GNU Project

Not to be confused with the operating system developed by the GNU Project, GNU.

The GNU Project (/ɡnuː/ ⓘ GNOO) is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to provide computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and computing devices by developing and publishing software collaboratively that grants everyone the right to freely run, copy, distribute, study, and modify it. GNU software grants these rights in its license.

In order to ensure that the entire software of a computer grants its users all rights (use, share, study, modify), even the most fundamental and important parts, the operating system and all of its utility programs, need to be free software. Stallman decided to call this operating system GNU (a recursive acronym meaning "GNU's not Unix!"), basing its design on that of Unix, a proprietary operating system. According to its manifesto, the founding goal of the project was to build a free operating system, and if possible, "everything useful that normally comes with a Unix system so that one could get along without any software that is not free." Development was initiated in January 1984. In 1991, the Linux kernel appeared, developed outside the GNU Project by Linus Torvalds, and in December 1992, it was made available under version 2 of the GNU General Public License. Combined with the operating system utilities already developed by the GNU Project, it allowed for the first operating system that was free software, commonly known as Linux.

The project's current work includes software development, awareness building, political campaigning, and sharing of new material.

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