Mary Jo Foley suggests the distribution, tuned to be lightweight and secure, has the potential to reach a wider audience.
Because, let's face it, if there's one thing the Linux world needs, it's another distribution for administrators to consider.
Azure Linux was known as CBL-Mariner before it was rebranded, and thank your lucky stars that happened in 2023. Lately, it would probably end up being called Copilot for Linux or something similar.
Downloadable from GitHub, Azure Linux can be found running as a container host operating system for the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and supports both x86 and Arm.
The latter point is significant. There is currently no publicly supported version of Windows Server that runs on Arm, despite Microsoft hyping Arm technology via its Copilot+ PCs and datacenter operators increasingly favoring the hardware's lower power-sipping tendencies. While porting and supporting all of Windows Server's functions to the Linux platform would be a stretch, there is the potential for Microsoft to compete in the Linux enterprise server space.
Foley noted that the world probably doesn't need another Linux distribution. However, the end of support for CentOS has opened up a window of opportunity – even for Microsoft.
"More customer compute in Azure is running Linux on Azure than Windows Server on Azure," according to Foley. Thus, it is hard to think that Microsoft would not like to be part of that besides hosting the workloads.
And then there is Amazon Linux 2, a Linux operating system from Microsoft's arch-cloud rival AWS, which is provided free of additional charge and described as a "security-focused, stable, and high-performance execution environment to develop and run cloud applications." AWS also provides ongoing security and maintenance updates.
If only Microsoft had something similar.
Microsoft's social-media-for-suits platform LinkedIn recently moved from CentOS to Azure Linux. The experience was doubtless a challenge, but, as we noted then: "This can only be good for Azure Linux, and indeed, for Azure in general."
Does the future of Azure Linux lie somewhere other than a relatively obscure way to host containers on AKS? Foley asked Microsoft and was told: "Azure Linux for VM or bare metal use is not available as a commercially supported offering today. Support is limited to AKS as the host OS."
Note the word "today" in that response.
Microsoft is unlikely to make much money directly from Azure Linux going wide. However, it would be a useful driver to the company's Azure cloud platform and soothe concerns over support and maintenance.
However, for many administrators, an attitude of "Anything but Microsoft" persists, certainly since Steve Ballmer's decades-old bonkers "Linux is a cancer" comment. Persuading these same admins that Microsoft can be a trustworthy Linux partner is a challenge that should not be underestimated. ®
(Score: 4, Funny) by krishnoid on Friday September 13, @06:39PM
From the CEO of the company that brings you PowerPoint, you can expect a lot of projection [psychologytoday.com] from them.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Friday September 13, @07:56PM (3 children)
I trust Linux, pretty much, but I wouldn't want to be dependent on any particular distribution. (If I did, it would be Debian, but not even that.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 13, @09:32PM (1 child)
Oh, hey, WSL2 seems like a super stable platform! /S
Meanwhile, my dotnet colleague who develops on a Mac tells me his Mac is arm64 architecture now. I'm trying to convince him to share the source instead of the compiled package because he seems seriously incapable of making anything work in Ubuntu on x86_64.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13, @10:39PM
cf. cmake [cmake.org].
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday September 16, @03:42PM
Debian is "the" Linux distribution. It's about as official of a Linux distribution as you can get. Even with that, we now have Devuan for good reasons.
"Trust" and Microsoft Linux is about as big of an oxymoron as you can get. Then again, maybe they're on a new path? I could dig an official (Free) Microsoft compatible Linux that can run all of my old Windows programs natively. Oh, you mean that Microsoft is just muddying the waters with more shovels of manure? No thanks, I'll pass.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Friday September 13, @09:41PM
Nuh-uh. No. Feck no.
No.
Absotively posilutely negative.
"Working....negative."
No.
"Microsoft... live short and die"
--Spock... i'm sure of it. Probably.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13, @10:37PM (1 child)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by corey on Saturday September 14, @11:39PM
Never knew that. So true. Thanks.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JustNiz on Saturday September 14, @12:04AM (2 children)
Microsoft-branded anything: Just avoid it. There are far better options out there.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Monday September 16, @05:15AM (1 child)
Actually, I rather liked their keyboards and mice.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday September 16, @03:46PM
Unironically, one of the best mice I had was a Microsoft mouse. It felt nice in the hand. Unfortunately, it died an unceremonious death. That said, Logitech is usually a good bet as well. Just avoid all of the RGB ones. I bought one of the LightSync ones and that was a rather stupid mistake. Yes, it looks cool, yes it is distracting, and yes it's horrible in a dark room.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday September 14, @03:37PM
I would bet that my enterprise was in for a disaster if I ran it on Azure Linux.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].