Page Inspect

The GNU Operating System and the Free Software Movement

**Skip to main text**

**We support your freedom!**

The free software movement has come a long way in forty years. We want to take a moment to thank the people and projects who have helped bring us to this point, and ask for your support in the decades to come. Help us reach our fundraising goal of $400,000 by January 1, 2026 to keep us strong and steadfast in our continuing work.

Donate Read more

$13,501

$400,000

**GNU** Operating System
Supported by the Free Software Foundation

Site navigation **Skip**

- ABOUT GNU
- PHILOSOPHY
- LICENSES
- EDUCATION
- SOFTWARE
- DISTROS
- DOCS
- MALWARE
- HELP GNU
- AUDIO & VIDEO
- GNU ART
- FUN
- GNU'S WHO?
- SOFTWARE DIRECTORY
- HARDWARE
- SITEMAP

GNU is the only operating system developed specifically to give its users freedom. What is GNU, and what freedom is at stake?



Escape to Freedom: A video from the FSF

## 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 packages (programs 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.

Try GNU/Linux


Dragora / TDE


Guix / Plasma


Hyperbola / i3


Parabola / LXDE


PureOS / GNOME3


Trisquel / MATE

... or Try parts of GNU

## 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, change and improve the software.**

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

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

- The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and change 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 versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Developments in technology and network 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-like operating system. That means it is a collection of many programs: applications, libraries, developer tools, even games. The development of GNU, started in January 1984, is known as the GNU Project. Many of the programs in GNU are released under the auspices of the GNU Project; those we call GNU packages.

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

The program in a Unix-like system that allocates machine resources and talks 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 mistake.

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

More information

The GNU Project strongly urges the community to communicate in ways that are friendly, welcoming and kind. See the GNU Kind Communications Guidelines.

> *As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.*
> —Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

### Planet GNU

Introducing the Debian Libre Live Images: The Debian Libre Live Images allows you to run and install Debian GNU/Linux without non-free software. The gene...

GNU Health HIS server 5.0.3 patchset bundle released: Dear community I am happy to announce that the GNU Health Hospital Information System 5.0.3 patchset has been released! In addition to th...

GNUHealthCon 2025 - December 20th: The GNU Health Conference 2025 will take place December 20th, and it will be online! Join us and get the latest on Free Software in healthcare and social me...

### Take Action

- **Support current FSF campaigns**.
- Sign the petition for freedom in the classroom.
- Join the Copilot Watch Group.

More action items

**Can you help GNU with any of these projects?**

- GNU high priority enhancement projects
- Free program to subtract background music

**Can you contribute to any of the long-term high priority projects?**

**Can you help maintain a GNU package? These packages are looking for maintainers:**

- cfengine, halifax, quickthreads, guile-sdl, superopt.

Also, these packages are looking for co-maintainers:

- aspell, bison, gnuae, gnubik, metaexchange, powerguru.

See the package web pages for more information.

**Recent GNU releases**

**Short descriptions for all GNU packages**

Today's random package…

#### Librejs

LibreJS is an add-on for GNU Icecat and other Firefox-based browsers. It detects non-trivial and non-free JavaScript code from being loaded without your consent when you browse the web. JavaScript code that is free or trivial is allowed to be loaded. (doc)

* * *

**▲**

BACK TO TOP

Set language

Available for this page:

\[en\] English   \[de\] Deutsch   \[el\] ελληνικά   \[es\] español   \[fa\] فارسی   \[fr\] français   \[it\] italiano   \[ja\] 日本語   \[nl\] Nederlands   \[pt-br\] português   \[ru\] русский   \[sq\] Shqip   \[tr\] Türkçe   \[zh-cn\] 简体中文   \[zh-tw\] 繁體中文

* * *

BACK TO TOP ▲

>  **“The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom. We defend the rights of all software users.”**

JOIN DONATE SHOP

The FSF also has sister organizations in Europe, Latin America and India.
Feel free to join them!

Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <gnu@gnu.org>. There are also other ways to contact the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <webmasters@gnu.org>.

Please see the Translations README for information on coordinating and contributing translations of this article.

Copyright © 1996-2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Copyright Infringement Notification

Updated: $Date: 2025/09/30 07:47:45 $