Microsoft Releases Azure Linux 4.0 for Bare-Metal Servers and VMs
Updated
Updated · ZDNet · Jul 2
Microsoft Releases Azure Linux 4.0 for Bare-Metal Servers and VMs
3 articles · Updated · ZDNet · Jul 2
Summary
Azure Linux 4.0 can now be downloaded as ISO images and installed on customers’ own bare-metal servers and virtual machines, extending Microsoft’s distro beyond its Azure cloud.
Fedora-based Azure Linux ships in beta with a hardened Linux 6.18 kernel, SELinux security, Hyper-V tuning, and Azure agents aimed at cloud and server workloads.
Microsoft offers formal support and SLAs for Azure Marketplace deployments, but on-premises ISO use is community-supported only; bare metal, other clouds, and scratch-built images are not officially covered.
GitHub access to package specs, build scripts, and image tools broadens the distro’s reach, though Microsoft still tightly controls the base image in a vendor-curated model.
The move fits Microsoft’s push for one Azure-optimized Linux across hybrid environments, as Linux has already been Azure’s most popular server OS for nearly 10 years.