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31-740: Work on MiNT began in 1989, as the developer Eric Smith was trying to port the GNU library and related utilities on the Atari ST TOS. It soon became much easier to add a Unix-like layer to the TOS, than to patch all of the GNU software, and MiNT began as a TOS extension to help in porting. MiNT was originally released by Eric Smith as "MiNT is Not TOS" (a recursive acronym in the style of "GNU's Not Unix") in May 1990. The new Kernel got traction, with people contributing

62-506: A GNU layer on top (i.e. Linux with GNU), because the kernel can operate a machine without GNU, is a matter of ongoing debate. The FSF maintains that an operating system built using the Linux kernel and GNU tools and utilities should be considered a variant of GNU , and promotes the term GNU/Linux for such systems (leading to the GNU/Linux naming controversy ). This view is not exclusive to

93-712: A non-GNU kernel . (See below.) The original kernel of GNU Project is the GNU Hurd (together with the GNU Mach microkernel), which was the original focus of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). With the April 30, 2015 release of the Debian GNU/Hurd 2015 distro, GNU now provides all required components to assemble an operating system that users can install and use on a computer. However,

124-622: A port of the MINIX file system and a port to the Atari TT . At the same time, Atari was looking to enhance the TOS with multitasking abilities. MiNT could fulfill the job, and Atari hired Eric Smith. MiNT was adopted as an official alternative kernel with the release of the Atari Falcon , slightly altering the MiNT acronym into "MiNT is Now TOS". Atari bundled MiNT with a multitasking version of

155-709: A program called UniPress, over a controversy around software code use in the GNU Emacs program. For most of the 80s, each GNU package had its own license: the Emacs General Public License, the GCC General Public License, etc. In 1989, FSF published a single license they could use for all their software, and which could be used by non-GNU projects: the GNU General Public License (GPL). This license

186-615: A public mailing list., which is maintained on SourceForge, after an earlier (2014) move from AtariForge, where it was maintained for almost 20 years. FreeMiNT provides only a kernel, so several distributions support MiNT, like VanillaMint, EasyMint, STMint, and BeeKey/BeePi. Although FreeMiNT can use the graphical user interface of the TOS (the Graphics Environment Manager GEM and the Application Environment Services or AES), it

217-409: A total of 467 GNU packages (including decommissioned, 394 excluding) hosted on the official GNU development site. In its original meaning , and one still common in hardware engineering, the operating system is a basic set of functions to control the hardware and manage things like task scheduling and system calls . In modern terminology used by software developers, the collection of these functions

248-519: A way to familiarize more people with these concepts, and to find more support in form of work, money, programs and hardware. The GNU Manifesto possessed its name and full written form in 1985 but was updated in minor ways in 1987. The GNU Manifesto opens with an explanation of what the GNU Project is, and what is the current, at the time, progress in creation of the GNU operating system . The system, although based on, and compatible with Unix,

279-524: Is a way to divide users, who are no longer able to help each other. Stallman refuses to write proprietary software as a sign of solidarity with them. The author provides many reasons for why the project and software freedom is beneficial to users, although he agrees that its wide adoption will make the work of programmers less profitable. A large part of the GNU Manifesto is focused on rebutting possible objections to GNU Project's goals. They include

310-494: Is better served with an enhanced AES which can use its multi-tasking abilities. The default one is currently XaAES , which is developed as a FreeMiNT kernel module. The older N.AES also works, however the modern alternative is MyAES. GNU GNU ( / ɡ n uː / ) is an extensive collection of free software (394 packages as of June 2024 ), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of

341-459: Is meant by the author to have many improvements over it, which are listed in detail in the manifesto. One of the major driving points behind the GNU project, according to Stallman, was the rapid (at the time) trend toward Unix and its various components becoming proprietary (i.e. closed-source and non-libre) software. The manifesto lays a philosophical basis for launching the project, and importance of bringing it to fruition — proprietary software

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372-489: Is now used by most of GNU software, as well as a large number of free software programs that are not part of the GNU Project; it also historically has been the most commonly used free software license (though recently challenged by the MIT license ). It gives all recipients of a program the right to run, copy, modify and distribute it, while forbidding them from imposing further restrictions on any copies they distribute. This idea

403-812: Is often referred to as copyleft . In 1991, the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), then known as the Library General Public License, was written for the GNU C Library to allow it to be linked with proprietary software. 1991 also saw the release of version 2 of the GNU GPL. The GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), for documentation, followed in 2000. The GPL and LGPL were revised to version 3 in 2007, adding clauses to protect users against hardware restrictions that prevent users from running modified software on their own devices. Besides GNU's packages,

434-432: Is usually referred to as a kernel , while an 'operating system' is expected to have a more extensive set of programs. The GNU project maintains two kernels itself, allowing the creation of pure GNU operating systems, but the GNU toolchain is also used with non-GNU kernels. Due to the two different definitions of the term 'operating system', there is an ongoing debate concerning the naming of distributions of GNU packages with

465-498: The GNU free computer operating system . The GNU Manifesto was published in March 1985 in Dr. Dobb's Journal of Software Tools . It is held in high regard within the free software movement as a fundamental philosophical source. The full text is included with GNU software such as Emacs , and is publicly available. Some parts of the GNU Manifesto began as an announcement of

496-487: The Graphics Environment Manager (GEM) under the name MultiTOS as a floppy disk based installer. After Atari left the computer market, MiNT development continued as FreeMiNT, and became maintained by a team of volunteers. FreeMiNT development follows a classic open-source approach, with the source code hosted on a publicly browsable FreeMiNT Git repository on GitHub and development discussed in

