Microsoft just shipped its own general-purpose Linux distro: Azure Linux 4.0

CBL-Mariner got renamed to Azure Linux back in 2023, so this is literally just the next major version of the same thing. The big change with 4.0 is they rebased everything on Fedora instead of maintaining their own package set from scratch, which should make it way less of a maintenance burden for them. You can still grab ISOs from their github, so bare metal installs should still be possible.

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msthe_student@reddit

This is a new version of Azure Linux

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Slight_Manufacturer6@reddit

Exactly. It’s nothing new for Microsoft. It isn’t their first general purpose Linux distro… just an update to one they already had.

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msthe_student@reddit

I think the big change is that it's now Fedora-based

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Ill-Detective-7454@reddit

Cant wait not to use it

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nixcamic@reddit

You're most likely using it now, indirectly. A ton of Azure cloud is already running on it.

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IlIIllIIIlllIlIlI@reddit

I mean, why would you? Its enterprise server hosting. Are you running a large scale web based business?

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NoTime_SwordIsEnough@reddit

Don't interrupt him. He needs his dopamine from gossip, and spending infinitely more time talking about Linux than actually doing anything useful with it.

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ButtonExposure@reddit

Over at Microsoft HQ: We need to add Copilot to it so that people will want to use it!

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CobaltIsobar@reddit

Hard pass.

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PK_Rippner@reddit

Yuck, no thanks.

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jldevezas@reddit

Imagine Linux shipping its own general-purpose Windows distro. Oh, wait, it can't, because it's not open source! 😃

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airmantharp@reddit

Well, not until Microsoft rebases Windows on the Linux kernel - you know it’s coming one day!

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atomic1fire@reddit

Only if Microsoft decides Wine is complete enough for most backwards support and it's cheaper to coexist with linux kernel devs then to continue funding updates to NT.

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airmantharp@reddit

Microsoft themselves could shore up Wine though, couldn’t they?

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silenceimpaired@reddit

I think it’s likely. They will release a windows styled Linux distro with built in OneDrive support, and a close sourced compatibility layer program similar to Wine (perhaps store like as well… think Steam competitor), but perfected, that requires a subscription. Then they can stop caring about hardware support. Just direct manufacturers to work with Linux kernel. All companies will keep a subscription to run windows programs. Meanwhile they port office and other software tools to Linux natively under subscription…

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Kuipyr@reddit

“Embrace, extend, and extinguish”

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silenceimpaired@reddit

Not saying I’m excited for this.

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Dangerous-Report8517@reddit

Well Microsoft is a big company, it's not like the Windows OS team specifically is shipping this

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m4teri4lgirl@reddit

Fedora master race gang gang

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LesStrater@reddit

You know Microsoft, if they can load it with ads and/or track your personal info, they're gonna do it...

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Khai_1705@reddit

The brain cell is especially lacking with this one

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Final_Substance_3443@reddit

Thanks, I'll know to avoid it like the plague then. Only motivation they could possibly have in spending money to maintain their own linux distro is if there was more money to be made from it, so it is absolutely loaded with microsoft-branded spyware munching on our data.

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Beautiful_Ad_4813@reddit

how is this different than Fedora Server, Red Hat Enterprise, Rocky Linux? I guess, i'm not seeing it

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sleepingonmoon@reddit

Supported by Microsoft instead of Red Hat or community.

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PineappleScanner@reddit

Built-in Azure integrations and optimizations.

Actually pretty handy in a lot of use-cases. It allows you to integrate a Linux VM into your org's Azure infrastructure without having to bolt on a bunch of extra stuff.

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chic_luke@reddit

Large Cloud providers tend to deploy customized versions of existing Linux flavours to better integrated with their infrastructure. Think Amazon Linux (among other Amazon things, like the Amazon Corretto JVM) for AWS. It's the same here

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Iseeapool@reddit

Wait till you get mandatory advertisement between your command line returns.

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muffinstatewide32@reddit

So its rpm based ubuntu. Got it

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Buckwheat469@reddit

I proposed this some time ago and got downvoted for it, but I believe Microsoft could create a general purpose Windows desktop based entirely on Linux. They would need some compatibility layer support, but they could turn over major kernel development to the Linux community and join in the development. I don't pretend to think it would happen any time soon, but I do think it's possible.

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berryer@reddit

What's their driver to do so? Owning the OS layer gives them a ton of power to push shit like the TPM2.0 mandate, UEFI SecureBoot, Recall, and advertisements. Better interoperability makes it easier for people to decline those things.

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Dangerous-Report8517@reddit

Google owns the Android OS layer, sharing the Linux kernel wouldn't be a barrier to this. They also seemed quite proud of all of the legacy junk they dumped when porting to ARM, so swapping to a lighter, more widely supported kernel might be even better from that standpoint specifically, plus they could piggyback off FeX instead of their own kind of bad x86/ARM translation layer (although they'd have to port their entire userland from NT which probably doesn't make sense overall)

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Commercial_Poem_9214@reddit

Does it come with all the backdoors?

