About the GNU Operating System

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●GNU in a Nutshell Download distributions

If you're looking for a whole system to install, see our list of GNU/Linux distributions which are entirely free software.

GNU History

●*[1996] Overview of the GNU System ●*[1998] The GNU Project (by Richard Stallman) — A more detailed history of GNU. ●*[1985] The GNU Manifesto ●*[1984] First Hackers Conference ●*[1983] Initial Announcement of the GNU Project ●[2003] My Lisp Experiences and the Development of GNU Emacs (by Richard Stallman) ●[1999] 15 Years of Free Software (by Richard Stallman) ●[1999] BYTE interview with Richard Stallman ●[1989] One Man's Fight for Free Software (by John Markoff) — An article about Richard Stallman and the early GNU development, published at The New York Times on January 11, 1989. One problem with the article is that it uses the propaganda term “intellectual property” as if that referred to something coherent. The term is such a confusion that talking about it makes no sense. The article is also somewhat confused in regard to Symbolics. What Stallman did, while still working at MIT, was to write, independently, replacement improvements comparable to the improvements that Symbolics made in its version of the MIT Lisp Machine System. ●[1983] The Road to GNU — Richard Stallman describes the experiences that prepared him to fight for a free software world. Here are two postings that Stallman wrote for a bulletin board at Stanford while he was visiting there in May, 1983. They show some of his thinking on the way towards launching the development of the GNU system. They don't use the term “free software”; apparently he had not yet started to put those two words together. ●[1983] Why Programs Should be Shared ●[1983] Yes, Give It Away

GNU Structure

●[2020] The Structure and Administration of the GNU Project (by Brandon Invergo and Richard Stallman)

GNU and Linux

●*[2000-2007] What's in a Name? (by Richard Stallman) — Why the “Linux system” should be called GNU/Linux. ●[2001-2020] A GNU/Linux FAQ (by Richard Stallman) ●[1997-2019] Linux and the GNU System (by Richard Stallman) — The relationship between GNU and Linux. ●[2018] Incorrect Quotation (by Richard Stallman) ●[2006] GNU Users Who Have Never Heard of GNU (by Richard Stallman)

Other GNU-related resources

●GNU/Linux, GNU/Hurd, and free software user groups

GNU elsewhere

(9965) GNU

Main-belt asteroid (9965) GNU, provisionally designated as 1992 EF₂, was named after the GNU project in the Minor Planet Circular 41571. The asteroid was discovered at Kitt Peak by Spacewatch on the 5^th March 1992.

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