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gnu.md
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GNU (*"GNU is Not Unix"*, a [recursive](recursion.md) acronym) is a large project started by [Richard Stallman](rms.md), the inventor of [free (as in freedom) software](free_software.md), running since 1983 with the goal of creating a completely free (as in freedom) [operating system](os.md), along with other free [software](software.md) that computer users might need. The project doesn't tolerate any [proprietary](proprietary.md) software. The project achieved its goal of creating a complete operating system when a [kernel](kernel.md) named [Linux](linux.md) became part of it in the 90s as the last piece of the puzzle -- the system is now known as GNU/Linux. However, the GNU project didn't end and continues to further develop the operating system as well as a myriad of other software projects it hosts. GNU gave rise to the [Free Software Foundation](fsf.md) and is one of the most important software projects in history of computing.
The mascot of GNU is literally gnu (wildebeest).
The GNU/Linux operating system has several variants in a form of a few GNU approved "Linux" [ditributions](distro.md) such as [Guix](guix.md), [Trisquel](trisquel.md) or [Parabola](parabola.md). Most other "Linux" distros don't meet the strict standards of GNU such as not including any proprietary software. In fact the approved distros can't even use the standard version of [Linux](linux.md) because that contains proprietary [blobs](blob.md), a modified variant called [Linux-libre](linux_libre.md) has to be used.
GNU greatly prefers [GPL](gpl.md) [licenses](license.md), i.e. it strives for [copyleft](copyleft.md), even though it accepts even projects under permissive licenses. GNU also helps with enforcing these licenses legally and advises developers to transfer their [copyright](copyright.md) to GNU so that they can "defend" the software for them.