GNU is an operating system which is 100% free software. It was launched in 1983 by Richard Stallman (rms) and has been developed by many people working together for the sake of freedom of all software users to control their computing. Technically, GNU is generally like Unix. But unlike Unix, GNU gives its users freedom.
The GNU system contains all of the official GNU software packages (which are listed below), and also includes non-GNU free software, notably TeX and the X Window System. Also, the GNU system is not a single static set of programs; users and distributors may select different packages according to their needs and desires. The result is still a variant of the GNU system.
If you’re looking for a whole system to install, see our list of GNU/Linux distributions which are entirely free software.
To look for individual free software packages, both GNU and non-GNU, please see the Free Software Directory: a categorized, searchable database of free software. The Directory is actively maintained by the Free Software Foundation and includes links to program home pages where available, as well as entries for all GNU packages. Another list of all GNU packages is below. Free software documentation links are listed separately.
Finally, we have a short list of free software for Microsoft Windows, for Windows users who would like to try free software.
We have also published a list of recommended educational software.
How to get GNU software
Download distributions
GNU and Linux
If you’re looking for a whole system to install, see our list of GNU/Linux distributions which are entirely free software.
GNU software is available by several different methods:
- Download a wholly free GNU/Linux distribution.
- Get a copy from a friend.
- Buy a computer with a wholly free GNU/Linux system preinstalled from one of the companies that offers this.
- Download individual packages from the web or via FTP: we provide source code for all GNU software as free software, and free of charge. (Please also make a donation to the FSF if you can, to help support the development of more free software.)
- Use the GNU Guix functional package manager to install and manage GNU package releases.
- Use the GNU GSRC collection to easily install the latest GNU package releases on their own, without conflicting with any system versions.
- Use the GNU PPA or GNUstep PPA (Personal Package Archive) on Trisquel, gNewSense, or related distros 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 site savannah.gnu.org. Some packages use other source repositories, or have none at all. Each package’s web pages should give the specifics.
