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<p class="netscape4">Richard Stallman announced in September 1983 the plan to develop a free software Unix-like operating system called GNU. GNU is the only operating system developed specifically for the sake of users' freedom.</p>

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      <h2>What is GNU?</h2>

<p>GNU is a Unix-like operating system that
is <a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">free software</a>&mdash;it
respects your freedom.  You can install
<a href="/distros/free-distros.html">Linux-based
versions of GNU</a> which are entirely free software.</p>

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<p>The <a href="/gnu/gnu.html">GNU Project</a> was launched in 1984 to
develop the GNU system.  The name &ldquo;GNU&rdquo; is a recursive
acronym for &ldquo;GNU's Not
Unix!&rdquo;.  <a href="/pronunciation/pronunciation.html"> "GNU" is
pronounced <em>g'noo</em></a>, as one syllable, like saying "grew" but
replacing the <em>r</em> with <em>n</em>.</p>

<p>A Unix-like operating system is a <a href="/software/">software
collection</a> of applications, libraries, and developer tools, plus a
program to allocate resources and talk to the hardware, known as a
kernel.</p>

<p><a href="/software/hurd/hurd.html">The Hurd, GNU's own kernel</a>,
is some way from being ready for daily use.  Thus, GNU is typically
used today with a kernel called Linux.  This combination is
the <a href="/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html"> <strong>GNU/Linux operating
system</strong></a>.  GNU/Linux is used by millions, though
many <a href="/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html"> call it "Linux" by
mistake</a>.</p>

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<p><a href='http://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=7488'>GNU Parallel 20130122 ('Jyoti Singh Pandey') released</a>: New in this release: --sshdelay Delay starting next ssh by secs seconds. GNU parallel will pause... <a href='http://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=7488'>more</a></p>
<p><a href='http://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=7484'>Texinfo 4.13.94 pretest</a>: A late pretest of the upcoming Texinfo 5.0 release is available. Testing would be greatly appreciated. Aside f... <a href='http://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=7484'>more</a></p>
<p><a href='http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/gnu-press-now-selling-gnu-linux-inside-stickers'>GNU Press now selling GNU/Linux Inside stickers!</a>: Your purchase now will help us reach our Winter fundraising goal of $350k by January 31st.By popular demand, we are now selling the GNU/Linux ... <a href='http://www.fsf.org/blogs/gnu-press/gnu-press-now-selling-gnu-linux-inside-stickers'>more</a></p>


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<h4>GNU Guile</h4>
<p><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/">GNU Guile</a> is the
official extension language for the GNU Operating System. Version 2.0
was released February 16, 2011 with a 
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/news.html">wealth of new 
features.</a> Its compiler infrastructure, libraries, and dynamic 
programming environment make it a great language to write applications in. 
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/community.html">Join the
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port applications to GNUstep so that we can make it a great experience
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is a matter of liberty, not price.  To understand the concept, you
should think of &ldquo;free&rdquo; as in &ldquo;free speech&rdquo;,
not as in &ldquo;free beer&rdquo;.</p>

<p><strong>Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run,
copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.</strong>  More
precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the
software:</p>

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<li>The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).</li>
<li>The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs
    (freedom 1).   Access to the source code is a precondition for this.</li>
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    (freedom 2).</li>
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and <a href="http://www.laquadrature.net/en/"> other abusive internet laws
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members</a> like <a href="http://fsf.org/jfb">you</a>.</li>

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<a href="http://www.savetheinternet.com" title="Net
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and <a href="http://www.neutrality.ca" title="Net neutrality in
Canada">in Canada</a>.</li>

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Priority Projects</a>?</strong> Gnash, coreboot, free distributions of
GNU/Linux, GNU Octave, drivers for network routers, reversible
debugging in GDB, automatic transcription, PowerVR drivers, and also
free software replacements for Skype, OpenDWG libraries, and Oracle
Forms.</p>

<p id="unmaint"><strong>Can you take over an <a
href="/server/takeaction.html#unmaint">unmaintained GNU
package</a>?</strong>
<span class="gnun-split"></span>
  <a href="/software/dr-geo/">dr-geo</a>,
  <a href="/software/gleem/">gleem</a>,
  <a href="/software/gnatsweb/">gnatsweb</a>,
  <a href="/software/halifax/">halifax</a>,
  <a href="/software/jwhois/">jwhois</a>,
  <a href="/software/metahtml/">metahtml</a>,
  <a href="/software/orgadoc/">orgadoc</a>,
  <a href="/software/pgccfd/">pgccfd</a>,
  <a href="/software/polyxmass/">polyxmass</a>,
  <a href="/software/rottlog/">rottlog</a>,
  <a href="/software/snakecharmer/">snakecharmer</a><span class="gnun-split"></span>,
are all <a href="/server/takeaction.html#unmaint">looking for
maintainers</a>.</p>

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