What you need to know
- The Azure Sphere OS, a Linux-based operating system, will see its version 22.01 release enter general availability on January 26, 2022.
- The new version is already in the Retail Eval feed, meaning you have roughly two weeks with which to test it against your devices and apps to ensure backward compatibility.
For those of you who were anticipating the next version release of Microsoft's Azure Sphere OS, the big moment is almost here: Version 22.01 enters general availability on January 26, 2022.
The new version is already in the Retail Eval feed, meaning there's time for backward compatibility testing before the release goes wide. The areas Microsoft advises focusing compatibility testing on "include apps and functionality utilizing: Timestamps or structs that contain time, WifiConfig_getNetworkDiagnostics(), manually configured DNS entries, DMA."
In the event you've stumbled upon this article and don't have a clue as to what Azure Sphere OS is, Microsoft has a big writeup on the subject. But to compress it down to its absolute core, it's the Linux-based operating system underpinning Azure Sphere, a security and communications platform for IoT devices. It has three main components: Azure Sphere OS, a "cloud-based security service," and a crossover microcontroller unit (MCU).
In terms of recent Microsoft operating system updates that are not Azure sphere, there was also January 2022's Patch Tuesday, which saw Windows 11 and Windows 10 get security updates. This particular Patch Tuesday wasn't entirely smooth sailing, since it had the unintended side effect of messing with some users' VPN connections.
For what it's worth, Microsoft's operating systems aren't the only ones with occasional hiccups. Recently, Redmond helped out Apple's macOS by alerting the rival company about a vulnerability known as "powerdir."
