GNU Project

computer science

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July 16, 2026

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The GNU Project, founded by Richard Stallman in 1985, aims to develop a free, UNIX-like operating system. Stallman, a proponent of "free software," believes in unrestricted sharing and modification of computer code. The project's goal was to create a completely free operating system, leading to the development of many GNU utilities.123

While the GNU Project developed numerous system components, it faced challenges in creating a kernel independent of proprietary UNIX code. This gap was filled by Linus Torvalds, who developed the Linux kernel. When combined with GNU utilities, this formed the GNU/Linux operating system, commonly known as Linux. The Free Software Foundation, also founded by Stallman, supports the development of free software and created the GNU General Public License (GPL), a "copyleft" agreement that ensures derivative works remain free.231

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copyleft
…an open-source programming project called GNU (a reflexive acronym for “GNU’s Not Unix”) and created the first general public license to govern the use of GNU, keeping it and its derivatives open and freely available. Many consider the concept of copyleft to be a return to the earliest ideas of…
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…an open-source programming project called GNU (a reflexive acronym for “GNU’s Not Unix”) and created the first general public license to govern the use of GNU, keeping it and its derivatives open and freely available. Many consider the concept of copyleft to be a return to the earliest ideas of…
Read More

Free Software Foundation
…foundation was to support the GNU Project, or GNU operating system, which Stallman had begun in 1983. GNU was intended to be a free version of AT&T’s UNIX—the name GNU was created as a recursive acronym of “GNU’s not UNIX.” Although the GNU Project produced many useful system utilities, it…
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…foundation was to support the GNU Project, or GNU operating system, which Stallman had begun in 1983. GNU was intended to be a free version of AT&T’s UNIX—the name GNU was created as a recursive acronym of “GNU’s not UNIX.” Although the GNU Project produced many useful system utilities, it…
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Richard Stallman
…his personal time on his GNU Project, or GNU operating system. GNU was intended to be a free version of AT&T’s UNIX, and the name GNU was created as a recursive acronym of GNU’s not UNIX. One of the last of the “hackers,” computer programmers who strongly believed in freely…
Read More
…his personal time on his GNU Project, or GNU operating system. GNU was intended to be a free version of AT&T’s UNIX, and the name GNU was created as a recursive acronym of GNU’s not UNIX. One of the last of the “hackers,” computer programmers who strongly believed in freely…
Read More