Updated: November 18, 2022 (November 14, 2022)

Mariner, Microsoft's Linux, Finds Many Uses

Before joining Directions on Microsoft in 2020, Barry worked at Microsoft for 12 years in a variety of roles, including... more

Mariner, also known as CBL-Mariner (for Common Base Linux), is increasingly being adopted across Azure and elsewhere.
It is used for diverse workloads including IoT Edge, the Percept device, and the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
Mariner is in preview as a host OS for Azure Kubernetes Service.

Objectives and Background of Mariner

Mariner, like other optimized Linux distributions, targets lightweight, UI-less workloads such as smart devices and container hosts. These distributions eliminate functionality not needed by their workloads, such as a graphical user interface (GUI), and thus reduce size and gain performance. Mariner installs quickly (in less than a minute) and launches quickly (in a few seconds), unlike fuller-featured OSs. Mariner is well-suited for demanding performance requirements of server-side functions, such as container hosting, and for edge and device OSs.

Mariner follows other lightweight Linux implementations designed with similar goals, including the following:

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