Microsoft launches Azure Linux 4.0, its first general-purpose Linux distro
Microsoft's first full Linux server OS is now available for all Azure customers.
Deep Dive
Microsoft surprised attendees at Open Source Summit North America by announcing Azure Linux 4.0, its first general-purpose Linux distribution. Under the hood, it is based on Fedora Linux and delivered as an open distribution on GitHub. The distro is available as a VM image on Azure, and Microsoft said it will announce WSL images as well. Previously, Azure Linux (CBL-Mariner) was only available to
Key Points
- Azure Linux 4.0 is Fedora-based, open-source on GitHub, and available as a general-purpose VM image for all Azure customers.
- Previously, Azure Linux was only available as a container host on AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service) under version 3.0.
- Microsoft split its Linux portfolio: Azure Container Linux (Flatcar-based) for containers and Azure Linux 4.0 for VMs.
Why It Matters
Microsoft's first-party Linux distro signals full enterprise commitment to open source, reshaping cloud competition with AWS and GCP.