Microsoft has published its first tagged preview of the upcoming Azure Linux 3.0 operating system.

Azure Linux -- formerly what was [1]known as CBL-Mariner as their in-house Linux distribution used for purposes from Azure to WSL to Windows IoT -- is preparing for a big v3.0 update. On Wednesday the Azure Linux 3.0.20240524-3.0 preview release was published.

Azure Linux 3.0 shifts from the aging Linux 5.15 kernel to the newer Linux 6.6 LTS kernel as well as significant updates to OpenSSL, systemd, Runc, and other components. Azure Linux 3.0 is also now defaulting to SELinux's enforcing mode by default. There are also other unspecified quality and performance improvements. No formal release notes have yet to be posted for the Azure Linux 3.0 changes in full.

Those wanting to try out the preview release of Microsoft Azure Linux 3.0 can find the pre-release on [2]GitHub . Azure Linux 3.0 preview releasing on the [3]Phoronix 20th birthday is a nice present... Microsoft maintaining their own Linux distribution certainly wasn't on my bingo card or wildest imagination twenty years ago. How times have changed.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Microsoft-Azure-Linux

[2] https://github.com/microsoft/azurelinux/releases/tag/3.0.20240524-3.0

[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Phoronix-20th-Birthday