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8 - The GNU project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2010

Fadi P. Deek  and
James A. M. McHugh
Fadi P. Deek
Affiliation:
New Jersey Institute of Technology
James A. M. McHugh
Affiliation:
New Jersey Institute of Technology
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Summary

The Open Source Initiative represents the formalization of one stream of the free and open software movement. We have described its establishment in 1998 by Raymond and Perens, and Peterson's coinage of the term open source as an alternative to what was thought to be the more ideologically laden phrase free software. Of course, ever since the mid-1980s, the other distinct stream of the movement represented by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the GNU project had already been active. The FSF and Richard Stallman initiated the free software concept, defined its terms, vigorously and boldly publicized its motivations and objectives, established and implemented the core GNU project, and led advocacy and compliance for the free software movement. They have been instrumental in its burgeoning success. We have already discussed the FSF's General Public License (GPL) in Chapter 6. This chapter describes the origin and technical objectives of the GNU project that represents one of the major technical triumphs of the free software movement. We also elaborate on some of the responsibilities, activities, and philosophical principles of the FSF, particularly as expressed by FSF General Counsel Eben Moglen.

The GNU project

The GNU project was founded to create a self-contained free software platform. The project was begun in 1983 by Stallman. It had an ambitious and arguably almost utopian vision. The acronym GNU stands for “GNU's Not Unix,” a kind of recursive acronym that was popular at MIT where Stallman worked.

Type
Chapter
Information
Open Source
Technology and Policy
 , pp. 297 - 308
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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References

Stallman, R. (1985/2005). The GNU Manifesto. Dr. Dobb's Journal of Software Tools, 10(3). Also: http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html. Accessed January 5, 2007.Google Scholar
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Stallman, R. (2002b). Free Software Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman. Edited by J. Gay, The GNU Press, http://www.gnu.org, Free Software Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts. Accessed June 21, 2007.
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Moglen, E. (1999). Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of Copyright. First Monday, 4(8). http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_8/moglen/index.html. Accessed January 5, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moglen, E. (2001). Enforcing the GNU GPL. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/enforcing-gpl.html. Accessed December 20, 2006.Google Scholar
Moglen, E. (2003a). The dotCommunist Manifesto. http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/publications/dcm.html. Accessed December 1, 2006.Google Scholar
Moglen, E. (2003b). Freeing the Mind: Free Software and the Death of Proprietary Culture. June 29, 15 pp. http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/publications/maine-speech.html. Accessed December 20, 2006.Google Scholar
Parris, D. C. (2005). Penguin in the Pew. Lulu.com, Morrisville, NC.Google Scholar
Stallman, R. (1997/2006). Why There Are No GIF Files on GNU Web Pages. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html. Accessed January 5, 2007. Most recent copyright is 2006.Google Scholar
Stallman, R. (1985/2005). The GNU Manifesto. http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html. Accessed January 5, 2007.Google Scholar
Stallman, R. and Moglen, E. (2005). GPL Version 3: Background to Adoption. http://www.fsf.org/news/gpl3.html. Accessed January 5, 2007.Google Scholar

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