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Overview of the GNU System

   The GNU operating system is a complete free software system, upward-compatible
   with Unix. GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix". It is pronounced as [55]one syllable
   with a hard g. [56]Richard Stallman made the [57]Initial Announcement of the GNU
   Project in September 1983. A longer version called the [58]GNU Manifesto was
   published in March 1985. It has been translated into several [59]other languages.

   The name "GNU" was chosen because it met a few requirements; first, it was a
   recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix," second, because it was a real word, and
   third, it was fun to say (or [60]sing).

   The word "free" in "free software" pertains to [61]freedom, not price. You may or
   may not pay a price to get GNU software. Either way, once you have the software
   you have four specific freedoms in using it. The freedom to run the program as
   you wish; the freedom to copy the program and give it away to your friends and
   co-workers; the freedom to change the program as you wish, by having full access
   to source code; the freedom to distribute an improved version and thus help build
   the community. (If you redistribute GNU software, you may charge a fee for the
   physical act of transferring a copy, or you may give away copies.)

   The project to develop the GNU system is called the "GNU Project". The GNU
   Project was conceived in 1983 as a way of bringing back the cooperative spirit
   that prevailed in the computing community in earlier days--to make cooperation
   possible once again by removing the obstacles to cooperation imposed by the
   owners of proprietary software.

   In 1971, when Richard Stallman started his career at MIT, he worked in a group
   which used [62]free software exclusively. Even computer companies often
   distributed free software. Programmers were free to cooperate with each other,
   and often did.

   By the 1980s, almost all software was [63]proprietary, which means that it had
   owners who forbid and prevent cooperation by users. This made the GNU Project
   necessary.

   Every computer user needs an operating system; if there is no free operating
   system, then you can't even get started using a computer without resorting to
   proprietary software. So the first item on the free software agenda obviously had
   to be a free operating system.

   We decided to make the operating system compatible with Unix because the overall
   design was already proven and portable, and because compatibility makes it easy
   for Unix users to switch from Unix to GNU.

   A Unix-like operating system includes a kernel, compilers, editors, text
   formatters, mail software, graphical interfaces, libraries, games and many other
   things. Thus, writing a whole operating system is a very large job. We started in
   January 1984. The [64]Free Software Foundation was founded in October 1985,
   initially to raise funds to help develop GNU.

   By 1990 we had either found or written all the major components except one--the
   kernel. Then Linux, a Unix-like kernel, was developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991
   and made free software in 1992. Combining Linux with the almost-complete GNU
   system resulted in a complete operating system: the GNU/Linux system. Estimates
   are that tens of millions of people now use GNU/Linux systems, typically via
   [65]GNU/Linux distributions. The principal version of Linux now contains nonfree
   firmware "blobs"; free software activists now maintain a modified free version of
   Linux, called [66]Linux-libre.

   However, the GNU Project is not limited to the core operating system. We aim to
   provide a whole spectrum of software, whatever many users want to have. This
   includes application software. See the [67]Free Software Directory for a
   catalogue of free software application programs.

   We also want to provide software for users who are not computer experts.
   Therefore we developed a [68]graphical desktop (called GNOME) to help beginners
   use the GNU system.

   We also want to provide games and other recreations. Plenty of [69]free games are
   already available.

   How far can free software go? There are no limits, except when [70]laws such as
   the patent system prohibit free software. The ultimate goal is to provide free
   software to do all of the jobs computer users want to do--and thus make
   proprietary software a thing of the past.
     ____________________________________________________________________________

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