Microsoft announced Azure Linux 4.0 and Azure Container Linux at Open Source Summit North America 2026. Azure Linux 4.0 is a Fedora-based general-purpose server distribution for Azure VMs — the first time Microsoft has offered a supported Linux distro beyond container hosting. Azure Container Linux, built on the Flatcar project, is an immutable, container-optimized host now generally available. The split reflects two workload patterns: RPM-based VM workloads and minimal immutable container hosts. Microsoft is contributing upstream to Fedora rather than forking it. Azure Linux 4.0 ships with a two-year support lifecycle and WSL support is planned. This makes Microsoft the last of the three major hyperscalers to ship a general-purpose server Linux distribution, following Amazon Linux and Google's Container-Optimized OS.
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