Microsoft making its own Linux

Azure Sphere is a new bit of technology from Microsoft designed to protect microprocessors used in small devices and the Internet of Things, as this video explains.

Azure Sphere includes three components working as one, a brand-new class of crossover microcontrollers running a secured operating system and supported by cloud services. Along with advanced development tools, Azure Sphere is your opportunity to reimagine your business from the ground up.

According to reports, Smith says that Windows, even in its slimmed-down IoT guise, is just too "full blown" for the tiny task it has in mind:

"Of course we are the Windows company [but] what we've recognized is, the best solution for a computer of this size---in a toy---is not a full-blown version of Windows. It is what we are creating here."

By "this size" he means the new chip Microsoft has developed. This chip isn't the sort of processor you're going to find in regular PCs, phones, or even single-board computers.

Microsoft joined the Linux Foundation in 2016 and the software titan has expended a lot of effort in reproaching Linux as an equal rather than a rival, integrating Linux into its cloud offerings and bringing Bash and Linux tools to the Windows desktop via WSL.