About

How Himmelblau Came to Be

In late 2022 and early 2023, several Linux vendors met with Microsoft to explore Entra ID integration for Linux. Microsoft's proposal centered on a proprietary "broker" the community would be expected to integrate with. The debates around that direction - and concerns about quality, security, and openness - left a clear gap for a community-driven alternative. Himmelblau started in 2023 to fill that vacuum with a transparent, community-driven implementation that prioritizes security and quality.

Early on, Himmelblau reused client components from Kanidm (a Rust identity platform), then evolved quickly to address Entra ID and Intune specifics; the two projects continue to share a number of dependencies.

Samba's role has been integral from day one. With continuous discussions happening within the Samba Team, Himmelblau offers a path that some engineers view as the future direction for Samba - keeping the project relevant as the ecosystem evolves.

Name. "Himmelblau" is German for "sky-blue/Azure," a playful nod to Microsoft's cloud while signaling that our implementation is open.

The Team Behind Himmelblau

Key engineers include David Mulder, Samuel Cabrero and William Brown, backed by a team of community contributors.

Supported Platforms

Himmelblau supports multiple enterprise and community Linux distributions such as SUSE, Rocky (RHEL), Fedora, Ubuntu, and Debian.

Vision

Himmelblau exists to make Linux work cleanly with Entra ID and Intune - open, auditable, and production-ready - so admins get Windows-grade login, MFA, and device management without vendor lock-in.

Get Involved

Contribute to Himmelblau's development by visiting our GitHub page.