Microsoft surprises with its first server Linux distribution: Azure Linux 4.0(www.zdnet.com)

31 pointsby CrankyBear4 hours ago8 comments

sidewndr462 hours ago
I have 5.25 diskettes of "Microsoft Linux" from the 1990s. I'm reasonably certain that was the first.
magicalhippo4 hours ago
Fedora-based, on GitHub here: https://github.com/microsoft/azurelinux
An open-source Linux distribution built and optimized for Azure, with sources derived from Fedora Linux. Azure Linux provides a secured, reliable operating system for virtual machines, containers, and bare-metal platforms.
Azure Linux is built on a robust open-source foundation and enhanced with Azure-specific innovations. This provides the familiarity of the RPM package ecosystem, while adding Azure-native security, compliance, and operational capabilities.
Key features of Azure Linux include: hardened security posture, an Azure-optimized kernel, supply chain security, native Azure integration, and a predictable lifecycle.
- ealready_value2 hours ago
  It seems like you could just s/Azure/Amazon/g and get an only slightly different product.
rixed2 hours ago
I'm surprised that people consider this a victory. It just shows how much open source became irrelevant to users' freedom.
inetknght3 hours ago
Don't use this. Don't encourage Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.
- giancarlostoro2 hours ago
  Its an MIT licensed repository for something that is GPL licensed, I think you'll be okay.
vivzkestrel2 hours ago
https://gamesbymason.com/blog/2026/microsoft/
Prediction: Microsoft Is Going To Do The Funniest Thing Imaginable this guy called it loooong back
giancarlostoro2 hours ago
> Minneapolis - So, there I was at Open Source Summit North America, listening to Brendan Burns, co-founder of Kubernetes and today Microsoft's Corporate VP of Azure Cloud Native and Management Platform, and Open Source, talk about the evolution from open-source to agentic AI. Then, in the middle of his presentation, he said, "When I started in Azure 10 years ago, it was not the majority operating system running on the Azure cloud. It has become the majority operating system running on the Azure cloud in the past 10 years. And today, I think we're really excited to announce that we're going to be having Microsoft's open-source Linux distribution, a supported version of Linux supported by Microsoft, available on Azure, out for anybody to use."
> I blinked. Backstage, Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation's CEO, blinked, and all the Linux-savvy people in the crowd went "Huh?"
Any money I could have paid to be there would not have been enough to enjoy that reaction. Also that man has quite a background and title. Microsoft is company I like as a .NET developer, but they do some things wrong (so you could say I have a love and hate with them), but a lot of people don't realize they employ a lot of open source maintainers, and they release most of their software under the MIT license. Even .NET itself, is all MIT licensed.
Hell, the github for their Linux distro is MIT Licensed.
- mghackerlady2 hours ago
  Shit, I would've gone if I knew it was in MN. Always some other time, I guess
throwatdem123113 hours ago
Is this a vibe coded slop fork of Fedora to go along with Winslop 11?
No thanks.
burnt-resistor2 hours ago
It finally happened, 23 years later! /s
https://web.archive.org/web/20251108032058/https://mslinux.o...
- ninjalanternshk2 minutes ago
  Heh.
  > MS Linux is released under the provisions of the Gates Private License, which means you can freely use this Software on a single machine without warranty after having paid the purchase price and annual renewal fees.