June 16, 2016

Last week, Microsoft announced the arrival of a ready-made FreeBSD 10.3 VM image in the Azure Marketplace. According to Jason Anderson, Principal PM Manager, Open Source Technology Center, “This means that not only can you quickly bring-up a FreeBSD VM in Azure, but also that in the event you need technical support, Microsoft support engineers can assist.”

The FreeBSD Foundation is pleased to have partnered with the FreeBSD Project’s Release Engineering team and Microsoft to help bring FreeBSD to the Azure Marketplace. Microsoft is not creating their own version of FreeBSD, but instead upstreaming changes at the kernel level to enable network and storage performance enhancements. In addition, Microsoft will maintain the images and follow the FreeBSD Project’s release schedule, allowing the FreeBSD community as a whole to benefit from the partnership.

Microsoft’s ongoing investment in the FreeBSD community demonstrates Microsoft’s long-term investment in open source technology, and we look forward to supporting the joint efforts of Microsoft and the FreeBSD Project as the partnership continues.