Member Avatar for serkan sendur

one of my trusted friends said that even microsoft uses unix servers as a response to my comparison of unix vs windows servers.

What do you think?

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Short answer: yes — Microsoft uses Unix-like / Linux systems where they make sense, alongside Windows. Over the past decade the company intentionally adopted a heterogeneous approach: Azure supports and runs a wide range of Linux distributions and Microsoft builds many cloud services on Linux, while continuing to use Windows where it’s the better fit. (Azure: endorsed Linux distributions). (docs.azure.cn)

The replies above from , and are on the right track: large tech firms pick the best tool for each job rather than favour one OS everywhere. Microsoft’s shift toward open source and cross‑platform work (for example, the .NET Core open‑source move and later product support on Linux) shows that change was strategic, not accidental. (Introducing .NET Core). (devblogs.microsoft.com)

Concrete examples matter: Microsoft has shipped major server products to run on Linux (SQL Server, for example, has full Linux support) and ships Linux‑tuned images and tooling on Azure — practical proof that Linux is a first‑class production platform for them. (SQL Server on Linux announcement). (microsoft.com)

Practical takeaways for someone choosing servers today:

  • Pick by workload: Windows still makes sense for Active Directory/legacy .NET apps; Linux is often preferred for web, containers, big‑data and scale‑out services.
  • Check ecosystem and support: available vendor support, team skillset, and tooling matter more than brand names.
  • To see what a public service might be running, inspect HTTP headers (e.g. curl -I), DNS records and provider docs — but treat headers/CDNs as potentially misleading and verify with provider documentation or published architecture notes.

For up‑to‑date technical detail on Microsoft’s cross‑platform tooling (WSL, Linux support on Azure, etc.) see the official docs: Windows Subsystem for Linux and Microsoft’s open‑source/partnership coverage. (learn.microsoft.com)

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Member Avatar for sknake

I'm doubt Microsoft uses them extensively for internal applications, but i'm sure they have just about every OS installed in their corporate headquarters because they need to know what they are competing with.

Microsoft doesn't really have a solution for high-load DNS servers and routers, and Microsoft farms their DNS out to so i'm sure you hit a few *nix servers on the way to accessing their websites.

Google uses Microsoft Office applications for their document management despite having Google Docs. That much I do know for sure ;)

Member Avatar for blud

Microsoft does use Unix/Linux servers for a few of their production environments, but that is obvious to anyone in the field looking for a job. They recently had several positions open for *nix Sysadmins. I'll say this again: Microsoft makes great Desktop/Client software.

Member Avatar for khakilang

Its seems they still do not have a complete enterprise solution despite their size.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Yes. Hotmail ran on FreeBSD until the early/mid 2000s. Indeed, microsoft used to be a UNIX vendor back in the 1970s with XENIX. Also, most of thier internal DNS servers run UNIX or UNIX-Like systems.

Member Avatar for zcat

Microsoft's DNS servers and distributed caching for Windows Updates and other downloads are outsourced to Akamai, a company that runs their operation on 48,000 linux servers around the world.


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