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GNU ( Pronounced ) is a Free Software Operating System consisting of a Kernel , Libraries , System Tools , Compiler s and many end-user Applications . Its name is a Recursive Acronym for "'''G'''NU's '''N'''ot '''U'''nix ", which was chosen because its design is Unix-like , but it contains no actual UNIX code. The plan for the GNU operating system was announced in September 1983 by Richard Stallman and software development work began in January 1984. This work continues to this day (2006). The project to develop GNU is known as the '' GNU Project '', and programs released under the auspices of the GNU Project are called '' GNU Packages '' or ''GNU programs''. A central part of GNU is the HURD Kernel which is not yet finished (but it works for developers). The systems basic components includes the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), the GNU Binutils and the Bash shell. For now it is used with third-party Xorg for Graphical User Interface . It also includes many applications (not all of them run on the GNU system yet as of 2006). As of 2006, a complete GNU system has not been released. However, many components that are more completed in GNU have been combined with the third-party , Rpm , Emerge etc... Such combinations forms operating systems that are now commonly known as '' Linux '' (after the kernel) (see GNU/Linux Naming Debate ). Many GNU programs have also been ported to numerous other operating systems souch as Windows , BSD , Solaris and Mac OS . The GNU General Public License (GPL) and the GNU Free Documentation License (GPDL) was written for GNU, but are also used for many unrelated projects. History The GNU project was announced publicly on . The goal was to bring a wholly free software operating system into existence. Stallman wanted computer users to be free, as most were in the 1960s and 1970s; free to study the source code of the software they use, free to modify the behaviour of the software, and free to publish their modified versions of the software. This philosophy was published in March 1985 as The GNU Manifesto . The majority of the software needed had to be written from scratch, but when compatible free software components already existed, they were used. Two examples were the TeX typesetting system, and the X Window System . Most of GNU has been written by volunteers; some in their spare time, some paid by other companies. In October 1985, Stallman set up the Free Software Foundation (FSF). In the mid- and late-80s, FSF hired software developers to write the software needed for GNU. At its peak it had 15 people on its staff. FSF also holds the copyrights for some GNU software packages. Most GNU packages are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), while a few use the GNU Lesser General Public License (GNU LGPL), and a still smaller amount use other Free Software Licenses . So that it would be convenient for people to switch to GNU, it was decided that GNU would be mostly compatible with Unix , which was a popular Proprietary operating system at the time. The design of Unix had proven to be solid, and it was modular, so it could be reimplemented piece by piece. As GNU gained prominence, interested businesses began contributing to development or selling GNU software and technical support. The most prominent and successful of these was Cygnus Solutions , now part of Red Hat . Licensing In order to ensure that GNU software remains free, the project released the first version of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) in 1989 . This license is now used by most GNU programs, as well as a large number of free software programs that are not part of the GNU project; it is the most commonly used Free Software License in the world. It gives all recipients of a program the right to run, copy, modify and distribute it, while forbidding them from imposing further restrictions on any copies they distribute. This idea is referred to as Copyleft . Design and implementation The initial plan for GNU was to be mostly Unix-compatible, while adding enhancements where they were useful. The design of the kernel was GNU's largest departure from "traditional" Unix. GNU's kernel was to be a multi-server micro-kernel. The GNU Hurd runs on a Microkernel (currently Mach ) and consists of a set of programs called servers that offers the same functionality as the traditional Unix Kernel (or Linux ). GNU (using Hurd) can be tried using a Live CD . (See External Links ). By 1990 , the GNU system had an extensible Text Editor ( Emacs ), a very successful optimizing Compiler ( GCC ), and most of the core libraries and utilities of a standard Unix distribution. The main component still missing was the Kernel . In the GNU Manifesto, Stallman had mentioned that "an initial kernel exists but many more features are needed to emulate Unix." He was referring to TRIX , a remote procedure call kernel developed at MIT, whose authors had decided to distribute for free, and was compatible with Version 7 Unix . In December 1986 , work had started on modifying this kernel. However, the developers eventually decided it was unusable as a starting point, primarily because it only ran on "an obscure, expensive 68000 box" and would therefore have to be Ported to other architectures before it could be used. By 1988 , the Mach message-passing kernel being developed at Carnegie Mellon University was being considered instead, although its release as free software was delayed till 1990 while its developers worked to remove code owned by AT&T . Since the Mach microkernel, by design, provided just the low-level kernel functionality, the GNU Project had to develop the higher-level parts of the kernel, as a collection of user programs. Initially, this collection was to be called Alix, but developer Michael Bushnell later preferred the name Hurd , so the Alix name was moved to a subsystem and eventually dropped completely. Eventually, development of the Hurd stalled due to technical reasons and personality conflicts. GNU/Hurd refers to the GNU OS distribution that uses GNU Hurd as its core. GNU Hurd is the set of programs or services running on top of a microkernel (GNU currently uses the GNU Mach microkernel, but efforts to port Hurd to the L4 Microkernel are currently ongoing). The "GNU" in GNU Hurd indicates that it is a part of the GNU Project , while "GNU/Hurd" distinguishes it as one of the two currently available GNU systems--that is, Linux-based GNU systems (or "GNU/Linux") as opposed to Hurd-based GNU systems (or "GNU/Hurd"). Just "GNU" refers to GNU/Hurd or a Hurd-based GNU system. "GNU/Linux" is pronounced "GNU-slash-Linux", or more often, just "GNU Linux". However, the FSF contests that "GNU Linux", by the rules of the English language, refers to a distribution of the kernel Linux by the GNU project or GNU project's version of it; "GNU/Linux", they say, makes it clear that a person is referring to the combination of the kernel Linux and the GNU userland binaries, forming a complete GNU OS. Linus Torvalds , original author of the kernel, does not approve of the term "GNU/Linux"; he prefers "GNU Linux" if the GNU project "wants its own distribution." In 1991 , Linus Torvalds wrote the Unix-compatible Linux kernel. Although it was not originally free software, Torvalds changed the license to the GNU GPL in 1992 . Linux was further developed by various programmers over the Internet . In 1992, it was combined with the GNU system, resulting in a fully functional free Operating System . The GNU system is most commonly encountered in this form, usually referred to as a " GNU/Linux system" or a " Linux Distribution ". As Of 2005 , Hurd is in slow development, and is now the official kernel of the GNU system. There is also a project working on porting the GNU system to the kernels of FreeBSD and NetBSD . GNU software See Also: List of GNU packages Prominent components of the GNU system include the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), the GNU C Library (glibc), the GNU Emacs Text Editor , and the GNOME graphical desktop. Many GNU programs have been ported to other operating systems and are often installed on compliant. With the popularity of GNU/Linux systems, many developers install the GNU toolset on other systems for compatibility or to capture uniform behavior across platforms. Many GNU programs have also been ported to Microsoft Windows , Mac OS X , and various other proprietary platforms, however, this is often a hot topic among enthusiasts, as the motive for developing these programs was to replace those systems with free software, not to enhance them. A list of packages that are well known in the free software community includes:
The GNU project also distributes and assists with the development of other packages which originated elsewhere, e.g.:
As Of January 2005 , there are a total of 288 GNU packages hosted on the GNU hosting site {Link without Title} . Others are hosted elsewhere. Distributions of GNU
Distributions of GNU using Linux kernel See Also: GNU/Linux This is by far the most popular variant of GNU. There are over 300 distributions based on GNU with the Linux Kernel . Some of the most widely used are: A complete list can be found at Distrowatch.com
Distributions of GNU using Solaris kernel See also
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