Microsoft Is Open-Sourcing Its Linux Integration Services Automation Image-Testing Service (zdnet.com) 12
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Would you believe Microsoft has announced a new Linux distribution service for its Azure cloud service? You should. For many years, the most popular operating system on Azure has not been Windows Server, it's been Linux. Last time I checked, in 2024, Azure Linux Platforms Group Program Manager Jack Aboutboul told me that 60% of Azure Marketplace offerings and more than 60% of virtual machine cores use Linux. Those figures mean it's sensible for Microsoft to make it easier than ever for Linux distributors to release first-class Linux distros on Azure. The tech giant is taking this step, said Andrew Randall, principal manager for the Azure Core Linux product management team, by making "Azure Image Testing for Linux (AITL) available 'as a service' to distro publishers."
ATIL is built on Microsoft's Linux Integration Services Automation project (LISA). Microsoft's Linux Systems Group originally developed this initiative to validate Linux OS images. LISA is a Linux quality validation system with two parts: a test framework to drive test execution and a set of test suites to verify Linux distribution quality. LISA is now open-sourced under the MIT License. The system enables continuous testing of Linux images, covering a wide range of scenarios from kernel updates to complex cloud-native workloads. [...] Specifically, the ATIL service is designed to streamline the deployment, testing, and management of Linux images on Azure. The service builds on the company's internal expertise and open-source tools to provide:
- Curated, Azure-optimized, security-hardened Linux images
- Automated quality assurance and compliance testing for Linux distributions
- Seamless integration with Azure's cloud-native services and Kubernetes environments Krum Kashan, Microsoft Azure Linux Platforms Group program manager, said in a statement: "While numerous testing tools are available for validating Linux kernels, guest OS images, and user space packages across various cloud platforms, finding a comprehensive testing framework that addresses the entire platform stack remains a significant challenge. A robust framework is essential, one that seamlessly integrates with Azure's environment while providing coverage for major testing tools, such as LTP and kselftest, and covers critical areas like networking, storage, and specialized workloads, including Confidential VMs, HPC, and GPU scenarios. This unified testing framework is invaluable for developers, Linux distribution providers, and customers who build custom kernels and images."
ATIL is built on Microsoft's Linux Integration Services Automation project (LISA). Microsoft's Linux Systems Group originally developed this initiative to validate Linux OS images. LISA is a Linux quality validation system with two parts: a test framework to drive test execution and a set of test suites to verify Linux distribution quality. LISA is now open-sourced under the MIT License. The system enables continuous testing of Linux images, covering a wide range of scenarios from kernel updates to complex cloud-native workloads. [...] Specifically, the ATIL service is designed to streamline the deployment, testing, and management of Linux images on Azure. The service builds on the company's internal expertise and open-source tools to provide:
- Curated, Azure-optimized, security-hardened Linux images
- Automated quality assurance and compliance testing for Linux distributions
- Seamless integration with Azure's cloud-native services and Kubernetes environments Krum Kashan, Microsoft Azure Linux Platforms Group program manager, said in a statement: "While numerous testing tools are available for validating Linux kernels, guest OS images, and user space packages across various cloud platforms, finding a comprehensive testing framework that addresses the entire platform stack remains a significant challenge. A robust framework is essential, one that seamlessly integrates with Azure's environment while providing coverage for major testing tools, such as LTP and kselftest, and covers critical areas like networking, storage, and specialized workloads, including Confidential VMs, HPC, and GPU scenarios. This unified testing framework is invaluable for developers, Linux distribution providers, and customers who build custom kernels and images."
Steve Ballmer (Score:4, Funny)
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That was almost 30 years ago, at a time when Microsoft was selling an operating system and Linux was a potential competitor.
Eons have passed, priorities have changed, now Microsoft's business is selling online services and the mighty windows OS is "free" for most users. If the trend continues, they may even ditch it, as there is the free Linux, which is a better substitute anyway.
I haven't opened the microsoft website in years, but I bet today you'll probably see windows mentioned only as a byline.
This Is Cool (Score:2)
This is a good thing for a small group of users.
Microsoft deserves commendation for this. Seriously.
I'm sure Slashdot will shit on it.
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Far from it. We will look at the advertisement, see this gem:
- Curated, Azure-optimized, security-hardened Linux images
And just chuckle.
Open source contributor (Score:1)
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The internet changed things.
Microsoft does not care what OS you run on your local device -as long as you are using it to access their services on the net, or one of the services that they host. Services and hosting are where Microsoft makes their money now. Not on Windows for your PC.
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It's amazin how much they have profited what they considered to be a threat.
FTFY.
Stallman was the best thing that ever happened to the software industry, but it took greed decades to get over itself and understand why.
The hypervisor is Microsoft Hyper-V on Windows (Score:2)
The hypervisor is still Microsoft Hyper-V on Windows.
The workloads may be Linux/UNIX, but the core servers are still Microsoft Windows Server.