The GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project, announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman. Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified Mass collaboration is a form of Collective action that occurs when large numbers of people work independently on a single project often modular in its nature Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16 1953 often abbreviated " rms " is an American software freedom activist It initiated the GNU operating system, software development for which began in January 1984. GNU ( pronounced) is a computer Operating system composed entirely of Free software. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination The founding goal of the project was, in the words of its initial announcement, to develop "a sufficient body of free software [. . . ] to get along without any software that is not free. "[1]
To make this happen, the GNU Project began working on an operating system called GNU. GNU ( pronounced) is a computer Operating system composed entirely of Free software. GNU is a recursive acronym that stands for "GNU's Not Unix". A recursive acronym (or occasionally recursive initialism, and sometimes recursive backronym) is an Abbreviation that refers to itself in the With the Linux kernel being released under the GNU General Public License in 1992, the GNU project no longer relied on any proprietary software to run. Linux is an operating system kernel used by a family of Unix-like Operating systems These are popularly termed Linux operating systems and
Current work of the GNU Project includes software development, awareness building, and political campaigning.
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Philosophy and activism
Although most of the GNU Project's output is technical in nature, it was launched as a social, ethical, and political initiative. The free software movement (also known as open source movement, free and open source software movement and abbreviated FSM OSM or FOSSM) is a relatively As well as producing software and licenses, the GNU Project has published a large number of philosophical writings, the majority of which were authored by Richard Stallman. Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16 1953 often abbreviated " rms " is an American software freedom activist
Operating system development
The first goal of the GNU project was to make a whole free software operating system exist. Aiming at this target, project collaborators started writing an operating system. The goal was achieved in 1992 without the GNU Project having had to completely finish their planned operating system. A third-party kernel, called Linux, filled the last gap, so a whole free software operating system was finished without the FSF having to finish the kernel it was working on, GNU Hurd. Linux was developed from gcc and other gnu programming tools. [2] Without the gnu programming tools, free software developers would have to pay the cost of using expensive commercially developed tools and the resulting operating system may have been constrained by patent and/or copyright issues; at the very least, the operating system and its maintainer would be subject to the whims of a commercial software vendor.
Strategic projects
From the mid-1990s onward, with many companies investing in free software development, the Free Software Foundation redirected its funds toward the legal and political support of free software development. The Free Software Foundation ( FSF) is a Non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the Free software movement Software development from that point on focused on maintaining existing projects, and starting new projects only when there was an acute threat to the free software community; see High Priority Free Software Projects. The free software community is an informal term referring to the users and developers of Free software as well as supporters of the Free software movement. The Free Software Foundation ( FSF) is a Non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the Free software movement
GNOME
One example is the GNOME desktop. A gnome is a Mythical creature characterized by its extremely small size and subterranean lifestyle This development effort was launched by the GNU Project because another desktop system, KDE, was becoming popular but required users to install certain proprietary software. KDE ( K Desktop Environment) (ˌkeɪdiːˈiː is a Free software project which aims to be a powerful system for an easy-to-use Desktop environment. Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. To prevent people from being tempted to install that proprietary software, the GNU Project simultaneously launched two projects. One was the Harmony toolkit. The Harmony toolkit is a never-completed Free software Widget toolkit that aimed to be API compatible with the then- proprietary Qt This was an attempt to make a free software replacement for the proprietary software that KDE depended on. If this project was successful, the problem with KDE would be gone. The second project was GNOME, which tackled the same issue from a different angle. It aimed to make a replacement for KDE, one which didn't have any dependencies on proprietary software. The Harmony project didn't make much progress, but GNOME developed very well. Eventually, the proprietary component that KDE depended on (Qt) was released as free software. Qt (pronounced "cute" by its creators is a Cross-platform application development framework widely used for the development of GUI programs (in which [3]
Gnash
Another example is Gnash. The Gnash project aims to create a free player and Browser plugin for the Adobe Flash file format and replace the Proprietary software niche Gnash is software to play animations which are distributed in the Adobe Flash format. Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of Multimedia software created by Macromedia and currently This has been marked as a priority project by GNU because it was seen that many people were installing a free software operating system and using a free software web-browser, but were then also installing the proprietary software plug-in from Adobe.
Recognition
See also
References
- ^ The GNU Manifesto. The USENIX Association is the Advanced Computing Technical Association The GNU Free Documentation License ( GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a Copyleft License for free documentation designed by the Free Software The Free Software Foundation ( FSF) is a Non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the Free software movement Free Software Foundation (2007-07-21). The Free Software Foundation ( FSF) is a Non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the Free software movement Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 356 BC - Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World Retrieved on 2007-11-10. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1444 - Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Vladislaus III of Varna (aka Ulaszlo I of Hungary and Wladyslaw
- ^ http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.minix/browse_thread/thread/76536d1fb451ac60/b813d52cbc5a044b
- ^ Richard Stallman (2000-09-05). 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Events 1590 - Alexander Farnese 's army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris. Stallman on Qt, the GPL, KDE, and GNOME. Retrieved on 2005-09-09. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1000 - Battle of Svolder, Viking Age. 1379 - Treaty of Neuberg, splitting the Austrian
- ^ USENIX Lifetime Achievement Award ("The Flame"). Retrieved on 2007-12-05. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 63 BC - Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations. “Awarded for the ubiquity, breadth, and quality of its freely available redistributable and modifiable software, which has enabled a generation of research and commercial development. ”
External links
- GNU Website
- The initial announcement
- The GNU philosophy pages
- The GNU Manifesto
- A detailed essay about the GNU Project
- The "GNU's bulletins", a discontinued newsletter containing much now-historical information
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