More than a third of virtual machines running on Azure are Linux VMs. Here's what's available.

After years of battling Linux as a competitive threat, Microsoft is now offering Linux-based operating systems on its Windows Azure cloud service.

Users running Linux on Microsoft Azure have now outpaced the number of users running Windows Server on Azure. The revelation comes from a Microsoft Linux kernel developer named Sasha Levin.

Linux on Microsoft turf To be specific, the consequence of this wider trend now sees the The Linux Foundation announce the availability of a new training course, Administering Linux on Azure.

These users put their VMs at risk when they use certain Azure services such as Azure Automation, Azure Automatic Update, Azure Log Analytics, Azure Configuration Management, and others.