[en] Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the GNU project

Sab Sep 27 06:40:46 UTC 2008

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the GNU project

Few people had access to computers back when Richard Matthew Stallman
realized the then-nascent software industry was adopting a business
model based on denying software users their four essential freedoms,
and that he could do something about it.  Today, millions of people,
businesses and governments run the result of the efforts to preserve
and defend their freedoms he started 25 years ago, but few even know
about the GNU project.  Let's celebrate the accomplishments, and
spread the word!
http://www.gnu.org/

On Sept 27, 1983, RMS announced to the world his goal of writing a
Free UNIX-compatible operating system, i.e., one that wouldn't demand
users to give up their freedoms to run, study, modify and distribute
any software, modified or not.  He invited programmers to join him in
this task of developing a sufficiently large body of software to
enable people to use computers in freedom, and in accordance with the
moral foundations of sharing, solidarity and reciprocity.
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/initial-announcement.html
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

After the initial focus on development tools such as a compiler, a
debugger, an integrated development environment and a system library
(GCC, GDB, Emacs and glibc, respectively), hundreds of other
applications, utilities and libraries were contributed by a growing
army of volunteers.
http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/

Most of these programs were released under the GNU GPL, a license that
not only respects users' freedoms, granting enough permissions to
counter copyright's anti-social default provisions, but that also
defends the freedoms, introducing copyleft as a means to use the
remaining power of copyright to keep the software Free for all its
users.
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
http://www.fsf.org/news/gplv3_launched

Almost 8.5 years after the initial announcement, a kernel designed to
work with the GNU operating system was released as Free Software,
under the GNU GPL, providing the missing piece to form a completely
Free operating system.
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/Historic/old-versions/RELNOTES-0.01
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/Historic/old-versions/RELNOTES-0.12

Other major accomplishments followed, such as the image processor
GIMP, the GUI toolkit GTK, the desktop environment GNOME, the
educational suite GCompris, the browser GNUZilla IceCat, the Java
library and interpreter, GNU Classpath, and GCJ, the GNU Compiler for
Java, the Flash player Gnash, the GNUstep framework, the DotGNU
runtime, the accounting program GNU Cash, the boot loader GRUB, and
the software forge Savannah, among too many others to mention by name.
http://savannah.gnu.org/

Ever since the combination of the operating system GNU with the kernel
Linux became usable, people and businesses started publishing
distributions that could be installed on bare hardware.  Such
distributions run today on servers, workstations, desktops, laptops,
mainframes, ATMs, phones, media players and recorders, routers,
automobiles, aircraft, and all sorts of computers.

Alas, although distributions have always contained, far more than
anything else, GNU system libraries, operating system utilities, tools
and applications, i.e., the GNU operating system, they have most often
been named after Linux.  As a result, most GNU users don't realize
they are running the operating system created to restore and preserve
their freedom.  In fact, most aren't even aware of this purpose, and
of the ethical and moral principles and the philosophy behind it.

Indeed, nearly all GNU+Linux distributions, and even Linux itself,
have been contaminated with software that does not respect users' four
essential freedoms, denying most users of the GNU operating system the
realization of its purpose.  However, the GNU project maintains a list
of distributions committed to offering their users only Free Software.
http://www.gnu.org/links/links.html
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html

UTUTO XS was the first to take this stand.  gNewSense (based on one of
the most popular .deb-package distributions) was the first to ship a
cleaned-up, Free version of the kernel Linux.  BLAG Linux and GNU
(based on one of the most popular .rpm-package distributions) evolved
this effort into Linux-libre, a project adopted by FSFLA to maintain
Free versions of Linux, in use by several GNU + Linux-libre
distributions and by individual users pursuing freedom.
http://www.ututo.org/
http://www.gnewsense.org/
http://www.blagblagblag.org/
http://www.fsfla.org/be-free/linux-libre/

There is still a long way to go to achieve freedom for all software
users.  However, more than developing more Free Software, the current
priorities are spreading awareness of software freedom issues, and
encouraging users to value their freedoms and demand respect for them.
It is in this spirit that FSFLA launched the campaign “Be Free!”
http://www.fsfla.org/be-free/

Let us all celebrate a quarter century of the GNU project and of work
for freedom, and help more people realize why the software they run
was developed, and why it is so important that they pursue freedom,
for their own sake and for that of all the community.
http://www.gnu.org/fry/happy-birthday-to-gnu.html

May every day be a software freedom day.  Be Free!
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/
http://www.fsfla.org/

== About Free Software Foundation Latin America

FSFLA joined in 2005 the FSF network, previously formed by Free
Software Foundations in the United States, in Europe and in India.
These sister organizations work in their corresponding geographies
towards promoting the same Free Software ideals and defending the same
freedoms for software users and developers, working locally but
cooperating globally.  For more information about FSFLA and to
contribute to our work, visit our web site at http://www.fsfla.org or
write to info en fsfla.org.

Copyright 2008 FSFLA

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http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/anuncio/2008-09-gnu-25