Software - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (2024)

GNU Software

GNU is an operating system which is100% free software. It was launched in 1983 by Richard Stallman (rms)and has been developed by many people working together for the sake offreedom of all software users to control their computing. Technically,GNU is generally like Unix. But unlike Unix, GNU gives its usersfreedom.

The GNU system contains all of the official GNU softwarepackages (which are listed below), and also includes non-GNU freesoftware, notably TeX and the X Window System. Also, the GNU system isnot a single static set of programs; users and distributors may selectdifferent packages according to their needs and desires. The result isstill a variant of the GNU system.

If you're looking for a whole system to install, see our list of GNU/Linux distributions whichare entirely free software.

To look for individual free software packages, both GNU and non-GNU,please see the Free SoftwareDirectory: a categorized, searchable database of free software. TheDirectory is actively maintained by the Free Software Foundation and includeslinks to program home pages where available, as well as entries for all GNU packages. Anotherlist of all GNU packages is below. Free software documentation links are listedseparately.

Finally, we have a short list of free software replacements for proprietary softwarerunning on various proprietary systems.

We have also published a list of recommended educational software.

How to get GNU software

GNU software is available by several different methods:

• Download a wholly freeGNU/Linux distribution.
• Get a copy from a friend.
• Buy a computer with a wholly free GNU/Linux system preinstalledfrom one of the companies thatoffers this.
• Download individual packages from the webor via FTP: we provide source code for all GNU software as free software, and free of charge.(Please also make a donation to the FSFif you can, to help support the development of more free software.)
• Use the GNU Guix functionalpackage manager to install and manage GNU package releases.
• Use the GNU GSRC collection toeasily install the latest GNU package releases on their own, withoutconflicting with any system versions.
• Use theGNUPPA (Personal Package Archive) on Trisquel or relateddistros to get the latest releases suitably packaged.
• Get the development sources for a package and build them.Many GNU packages keep their development sources at the GNU hosting sitesavannah.gnu.org. Some packagesuse other source repositories, or have none at all. Each package's webpages should give the specifics.

Develop GNU software

The FSF maintains a list of high-priority freesoftware projects; please help with these projects if you can. Forother ways to contribute to GNU, including reviving unmaintained GNUpackages and helping with development, see the GNU help wanted page.

If you're writing a new program and would like to make your software an official GNU package, see the evaluation information and submission form. Refer to the ethical repository criteria for guidance choosing a hosting service for your project.

If you're maintaining or developing a GNU package, whether newlydubbed or of long standing, this short list of tips for GNU maintainers maybe useful, along with this information about GNU software developer resources.

All GNU packages

Links to the home pages of all current GNU packages are givenbelow, using their identifiers (rather than long names) for brevity.They are sorted alphabetically from left to right. If you havecorrections to this list or questions about it, please email <maintainers@gnu.org>.

Also available are lists of:

• short descriptions for all GNU packages;
• documentation for GNU packages (arranged by category);
• GNU package logos; and
• recent GNU releases.

Decommissioned GNU packages

GNU packages are occasionally decommissioned, generally becausethey've been superseded by, or integrated into, other packages. Ifyou have time and interest in resurrecting any of these, pleasecontact <maintainers@gnu.org>. Hereis the list; we leave the old project pages up (when they existed):