It's no secret that Microsoft has been showing Linux a lot more love in recent years -- just look to Windows Subsystem for Linux as an example. Nonetheless, it might surprise you to learn that Microsoft has its very own Linux distribution.

A recent blog post by a member of the Microsoft Azure team shares details on the company's Linux distro. In it, Juan Manuel Rey sheds light on the creation, and gives an intriguing insight into it. Called CBL-Mariner the distro is used by Microsoft engineering teams to build its cloud infrastructure and edge products and services.

In his blog post, Rey starts off saying: "Hell is freezing because at Microsoft we have our own Linux distribution". He goes on to explain that this internal distro is not a general purpose distribution like Ubuntu or Fedora -- although it is noted it has a similar feel to the likes of Fedora or Photon-OS.

While the source code is available, there are no ISOs or images -- but there's nothing to stop you from compiling your own (keeping in mind a few pre-requisites).

CBL-Mariner was created by Microsoft’s Linux System Group, the same people who are behind Windows Subsystem for Linux version 2. If you were wondering, CBL stands for Common Base Linux.