Microsoft Ships Defender for the Linux Desktop

Microsoft has rolled out yet another product for Linux, and this time it is Microsoft Defender for the Linux desktop. The protection and threat-detection tool long familiar to Windows users has now been ported to desktop distributions.

The company's reasoning is straightforward: "more developers begin to use Linux desktops." Hence the push to bring its security offering onto those machines. The release complements the firm's existing support for Linux servers — which, as Phoronix wryly notes, users never warmed to all that much.

There is a practical catch, too: Defender for the Linux desktop is not available to just anyone. It is offered to those who purchase a Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 subscription or the enterprise Microsoft 365 E5 and E7 tiers. In other words, this is first and foremost a product for organizations, not for the lone enthusiast securing a home laptop.

Microsoft published the details and instructions on its Microsoft Tech Community blog. For the company, this is one more step in a long trajectory of rapprochement with the Linux ecosystem — from kernel drivers to the WSL subsystem — this time in the shape of a security solution.

Source: Phoronix