When it comes to Open Source Software (OSS) on Azure, I still hear some customers saying: „But Azure is from Microsoft, do they really support this?“
And the answer is: OOOHHH YES!!!
Windows Azure to Microsoft Azure
If you follow Azure for a while you may know that it all started in 2008 with the announcement of the Windows Azure Platform. At this point most people were still working on their Virtualization strategy, or didn’t even know that.
Started as Windows Azure Microsoft decided in 2014 to rename the platform to „Microsoft Azure“. The official explanation at this time:
This change reflects Microsoft’s strategy and focus on Azure as the public cloud platform for customers as well as for our own services […] Today we support one of the broadest set of operating systems, languages, and services of any public cloud—from Windows, SQL and .NET to Python, Ruby, Node.js, Java, Hadoop, Linux, and Oracle. […]
This clearly stated that Microsoft Azure is not a Microsoft only solution. It is the Cloud Platform for everything … even Linux 🙂
Linux usage on Azure
There were a lot of rumors around the usage of Linux on Azure…but from time to time Microsoft made some statements. So for example in 2018 where Scott Guthrie mentioned in an interview that
…about half Azure VMs are Linux…
Years before it have been 25% and 40%
But in 2019 the Microsoft Linux Kernel Developer Sasha Levin requested access to the Linux Security list. In his application he stated:
the Linux usage on our cloud has surpassed Windows …
So Linux is a serious topic for Microsoft and they also created their own Linux-based OS for their Azure Sphere devices
Linux on Azure – Support
Now let us have a look which Linux distributions are supported in Azure:
There you will also learn that publishers and vendors are required to at least update their images in the Azure marketplace on a quarterly basis.
Also Microsoft is working together with some of the Linux Distributors. So there are some „Azure-tuned“ kernels available for SLES, Debian, CentOS and Ubuntu.
Use Linux in Azure
If you want to use Linux in Azure then you could easily go to the marketplace and search for Linux offerings there. You will find quite a lot and much more than only the server images:
Here you can also see that Azure native services like Functions and Web Apps do offer a Linux support. If you create a web app for example, you have the option to choose between the running operating system:
So feel free to use Linux on Azure and happy OSS-ing
Also this week there were many news around Microsoft Azure! Here as always the overview for you: Azure Data Box Disk is now available with hardware encryption General availability: HBv4-series & HX-series VMs are now available in Sweden Central. Azure Machine Learning data collector is now generally available GA: Azure Monitor log search alerts support…
Also this week there were many news around Microsoft Azure! Here as always the overview for you: General availability: Azure SQL updates for mid-April 2024 Azure Red Hat OpenShift April 2024 updates General availability: Extensible key management using Azure Key Vault for SQL Server on Linux General Availability: Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server…
Also this week there were many news around Microsoft Azure! Here as always the overview for you: Azure Virtual Network Manager Security Admin Rule generally available in 45 regions Test General Availability of Azure Logic Apps connectors for IBM Mainframe and Midranges Public Preview of Azure OpenAI and AI Search in-app connectors for Logic Apps…
Also this week there were many news around Microsoft Azure! Here as always the overview for you: Azure Sphere version 24.03 and Azure Sphere (Integrated) are now generally available GA: Improved throughput performance on Azure Disks’ Standard SSD GA: Azure Logic Apps Designer for Consumption Public Preview: Safety evaluations for generative AI applications in Azure…
Also this week there were many news around Microsoft Azure! Here as always the overview for you: General Availability: Azure Files geo-redundancy for standard large file shares Public preview: Database watcher for Azure SQL Generally available: Application Gateway (v2) IPv6 support General availability: Listener TLS certificates management in the Azure portal Generally available: Azure Health…
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