GNU Software
GNUis 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 theofficial 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 ourlist of GNU/Linux distributions whichare entirely free software.
To look for individual free software packages, both GNU and non-GNU,please see theFree SoftwareDirectory: a categorized, searchable database of free software. TheDirectory is actively maintained by theFree Software Foundationand includeslinks to program home pages where available, as well as entries forall GNU packages. Anotherlist ofall GNU packagesis below.Free software documentation linksare listedseparately.
Finally, we havea short list of free software replacementsfor proprietary softwarerunning on various proprietary systems.
We have also published alist of recommended educational software.
How to get GNU software
GNU software is available by several different methods:
- Download awholly freeGNU/Linux distribution.
- Get a copy from a friend.
- Buy a computer with a wholly free GNU/Linux system preinstalledfromone of the companiesthatoffers this.
- Download individual packages from the webor via FTP: we provide source code for all GNU software asfree software, and free of charge.(Please also make adonationto the FSFif you can, to help support the development of more free software.)
- Use theGNU Guixfunctionalpackage manager to install and manage GNU package releases.
- Use theGNU GSRCcollection toeasily install the latest GNU package releases on their own, withoutconflicting with any system versions.
- Use theGNUPPA (Personal Package Archive) on Trisquel, gNewSense, 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 ofhigh-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 theGNU help wantedpage.
If you're writing a new program and would like to make yoursoftware an official GNU package, seetheevaluation information andsubmission form. Refer totheethical repositorycriteriafor guidance choosing a hosting service for yourproject.
If you're maintaining or developing a GNU package, whether newlydubbed or of long standing, this short list oftips for GNU maintainersmaybe useful, along with this information aboutGNU 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:
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):