Enterprise Linux was initially released under the name Red Hat Linux Advanced Server in 2003.

Enterprise Linux is designed to function in high-end business computing IT environments. Enterprise Linux has more advanced level features than standard Linux versions. However, it remains open source - even for commercial use. It also is available for academic use, which is less expensive.

The most recent notable Enterprise Linux distribution is Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which is designed specifically for cloud environments. It has native support and integration capabilities with the OpenStack Cloud infrastructure. Red Hat Enterprise Linux customers can quickly provision hundreds of servers, storage space and other computing resources from the OpenStack cloud.