Microsoft Quietly Released Its Own Linux Distro

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Nobody tell Steve Ballmer

Steve Balmer
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Someone might need to check on Steve Ballmer. Microsoft has developed its own Linux distro, CBL-Mariner, and released it under the open source MIT License.

Microsoft said in the CBL-Mariner repository on GitHub that it's "an internal Linux distribution for Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure and edge products and services" that was "designed to provide a consistent platform for these devices and services" and "enhance Microsoft’s ability to stay current on Linux updates" moving forward.

ZDNet first reported on CBL-Mariner's existence in November 2020, but earlier this month, Microsoft engineer Juan Rey published an easy-to-follow guide to installing the distribution that makes it easy for anyone with a bit of Linux know-how to use. So now it's finally starting to sink in that Microsoft truly is embracing Linux.

Of course, there were other signs from the release of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update in August 2016 to the announcement that WSL 2 will enable the use of graphical user interface (GUI) Linux apps. But developing a distro is different from assimilating Linux into Windows. 

That's what makes the development and release of CBL-Mariner so interesting. Ballmer said in 2001 that "Linux is a cancer"—though he eventually walked back that comment in 2016—and claimed that open source software shouldn't receive public funding because licensing issues mean it "is not available to commercial companies."

A lot has changed since then. For example, TechRepublic said in 2018 that Microsoft was the world's largest contributor to open source projects, and when the company acquired GitHub, it became an important aspect of many open source projects, even if none of its employees ever contribute a single line of code to the software itself.

So. Yeah. Microsoft has released a Linux distro that anyone can download, install, and use for their server- and edge-based projects. Welcome to 2021.

Nathaniel Mott
Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • unis_torvalds
    Linux is the future.
    Reply
  • Matt_ogu812
    It isn't the future until MS comes out with Linux for it end user......dual boot with Windows or Linux.
    Reply
  • Kiers
    betcha some subtle simple zero day backdoors are in it with the intent for the open source community to clone and copy this MIT License software.....it's the end of Linux given enough marketing hype ($$$$) for this distro. Why else would MS take efforts when Linux is fine w/o MS?
    Reply
  • codetaku
    Microsoft pretty clearly wants to be operating a for-subscription service. It doesn't make sense for an OS to be a for-subscription service. So what would make sense would be adopting a Linux kernel, then offering a 'Windows Experience' on a subscription basis. Or they could go the Apple route and just heavily customize and develop on top of the kernel. For now, though, this makes sense as the cloud is dominated by Linux and not even Microsoft is going to pretend that Windows has a chance there. Also, we should never forget that no one should have ever listened to Steve Ballmer about anything, ever. HE is the cancer. He almost killed Microsoft completely with his ludicrous competition-focused approach to the workplace. He posted leaderboards on every wall where members of the same teams would compete against each other to score points, with the leaderboards updating in realtime. Teams within Microsoft them competed against each other on points as well. It created the most hostile, inhumane, toxic environment imaginable. No one would ever help a coworker because that meant they would be scoring points while you were losing out. You were heavily penalized through the very nature of the system for doing anything remotely cooperative or helpful to the company as a whole. It was disgusting, and should be held up as a prime example of what to never, ever, ever do.
    Reply
  • retrofitit
    Released under the MIT license.
    The MIT license is not quite compatible with the GPL license which Linux is released under.
    You can relicense MIT licensed software under a GPL license, but you cannot relicense GPL licensed software with the MIT license.
    Reply
  • mgutz
    Nobody should be suprised. MS is now a cloud company with much, if not most, of its revenue coming from Azure. Last I checked Linux usage on Azure was about even with Windows.
    Reply
  • Henry-Hellsing
    Welcome to the new Microx OS, the full Windows experience in Linux, it comes with a fixed horrible desktop environment you cannot change no matter what, uses 16 gigs of Ram to run just a plain-looking OS, more simple than XFC4 in version 2, comes with telemetry, geolocation, spies on you and keep uploading copies of your data to Microsoft, track all your online activities and web browsing, choking your internet connection, keeps always using 100 % disk for swap, regardless of you RAM size which no app can use to the full extent, so it will burn your SSD in a year or less, it becomes slower and slower as times goes on, takes forever to boot, crashes from time to time, showing a lovely blue screen, have forced updates that took forever and don't let you work, all open software you use like Blender, Krita, etc, takes forever to start up, have rare glitches and run slower. Drivers for hardware are a joke, backdoors, viruses, malware are a must, we will sell you the vax to the viruses we create (solid business model).
    and working in a local network is hell.
    Also, you have to register with us to use the software and pay a monthly subscription to use it.

    Enjoy!
    Reply
  • Nothing new. When PCs were first invented, they made a version of UNIX.

    But I guess none of you would remember this

    https://www.unixmen.com/xenix-the-microsoft-unix-that-once-was/
    Reply
  • Grobe
    Henry-Hellsing said:
    Welcome to the new Microx OS, the full Windows experience in Linux, it comes with a fixed horrible desktop environment you cannot change no matter what, uses 16 gigs of Ram to run just a plain-looking OS, more simple than XFC4 in version 2, comes with telemetry, geolocation, spies on you and keep uploading copies of your data to Microsoft, track all your online activities and web browsing, choking your internet connection, keeps always using 100 % disk for swap, regardless of you RAM size which no app can use to the full extent, so it will burn your SSD in a year or less, it becomes slower and slower as times goes on, takes forever to boot, crashes from time to time, showing a lovely blue screen, have forced updates that took forever and don't let you work, all open software you use like Blender, Krita, etc, takes forever to start up, have rare glitches and run slower. Drivers for hardware are a joke, backdoors, viruses, malware are a must, we will sell you the vax to the viruses we create (solid business model).
    and working in a local network is hell.
    Also, you have to register with us to use the software and pay a monthly subscription to use it.

    Enjoy!
    Of coarse - this will ensure that the end users don't need to spend time to adapt to a whole new concept 😎
    Reply