527-578: The FSF. Notably, Debian , one of the biggest and oldest Linux distributions, refers to itself as Debian GNU/Linux . The GNU Project recommends that contributors assign the copyright for GNU packages to the Free Software Foundation, though the Free Software Foundation considers it acceptable to release small changes to an existing project to the public domain . However, this is not required; package maintainers may retain copyright to

558-405: The GNU Project posted by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983, in form of an email on Usenet newsgroups . The project's aim was to give computer users freedom and control over their computers by collaboratively developing and providing software that is based on Stallman's idea of software freedom (although the written definition had not existed until February 1986). The manifesto was written as

589-468: The GNU Project's licenses can and are used by many unrelated projects, such as the Linux kernel , often used with GNU software. A majority of free software such as the X Window System, is licensed under permissive free software licenses . The logo for GNU is a gnu head. Originally drawn by Etienne Suvasa, a bolder and simpler version designed by Aurelio Heckert is now preferred. It appears in GNU software and in printed and electronic documentation for

620-552: The GNU Project, and is also used in Free Software Foundation materials. There was also a modified version of the official logo. It was created by the Free Software Foundation in September 2013 in order to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the GNU Project . GNU Manifesto The GNU Manifesto is a call-to-action by Richard Stallman encouraging participation and support of the GNU Project 's goal in developing

651-569: The GNU packages they maintain, though since only the copyright holder may enforce the license used (such as the GNU GPL), the copyright holder in this case enforces it rather than the Free Software Foundation. For the development of needed software, Stallman wrote a license called the GNU General Public License (first called Emacs General Public License), with the goal to guarantee users freedom to share and change free software. Stallman wrote this license after his experience with James Gosling and

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682-508: The Hurd kernel is not yet considered production-ready but rather a base for further development and non-critical application usage. In 2012, a fork of the Linux kernel became officially part of the GNU Project in the form of Linux-libre , a variant of Linux with all proprietary components removed. The GNU Project has endorsed Linux-libre distributions, such as Trisquel , Parabola GNU/Linux-libre , PureOS and GNU Guix System . Because of

713-473: The Lab so that they could not claim ownership or interfere with distributing GNU components as free software. The goal was to bring a completely free software operating system into existence. Stallman wanted computer users to be free to study the source code of the software they use, share software with other people, modify the behavior of software, and publish their modified versions of the software. This philosophy

744-414: The completed GNU tools led to the family of operating systems popularly known as Linux . Most of GNU is licensed under the GNU Project 's own General Public License ( GPL ). GNU is also the project within which the free software concept originated. Richard Stallman , the founder of the project, views GNU as a "technical means to a social end". Relatedly, Lawrence Lessig states in his introduction to

775-416: The development status of Hurd, GNU is usually paired with other kernels such as Linux or FreeBSD . Whether the combination of GNU libraries with external kernels is a GNU operating system with a kernel (e.g. GNU with Linux), because the GNU collection renders the kernel into a usable operating system as understood in modern software development, or whether the kernel is an operating system unto itself with

806-564: The exception of the aforementioned third-party components, most of GNU has been written by volunteers; some in their spare time, some paid by companies, educational institutions, and other non-profit organizations. In October 1985, Stallman set up the Free Software Foundation (FSF). In the late 1980s and 1990s, the FSF hired software developers to write the software needed for GNU. As GNU gained prominence, interested businesses began contributing to development or selling GNU software and technical support. The most prominent and successful of these

837-437: The name by using various plays on words, including the song The Gnu . Development of the GNU operating system was initiated by Richard Stallman while he worked at MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory . It was called the GNU Project, and was publicly announced on September 27, 1983, on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups by Stallman. Software development began on January 5, 1984, when Stallman quit his job at

868-404: The second edition of Stallman's book Free Software, Free Society that in it Stallman has written about "the social aspects of software and how Free Software can create community and social justice". GNU is a recursive acronym for " GNU 's Not Unix!", chosen because GNU's design is Unix-like , but differs from Unix by being free software and containing no Unix code. Stallman chose

899-564: The time, Unix was already a popular proprietary operating system. The design of Unix was modular, so it could be reimplemented piece by piece. Much of the needed software had to be written from scratch, but existing compatible third-party free software components were also used such as the TeX typesetting system, the X Window System , and the Mach microkernel that forms the basis of the GNU Mach core of GNU Hurd (the official kernel of GNU). With

930-942: Was Cygnus Solutions , now part of Red Hat . The system's basic components include the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), the GNU C library (glibc), and GNU Core Utilities (coreutils), but also the GNU Debugger (GDB), GNU Binary Utilities (binutils), and the GNU Bash shell. GNU developers have contributed to Linux ports of GNU applications and utilities, which are now also widely used on other operating systems such as BSD variants, Solaris and macOS . Many GNU programs have been ported to other operating systems, including proprietary platforms such as Microsoft Windows and macOS. GNU programs have been shown to be more reliable than their proprietary Unix counterparts. As of June 2024 , there are

961-610: Was published as the GNU Manifesto in March 1985. Richard Stallman's experience with the Incompatible Timesharing System (ITS), an early operating system written in assembly language that became obsolete due to discontinuation of PDP-10 , the computer architecture for which ITS was written, led to a decision that a portable system was necessary. It was thus decided that the development would be started using C and Lisp as system programming languages, and that GNU would be compatible with Unix. At

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