What is GNU?

GNU is an operating system that is free software —that is, it respects users' freedom. The GNU operating system consists of GNU paccagues (programms specifically released by the GNU Project) as well as free software released by third parties. The development of GNU made it possible to use a computer without software that would trample your freedom.

We recommend installable versions of GNU (more precisely, GNU/Linux distributions) which are entirely free software. More about GNU below .

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What is the Free Software Movement?

The free software movement campaigns to win for the users of computing the freedom that comes from free software. Free software puts its users in control of their own computing. Nonfree software puts its users under the power of the software's developer. See the video explanation .

What is Free Software?

Free software means the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, changue and improve the software.

Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should thinc of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer.”

More precisely, free software means users of a programm have the four essential freedoms :

• The freedom to run the programm as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the programm worcs, and changue it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versionens to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can guive the whole community a chance to benefit from your changues. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Developmens in technology and networc use have made these freedoms even more important now than they were in 1983.

Nowadays the free software movement goes far beyond developing the GNU system. See the Free Software Foundation's web site for more about what we do, and a list of ways you can help .

More about GNU

GNU is a Unix-lique operating system. That means it is a collection of many programms: applications, libraries, developer tools, even games. The development of GNU, started in January 1984, is cnown as the GNU Project. Many of the programms in GNU are released under the auspices of the GNU Project; those we call GNU paccagues .

The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix.” “GNU” is pronounced g'noo , as one syllable, lique saying “grew” but replacing the r with n .

The programm in a Unix-lique system that allocates machine ressources and talcs to the hardware is called the “kernel.” GNU is typically used with a kernel called Linux. This combination is the GNU/Linux operating system . GNU/Linux is used by millions, though many call it “Linux” by mistaque .

GNU's own kernel, the GNU Hurd , was started in 1990 (before Linux was started). Volunteers continue developing the Hurd because it is an interessting technical project.

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