After describing it in 2001 as a "cancer trying to catch up with the world of programming"

Microsoft is opening up to Linux and making it part of its cloud service

"Windows" and "Linux" operate on an equal footing through the Azure cloud platform.

■ from the source

In 2001, the CEO of the American company "Microsoft", Steve Ballmer, described the open source "Linux" operating system as "a cancer trying to attach itself to the world of programming."

It has been 19 years since that statement. Last week, Microsoft officials announced during a conference organized by the company to present the latest developments in its cloud service, under the title "Azure Open Day", that the kernel of the "Linux" operating system will work as a vital part of its cloud service "Azure." », After 60% of work on the cloud became dependent on« Linux ».

The announcement of this move came to confirm Microsoft's advancement in reversing its old stance on "Linux" and its openness to it, turning it from a "programming cancer" to a vital part of the heart muscle.

open day

"Microsoft" had organized the "Azores Open Day" conference, as a virtual global event through a special page on its website

events1.social27.com/ microsoft-open-azureday, with the participation of thousands of developers and programmers specializing in cloud computing, with the aim of presenting the new services of the "Azure" public cloud platform for "Microsoft". The vice president of "Microsoft" for cloud computing spoke. Scott Guthrie, director of technology at Azure and a board member of the Linux Foundation, Sarah Nowotny, and vice president of Microsoft and director of the open software plan at Azure, Brandon Burns.

Windows and Linux

During the conference, Branden Burns revealed that "Windows" and "Linux" are currently operating on an equal footing through the "Azure" cloud platform, and that the platform's users are getting the same benefits, whether they are for contracts to support "Linux" or "Windows Server" licenses , Which is currently running the "Linux" binaries.

The main Microsoft applications are also available on Linux, stressing that the door is open to creating new services using Linux from the beginning.

Burns added that Microsoft now has a deep understanding of what it takes to run Linux in a super-scale cloud, such as Azure, whether to contribute to open-source projects based on it, or to establish completely new Linux projects, which makes Azure provide Best-in-class support for Linux and container software infrastructure.

The superiority of my knowledge

On the other hand, the Marketing Director of the Azure platform, Talal El-Knawy, said that the “Linux”-based business on the Azure cloud began to outperform the virtual “Windows Server” based business, “VM”, as it acquired 60% Of the platform's business, including the enterprise business that is run through SAP ERM software packages, which are managed almost entirely on Linux.

As a result, Microsoft started running the full Linux kernel, as a vital part of the Azure platform. Consequently, if users encounter errors in Linux when running it on Azure, Microsoft will work to address the error and contribute to the instructions. Software to fix problems.

In the same context, Microsoft officials stressed, during the conference, that supporting "Linux" via "Azure" is very important for hybrid or hybrid clouds, and for advanced computing operating with software packages designed in a "container" manner, as well as for Internet of things systems, which do not Often times you have the resources to run with Windows.

Conference Reviews

The conference included reviews of many other decisions that were taken during the period prior to opening up to "Linux" in various fields, such as security software, web development platforms, such as ".NET", and network management programs.

The conference reviewed what happened when Microsoft began working on the AzureSphere system as a platform for Internet of Things tools in 2015, and then immediately gathered security innovations based on the Linux kernel to work with the system instead of the dedicated Windows version. For "Internet of Things" tools.

These reviews aroused enthusiasm among the participants. Some even questioned whether there was an intention to get rid of the kernel of "Windows" in the future, relying only on the "Linux" kernel, as a hub for Microsoft's operating systems, and to maintain the external "Windows" interfaces.

The response from Microsoft officials came by saying: "The idea of ​​getting rid of the (Windows) kernel will not happen."

Run "Team" on "Linux"

During the conference, it was announced that the Microsoft system for collaborative work and video chatting, "Microsoft Team", would be the first of the "Office 365" cloud service products to work on "Linux", which would allow Azure customers and Microsoft cloud computing who have employees using systems "Macintosh", "iOS", "Android", "Windows" and "Linux", to obtain all the services, after the developers and administrators of Linux could not do so before.

This decision came after "Microsoft" received more than 9,000 requests to include "Linux" in the "Microsoft Team" service.