The Most Popular Cloud Operating System Is...

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | CIO Engage | March 23, 2014

OK, if you know anything about the cloud, you're going to say the most popular cloud operating system is Linux. With the exception of Microsoft Azure with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012, the most popular client operating system family on clouds is indeed Linux. But, can you guess what seems to be the most popular guest Linux on clouds?
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The answer is Ubuntu.

"Ubuntu!?" you say? Most of know it as a desktop Linux. Some of you know that Ubuntu wants to be the third horse in the smartphone operating system race, but few of us probably knew that Ubuntu has designs on being a major cloud power. Indeed, on some platforms, we know that it already is.

For example, The Cloud Market, which tracks Amazon EC2 operating system instances shows that Ubuntu is not just the top operating system, but it also had the majority of instances on March 21, 2014, with 56%. In second place comes generic Linux with 23.1%, and Windows is a distant third with 6.6%.