Linux is now the most used operating system on Microsoft Azure, according to a Microsoft Linux kernel developer (via ZDNet). Linux has been growing steam since the Redmond tech giant expanded support for several distributions on its platform, allowing developers to take advantage of the complete customization of their systems.
“Every month, Linux goes up,” Microsoft’s executive vice president of the cloud and enterprise group, Scott Guthrie told ZDNet. He explained further that:
“Native Azure services are often running on Linux. Microsoft is building more of these services. For example, Azure’s Software Defined Network (SDN) is based on Linux.”
Microsoft has continued to be part of the open source community in recent years. The company has embraced Linux on Azure, in addition to Windows 10 thanks to the Windows subsystem for Linux. The company also acquired GitHub, open-source MS-DOS, and has even been making contributions to the Chromium project.
Guthrie also explained that the company has begun to acknowledge open source technologies as an important part of our ever-evolving connected world ever since it open-sourced ASP.NET more than 10 years ago. “We recognized open source is something that every developer can benefit from. It’s not nice, it’s essential. It’s not just code, it’s community.” He further claimed that Microsoft is “now the largest open-source project supporter in the world.”
It’s definitely nice to see Microsoft play ball with open source software, which can be especially useful as innovations such as AI, IoT, and 5G gradually become mainstream. What do you think about the growth of Linux, especially on Microsoft’s own Azure?
