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Microsoft Has Built a Linux Distro

Posted by Soulskill on from the wait-what dept.

jbernardo writes: Microsoft has built a Linux distro, and is using it for their Azure data centers. From their blog post: "It is a cross-platform modular operating system for data center networking built on Linux." Apparently, the existing SDN (Software Defined Network) implementations didn't fit Microsoft's plans for the ACS (Azure Cloud Switch), so they decided to roll their own infrastructure. No explanation why they settled on Linux, though — could it be that there is no Windows variant that would fit the bill? In other news, Lucifer has been heard complaining of the sudden cold.

3 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. Re:MS uses what works by neilo_1701D · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Exactly.

    I'm sure that given time and money, there could be a Windows variant that did the job. But that isn't MS's focus. Here in the Microsoft Dynamics consulting world, Azure is what is being pushed hard for all the latest enterprise systems (CRM, ERP). Microsoft makes it's money from Azure and everything that runs on top of that. This stuff is nothing to them.

  2. Re:MS uses what works by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Speaking of which, I wonder how long it will take for Linux to 'metastasize' within the organization?

    First, it fulfills a couple of roles here and there in MSFT. Next, they have to make their own in-house distro. Next, they discover that it's kind of useful for a few internal roles within a few internal departments (esp. budget-starved ones). Next...?

    Slowly, surely... ?

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  3. If it doesn't use systemd, I'd like to use it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm not joking around here. If Microsoft put out a Linux distro that didn't use systemd, with some guarantee that it never would, I'd very much consider using it. It sounds absolutely crazy, but things have gotten so fucked up in the Linux ecosystem lately that the thought of Microsoft putting out the best Linux distro has actually become plausible.