For years there have been statements about how over half of the VMs running within the Microsoft Azure public cloud are Linux-based... In a new blog post today is the first time I am seeing Microsoft cite now "over 60%" Linux marketshare on Microsoft's cloud.

Microsoft announced today that AlmaLinux has become an endorsed Linux distribution in Azure. That's where they began by noting the increasing Linux use in their cloud:

"Linux has become the most popular operating system on Azure as over 60% of customer cores run Linux-based workloads. We are committed to continuously investing in the platform to enhance the Linux and open source experience in Azure, ensuring we meet the evolving needs of our customers."

As part of the growing Linux user and listening to customers, Microsoft has now made AlmaLinux an endorsed Linux distribution as a nice RHEL/CentOS alternative.

In today's [1]Microsoft.com announcement they explain:

"Customers have the flexibility to deploy any Linux distribution in Azure from several different image sources - Azure Marketplace, custom, or community gallery. Each source provides a different expectation for quality, utility, and support. A subset of the Linux distributions in Azure, which includes Ubuntu, Debian, Flatcar, Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Enterprise Linux, and now AlmaLinux, are known as endorsed distributions. While a Linux distribution being endorsed is not an official recommendation from Microsoft, it indicates that the distribution has met the following criteria..."

That criteria for endorsed Linux distributions on Azure include around market and customer demand, a contractual agreement for update cadences and remediation targets, an engineering relationship, and content mirroring within Azure. Plus the Linux distributions need to adhere to Microsoft's testing and update standards.



[1] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/linux-and-open-source-blog/announcing-availability-of-almalinux-as-an-endorsed-linux/ba-p/4282201