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Wyciorek@reddit

What for? If you are running it on Azure they have all your data anyway

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Dangerous-Report8517@reddit

Not sure I'd call them "backdoors" in this case but it would make sense to have built in HyperV guest agent functions

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JaceBearelen@reddit

I don’t know if it’s 5 years or 50 years from now, but I could see Microsoft turning Windows into a Linux distro someday. Compatibility layers like proton can’t be too far off from running nearly anything Windows and there’s no good reason to maintain a kernel when Linux is right there outperforming on most metrics for free(yes I know Microsoft contributes to the Linux kernel). Slap on some proprietary binaries to do all the spying telemetry shit.

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Dank_801@reddit

At best, i bet Linux will start running the NT kernel within a virtualization layer.

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Dangerous-Report8517@reddit

This is already what Secure Core does, except the hypervisor is HyperV. It's unlikely but I could see them going for a hybrid system with Linux next to Windows similar to how you might run a Xen system

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msthe_student@reddit

That's kinda what WSL is

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Dank_801@reddit

Yep, but in reverse. Linux kernel running in a virtualization layer on windows.

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msthe_student@reddit

Ah yeah I misunderstood. I'm not sure what they'd really gain from running Windows on Linux

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Dank_801@reddit

Running the windows kernel layer virtualized would allow Linux to support a whole other suite of apps and games that aren’t currently possible.

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msthe_student@reddit

and you can already do that as a customer if you want. I just don't see what Microsoft would gain from it

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Dank_801@reddit

Oh yeah I agree, it’d be some other company likely a distro trying to do gaming. Like Valvez

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WealthyMarmot@reddit

NT is a fine architecture. Not a lot of good reason to toss it, and the issue they’d face with legacy software compatibility would be the shitshow to end all shitshows.

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Dangerous-Report8517@reddit

Proton can run a lot of Windows software better than Windows can, so legacy compatibility isn't really an issue, not to mention that Windows with Secure Core is increasingly structured more like a Xen system with a hypervisor and Windows itself being dom0. I could see value in a hybrid system with Linux running in the main domain and a front end Windows dome for instance, even if I don't think they're likely to go that direction any time soon

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airmantharp@reddit

They can run it as a container or VM hypervisor, you’d be down to some very niche applications that must be run on bare metal holding out at that point.

And I’m wondering if our new AI overlords wouldn’t be able to decompile those apps / systems so that they can be rebuilt to run on hardware produced this century lol.

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yawara25@reddit

I hope you mean "fine" as in "acceptable; satisfactory" and not as in "fine dining"

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Ok-Winner-6589@reddit

Kernel calls not being implemented or not working the same can not be solved without a fork that heavely moddifies the kernel

Anticheat games literally include drivers specifically build for NT. Linux won't be compatible because, first, It doesn't work the same way and second, it doesn't have the same functionallities

FreeBSD has the Linuxmulator and doesn't have fully Linux compatibility

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NotQuiteLoona@reddit

Anticheat games

Depends on the case. Often the anticheat explicitly supports running under Wine/Proton and it's a matter of developers to turn the switch on. Most non-custom anticheats are, to be exact.

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Dank_801@reddit

That only works if the game does not to operate at the layer of the NT kernel.

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pants6000@reddit

There are kernel-layer games? modprobe doom?

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x0wl@reddit

There are kernel-level ACs, that get replaced with userspace-level on Wine/Proton when the developer flips the aforementioned switch.

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PrimalNoid@reddit

If Microsoft decides to move windows to the Linux kernel, the industry will follow.

It won't happen because the Enterprise side of Microsoft is too heavily invested in the NT kernel, and making sure Enterprise applications are backwards compatible is too heavy a lift.

Microsoft can barely maintain windows on the NT kernel at this point. Maintaining two versions of windows for a transition period is beyond their capabilities.

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msthe_student@reddit

I doubt it. It'd be a lot of work for them to do on Linux what they're already doing on NT, and they already have the device and software support from third-parties. That doesn't mean they can't make money on Linux, and they have been for at least 16 years.

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algaefied_creek@reddit

CachyOS is what you describe and with Plasma 6 is basically if Windows 7 went an alternate history route and stayed lean.

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Dank_801@reddit

People that say this have no idea what the windows kernel does, it is by far the most flexible operating system for various reasons like VDI / Virtualization.

The reason it’s slower is because of the immense backwards compatibility support.

There are new efforts in windows to mitigate these issues, like Dev Drives.

People just don’t spend time understanding the architecture and like to make knee jerk reactions.

Linux is faster, but there are ways to make windows just as fast.

Linux cannot support the business layer that powers windows. And a lot of that is due to the windows kernel.

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PJBonoVox@reddit

Not only is the post itself nonsense, half the comments are too. Jesus.

