en.Wedoany.com Reported - Microsoft's Fedora-based Azure Linux 4 has made new progress, now allowing users to run the system outside the Azure environment. The project provides ISO file downloads on GitHub, supporting both x86-64 and Arm64 architectures, enabling users to download and install it for local virtual machine testing.
Azure Linux 4 is currently in preview and should not be deployed in production environments. The ISO file is located under the "ISO Installer" sub-item within the "Azure Linux" section on the GitHub project page. This distribution is the successor to CBL-Mariner, released in 2022, which transitioned to Azure Linux 3 in 2024. The new version primarily uses the TOML file format for configuration, replacing the .spec files inherited from VMware Photon OS in the previous version.
This test version is named "Four Beta" and features kernel 6.18 and systemd 258.4. The package sources and packaging metadata are largely derived from Fedora, but this is not a rebranded version of Fedora Server, nor does it guarantee compatibility with Fedora packages. The default configuration includes only two repositories: azurelinux-base and azurelinux-microsoft, both located at packages.microsoft.com/azurelinux/. Currently, the repository content is limited, and the distribution itself is relatively minimal, for example, lacking the less command and unable to install htop.
Azure Linux 4 is not an immutable container host; users can still use the dnf package manager commands. The system does not include GNOME or other graphical desktops, primarily targeting the Azure virtual machine environment, but it can also work normally in local Hyper-V virtual machines. The preview version download size is only 1 GB, occupying 1.1 GB of disk space and 359 MB of memory after installation. The installer is a command-line tool, which by default creates and installs to an LVM configuration and enables the memory balloon feature.
Azure Linux 4 is not designed for manual installation by users, nor for bare metal; its typical role is to be automatically configured by deployment pipelines, with the ISO file intended solely for testing purposes. Some reports suggest its update cycle is two years, but the published lifecycle does not mention this, only stating that it will use an LTS kernel and receive monthly security updates. This Azure Linux 4 release reflects Microsoft's internalization of its toolchain. Two years ago, Microsoft migrated LinkedIn to Azure Linux, eliminating its reliance on the end-of-life CentOS Linux distribution. Now, shifting to Fedora as an upstream source further reduces dependence on the aging VMware Photon OS. According to The Register, multiple VMware customers, including international supermarket chain Tesco and telecom giant T-Mobile, are moving away from Broadcom.
