What is GNU?
GNU is a software project that was created by Richard Stallman. Richard’s goal was to create a operating system that anyone could use, modify, and share. The name “GNU” stands for “GNU’s not Unix”, GNU was designed to be like Unix, but without the limitations that come with proprietary licensing.
One of the key contributions of GNU is the concept of free software – not as in free beer, more like free speech. What this means to users is that they have the right to run, study, modify, and share software however they please.
The GNU project also introduced what’s known as the GNU General Public License(GPL), which guarantees software stays free for all users.
Many important tools were developed as part of the GNU Project, tools such as the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs. GNU didn’t have it’s own kernel. As a result, people often use GNU tools alongside the Linux Kernel. Which is why it’s commonly called GNU/Linux rather than just Linux.
GNU laid the foundation for free software and the free software movement and continues to play a major role in operating systems today.
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