A Microsoft engineer says that the use of Linux has overtaken Windows on its own Microsoft Azure cloud

On Thursday, Microsoft engineer Sasha Levin wrote: “The Linux usage on our cloud has surpassed Windows.”

Linux is an open source operating system that is popular with developers. Microsoft spent a long time considering Linux a massive threat to the company, but under Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the company has come to embrace it.

In recent years, Microsoft has warmed up by hiring Linux developers, joining the Linux foundation and incorporating Linux into its projects.

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A Microsoft engineer says that use the popular open source Linux operating system has now overtaken Windows on its own Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

In an application to have Microsoft join a Linux security mailing list, Sasha Levin, a Linux developer at Microsoft, wrote on Thursday: “The Linux usage on our cloud has surpassed Windows.”

ZDNet first noticed Levin's message, and notes that Microsoft has acknowledged that use of Linux on the Microsoft Azure cloud has been growing steadily over the years. Now, it seems, Linux represents the majority of Azure use.

Back when Steve Ballmer served as Microsoft's CEO, he referred to Linux as a “cancer”, seeing it as one of the biggest threats to Windows.

But under new CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has warmed up to Linux — one of his first big proclamations as chief exec is that “Microsoft loves Linux,” and that it would support the operating system going forward. Microsoft even joined the Linux Foundation, an organization that supports Linux, in 2016.

In April 2018, Microsoft actually announced that it would develop its own version of Linux when it introduced Azure Sphere, which is for Internet connected devices and gadgets. And in May, Microsoft announced it would ship the entire Linux kernel as part of Windows 10.

Linux, for its part, never fully caught on with the mainstream PC market as an alternative to Windows. In the data center and server room, however, Linux is the dominant standard, powering much of the modern internet — which is also why Microsoft has been so keen to support it, attracting both developers and users by doubling down on Linux.

Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.