GNU

:For the African animal gnu, see wildebeest.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

GNU is a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix". The GNU project was announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman with the goal of creating a complete UNIX-compatible operating system -- called the GNU system or simply GNU -- that is free software, meaning that users are allowed to copy, modify and redistribute it. The GNU project is now carried out under the auspices of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The correct pronunciation of GNU is g'noo (IPA: {{IPA|/gnu/}}), with a hard "g", to distinguish it from the word new and for humorous effect; some individuals pronounce it identically to "new", but this practice causes confusion. According to Stallman, the name was inspired by various plays on words, including the song I'm a gnu.

Related Topics:
Recursive acronym - 1983 - Richard Stallman - UNIX - Operating system - Free software - Free Software Foundation - IPA - I'm a gnu

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Developing the GNU system entailed writing many programs, known as GNU programs or GNU packages. These include the text editor Emacs, the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), the GNU Debugger (GDB), and the desktop GNOME.

Related Topics:
Text editor - Emacs - GNU Compiler Collection - GNU Debugger - GNOME

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The GNU system is normally used in combination with the kernel Linux, developed outside the GNU project. This combination forms a completely functional operating system, the GNU/Linux system, which is often referred to as "Linux". For details, see GNU/Linux naming controversy.

Related Topics:
Kernel - Linux - Operating system - GNU/Linux - Linux - GNU/Linux naming controversy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many GNU programs have been ported to other operating systems and are often installed on proprietary UNIX systems to replace the proprietary utilities. As well as giving users freedom, many of these GNU programs have been proven to be more reliable than their UNIX counterparts http://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/pub/paradyn/technical_papers/fuzz-revisited.ps. The reputation of GNU software is especially good for its software development tools, which are sometimes collectively called the GNU toolset. Making up but a small fraction of the GNU system as a whole, some people consider the toolset to be of superior quality to many of the equivalent UNIX versions, even if the GNU versions are not totally POSIX compliant. With the popularity of the GNU/Linux system, 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, the motive for developing these programs was to contribute to replacing those systems with free software, not to enhance them.

Related Topics:
UNIX - POSIX - Microsoft Windows - Mac OS X

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~