It has been a thing for the last 5 years at the very least.

Red Hat recently turned 30 years old as a company.

So yeah, 5 years is pretty recent, unless you started using linux last week.

I said at least 5 years because I know I used it 5 years ago in a previous company and I am pretty sure about it but it may have been earlier.

If you have a source with the original announcement, by all means share it.

EDIT: found an announcement of march 2016 so we are talking +7years at least.

Still fairly recent unless you started using linux last week.