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Such-Historian335@reddit

25 years ago https://www.theregister.com/software/2001/06/02/ballmer-linux-is-a-cancer/581119

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salYBC@reddit

Ballmer touches on a few other items, including Microsoft's new product activation and licensing schemes, which, it is hoped, will pave the way for a thriving software rental business and its subsequent endless revenue stream.

From 2001. They've really perfected this.

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Kuipyr@reddit

Microsoft’s enterprise licensing is so complex, convoluted, and vague that an entire profession exists to navigate it.

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Darth_Heinous@reddit

eww

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Oflameo@reddit

Will they go further beyond and get it Unix Certified by Open Group so they can claim they merged Linux with Unix.

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Fuckspez42@reddit

No thanks

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Ok-Winner-6589@reddit

Embrace...

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not_perfect_yet@reddit

To be faaaaair...

They missed the timing to do it with linux. They're just not in a position to make meaningful decisions and have them be adopted by users, because that's what that strategy was about.

They totally captured the github user base though.

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Dannyps@reddit

Extend...

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ephemeralmiko@reddit

!Exterminate!< Extinguish

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Hopeful_Rabbit_3729@reddit

Expired

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tanksalotfrank@reddit

Enhance

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IADGAF@reddit

Encrypt and exfiltrate all your private data under the cover of each update

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NightH4nter@reddit

that's manjaro's tls cert usually

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abbidabbi@reddit

Enshittificate...

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jknvv13@reddit

They already had CBL-Mariner which was renamed to Azure Linux.

AFAIK this helps quality control/updates/builds as Fedora is a really well stablished distro.

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1fom3rcial@reddit

The real question is: can it run doom

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msanangelo@reddit

good for them

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rivercape-lex@reddit

YAWN

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SputnikFace@reddit

Anything to do with the European pivot away from MS?

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MikeSifoda@reddit

Is the code available for me to compile it myself?

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anxiousvater@reddit

Yup here.

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MikeSifoda@reddit

Just making sure that people can flood them with false contributions like MicroSlop has been doing to undermine free software while also trying to dominate it, like they have been consistently doing. Git? No, our Github™. Javascript? No, Typescript™. Linux? No, Azure Linux ™.

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chic_luke@reddit

Hate to play devil's advocate with this specific company in particular but, to be fair, as someone who sometimes begrudgingly has to touch JavaScript stuff, Typescript is a legitimately good contribution to the world and it is a good programming language, a far better one than JavaScript at that.

Its only real problem is, ironically, the fact that it stops being Typescript the instant after the compiler finishes running, and that some of the libraries you'll use are weakly typed JS code, so a lot of any / dynamic typing. Still, I would much sooner reach for Typescript than I would for bare JS, no question. The JavaScript type system is probably the worst type system I have seen in my entire life.

That, and a forked / customized "branded" tooling is not new for major cloud providers, it's merely existing free software customized to better integrate with their cloud infrastructure. Amazon does a lot of the same: Amazon Linux being the double to Azure Linux, Amazon Corretto JVM being the default runtime for Java/JVM applications, etc.

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ellzumem@reddit

Github™ Typescript™ Azure Linux ™

One of these is not like the others (in that I don’t see why you’d say TS is trying to undermine free software)

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anxiousvater@reddit

They are trying to lure customers deep into their ecosystem. We received many emails from their sales & TAM guys to try out. We are happy with RedHat.

GitHub isn't their product, they bought & spoiled. Linux is hard for them though, it should be a complementory product for Azure customers & Microslop Linux fans.

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SlightComplaint@reddit

It's on github. https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinux released under a MIT License.

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rageagainstgods@reddit

Cool. Now kill it. Kill it with fire.

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Bruskmax@reddit

Hopefully they don't include copilot on Linux. I know Opensuse has its own AI going on with Opensuse ai. My desktop os I like to do things manually.

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muffinstatewide32@reddit

Dumb question. Does this compliment cbl-mariner? Or is it in replacement of it?

Or is this more in line with amazon’s totally not just rocky linux? But now built on fedora?

I know sweet bugger all about all of the above so feel free to correct me.

I know cbl is supposed to be a container host and is or at least used to control wsl container orchestration/initialisation

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andymaclean19@reddit

Embrace and extend.

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Linux4ever_Leo@reddit

This is old news. Microsoft has been working on this Linux distro for years.

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cnfnbcnunited@reddit

How much slop and bloat in kilotons does it have

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purpleidea@reddit

Getting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproducible_builds into Fedora and having someone strongly drive that goal is going to be one of the only things preventing the inevitable backdoors M$ is going to land there.

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RetiredApostle@reddit

Just 24 days since the announcement...

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1svdqcd/microsoft_reportedly_looking_at_rebasing_azure/

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dzimazilla@reddit (OP)

It can go to school now! Hahah

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Jumpy-Dinner-5001@reddit

As the name suggests: It's nothing new. It's similar to Amazon Linux and simply a Fedora that is optimized for cloud use in AWS or Azure.