Red Hat Enterprise Linux
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7's default GNOME 3 desktop
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| Developer | Red Hat, Inc. |
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| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source (with exceptions) |
| Initial release | February 22, 2000 |
| Latest release | 7.3, 6.8, 5.11 / November 3, 2016, May 10, 2016, September 16, 2014 |
| Marketing target | Commercial market (including for mainframes, servers, supercomputers) |
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Update method | Yum / PackageKit |
| Package manager | RPM |
| Platforms | IA-32, x86-64; Power Architecture; S/390; z/Architecture |
| Kernel type | Monolithic (Linux) |
| Userland | GNU |
| Default user interface | GNOME |
| License | Various free software licenses, plus proprietary binary blobs |
| Preceded by | Red Hat Linux |
| Official website | www |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a Linux distribution developed by Red Hat and targeted toward the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86, x86-64, Itanium, PowerPC and IBM System z, and desktop versions for x86 and x86-64. All of the Red Hat's official support and training, together with the Red Hat Certification Program, focuses on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is often abbreviated to RHEL, although this is not an official designation.
The first version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to bear the name originally came onto the market as "Red Hat Linux Advanced Server". In 2003 Red Hat rebranded Red Hat Linux Advanced Server to "Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS", and added two more variants, Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES and Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS.
Red Hat uses strict trademark rules to restrict free re-distribution of their officially supported versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but still freely provides its source code. Third-party derivatives can be built and redistributed by stripping away non-free components like Red Hat's trademarks. Examples include community-supported distributions like CentOS and Scientific Linux, and commercial forks like Oracle Linux, which does not offer 100% binary compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, because Oracle uses a non-standard process to clear the Red Hat brand.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription is available at no cost for development purposes. Developers need to register for the Red Hat Developer Program and agree to licensing terms forbidding production use. This free developer subscription was announced on March 31, 2016.
There are also "Academic" editions of the Desktop and Server variants. They are offered to schools and students, are less expensive, and are provided with Red Hat technical support as an optional extra. Web support based on number of customer contacts can be purchased separately.
It is often assumed the branding ES, AS, and WS stand for "Entry-level Server", "Advanced Server" and "Work Station", respectively. The reason for this is that the ES product is indeed the company's base enterprise server product, while AS is the more advanced product. However, nowhere on its site or in its literature does Red Hat say what AS, ES and WS stand for.
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