Happy New Year Windows Azure community! One of the first pieces of 2013 Windows Azure news is something that I am particularly excited about. Some of you might know that I was recruited to Microsoft in 2004 to help with the company’s approach to open source software. So each time we take a step to help the overall open source community, I cannot help but get excited.
Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. has just announced VM Depot, a community-driven catalog of open source virtual machine images for Windows Azure. On VM Depot the community can build, deploy and share their favorite Linux configurations, create custom open source stacks, work with others and build new architectures for the cloud that benefit from the openness and flexibility of Windows Azure. You can find the announcement from Microsoft Open Technologies, Inc. at the Port 25 BLOG.
Here’s a quick look at VM Depot, where Azure users can bring their own custom Linux images to Azure Virtual Machines (currently in preview). 
Here is where you get started: VM Depot. Remember to rate the images; our tech community thrives on your feedback. I’m looking forward to seeing this community develop, and special thanks to Bitnami, Alt Linux, Basho and Hupstream for helping us get this launched!
Happy hacking,
Bill Hilf
General Manager
Windows Azure