CBL-MarinerAzure Linux is being developed by the ''Linux Systems Group'' at Microsoft for its edge network services and as part of its [[cloud infrastructure]].<ref name="IW" /> The company uses it as the base Linux for containers in the [[Microsoft Azure|Azure Stack]] [[Hyper-converged infrastructure|HCI]] implementation of Azure [[Kubernetes]] Service.<ref name="ZDNet" /> Microsoft also uses CBL-MarinerAzure Linux in Azure IoT Edge to run Linux workloads on [[Windows IoT]], and as a backend distro to host the [[Weston (software)|Weston]] compositor for [[WSLg]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/wslg-architecture/ |title=WSLg Architecture |last=Pronovost |first=Steve |date=April 19, 2021 |website=Windows Command Line |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=August 14, 2021}}</ref>
In a similar approach to [[Fedora CoreOS]], CBL-MarinerAzure Linux only has the basic packages needed to support and run containers. Common Linux tools are used to add packages and manage [[security update]]s. Updates are offered either as [[RPM Package Manager|RPM]] [[Package manager|packages]] or as complete [[disk images]] that can be deployed as needed. Using RPM allows adding custom packages to a base CBL-MarinerAzure Linux image to support additional features and services as needed. Notable features include an [[iptables]]-based [[Firewall (computing)|firewall]], support for [[digital signature|signed]] updates, and a [[Hardening (computing)|hardened]] [[Kernel (operating system)|kernel]].<ref name="IW" />
Microsoft released the operating system in 2020.<ref name="IW" /> Its [[source code]] is available on GitHub, mainly under the [[MIT License]], with some components under {{interlanguage link|Photon License|de|Photon OS}}, [[Apache License|Apache License v2]], [[GPLv2]], and [[LGPL 2|LGPLv2.1]].<ref name=":0" /> Building CBL-MarinerAzure Linux requires the [[Go (programming language)|Go]] [[programming language]], [[QEMU]] utilities, and [[RPM Package Manager|RPM]].<ref name="IW" />
Starting from the release 2.0.20240301, CBL-MarinerAzure isLinux calledwas renamed from ''Azure LinuxCBL-Mariner''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.phoronix.com/news/Microsoft-Azure-Linux |title=Microsoft Rebranding CBL-Mariner Linux Distribution To "Azure Linux" |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2024-03-05 |website= |publisher=Phoronix Media |access-date=2024-03-06 }}</ref>
