15-years-of-free-software.html (6600B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> 3 <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> 4 <!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays upholding fsmovement" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>15 Years of Free Software 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <meta http-equiv="Keywords" 9 content="GNU, FSF, Free Software Foundation, freedom, Richard Stallman, rms, free software movement" /> 10 <meta http-equiv="Description" 11 content="Richard Stallman discusses the history of the movement to develop a free operating system." /> 12 13 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/15-years-of-free-software.translist" --> 14 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 15 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> 16 <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> 17 <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> 18 <div class="article reduced-width"> 19 20 <h2>15 Years of Free Software</h2> 21 22 <address class="byline">by Richard Stallman</address> 23 24 <p> 25 It is now just over 15 years since the beginning of the Free 26 Software Movement and the GNU Project. We have come a long way. 27 </p> 28 29 <p> 30 In 1984, it was impossible to use a modern computer without 31 installing a proprietary operating system, which you would have to 32 obtain under a restrictive license. No one was allowed to share 33 software freely with fellow computer users, and hardly anyone could 34 change software to fit his or her own needs. The owners of software 35 had erected walls to divide us from each other. 36 </p> 37 38 <p> 39 The GNU Project was founded to change all that. Its first goal: to 40 develop a Unix-compatible portable operating system that would be 41 100% free software. Not 95% free, not 99.5%, but 100%—so that 42 users would be free to redistribute the whole system, and free to 43 change and contribute to any part of it. The name of the system, 44 GNU, is a recursive acronym meaning “GNU's Not 45 Unix”—a way of paying tribute to the technical ideas of 46 Unix, while at the same 47 time saying that GNU is something different. Technically, GNU is 48 like Unix. But unlike Unix, GNU gives its users freedom. 49 </p> 50 51 <p> 52 It took many years of work, by hundreds of programmers, to develop 53 this operating system. Some were paid by the Free Software 54 Foundation and by free software companies; most were volunteers. A 55 few have become famous; most are known mainly within their 56 profession, by other hackers who use or work on their code. All 57 together have helped to liberate the potential of the computer 58 network for all humanity. 59 </p> 60 61 <p> 62 In 1991, the last major essential component of a Unix-like system 63 was developed: Linux, the free kernel written by Linus 64 Torvalds. Today, the combination of GNU and Linux is used by 65 millions of people around the world, and its popularity is 66 growing. This month, we announced release 1.0 of 67 <abbr title="GNU Network Object Model Environment">GNOME</abbr>, 68 the GNU graphical desktop, which we hope will make the GNU/Linux 69 system as easy to use as any other operating system. 70 </p> 71 72 <p> 73 But our freedom is not permanently assured. The world does not stand 74 still, and we cannot count on having freedom five years from now, 75 just because we have it today. Free software faces difficult 76 challenges and dangers. It will take determined efforts to preserve 77 our freedom, just as it took to obtain freedom in the first 78 place. Meanwhile, the operating system is just the 79 beginning—now we need to add free applications to handle the 80 whole range of jobs that users want to do. 81 </p> 82 83 <p> 84 In future columns, I will be writing about the specific challenges 85 facing the free software community, and other issues affecting 86 freedom for computer users, as well as developments affecting the 87 GNU/Linux operating system. 88 </p> 89 </div> 90 91 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 92 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 93 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 94 <div class="unprintable"> 95 96 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 97 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 98 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 99 the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent 100 to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 101 102 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 103 replace it with the translation of these two: 104 105 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 106 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 107 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 108 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 109 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 110 111 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 112 our web pages, see <a 113 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 114 README</a>. --> 115 Please see the <a 116 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 117 README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations 118 of this article.</p> 119 </div> 120 121 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 122 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 123 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 124 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 125 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 126 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 127 document was modified, or published. 128 129 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 130 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 131 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 132 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 133 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 134 135 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 136 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 137 138 <p>Copyright © 1999, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> 139 140 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 141 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 142 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 143 144 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 145 146 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 147 <!-- timestamp start --> 148 $Date: 2021/09/05 07:59:44 $ 149 <!-- timestamp end --> 150 </p> 151 </div> 152 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 153 </body> 154 </html>