GNU란 무엇인가?

GNU is an operating system that is free software—that is, it respects users' freedom. The development of GNU made it possible to use a computer without software that would trample your freedom.

We recommend installable versions of GNU (more precisely, GNU/Linux distributions) which are entirely free software. More about GNU below.

What is the Free Software Movement?

The free software movement campaigns to win for the users of computing the freedom that comes from free software. Free software puts its users in control of their own computing. Non-free software puts its users under the power of the software's developer. See the video explanation.

자유 소프트웨어란 무엇인가?

Free software means the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.

Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free beer”.

More precisely, free software means users of a program have the four essential freedoms:

• (첫번째 자유) 프로그램을 원하 어떠한 목적으로도 실행할 수 있는 자유.
• (두번째 자유) 프로그램이 어떻게 동작하는지 학습하고, 자신의 필요에 맞게 개작할 수 있는 자유. 이것을 위해서는 소스 코드에 대한 접근이 전제되어야 합니다.
• (세번째 자유) 이웃을 도울 수 있도록 복제물을 재배포할 수 있는 자유.
• (네번째 자유) 프로그램을 개선시킬 수 있는 자유와 개선된 이점을 공동체 전체가 누릴 수 있게 그것을 발표할 자유. 이를 위해서는 역시 소스 코드에 대한 접근이 전제되어야 합니다.

Developments in technology and network use have made these freedoms even more important now than they were in 1983.

Nowadays the free software movement goes far beyond developing the GNU system. See the Free Software Foundation's web site for more about what we do, and a list of ways you can help.

More about GNU

GNU is a Unix-like operating system. That means it is a collection of many programs: applications, libraries, developer tools, even games. The development of GNU, started in January 1984, is known as the GNU Project. Many of the programs in GNU are released under the auspices of the GNU Project; those we call GNU packages.

The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix.” “GNU” is pronounced g'noo, as one syllable, like saying “grew” but replacing the r with n.

The program in a Unix-like system that allocates machine resources and talks to the hardware is called the “kernel”. GNU is typically used with a kernel called Linux. This combination is the GNU/Linux operating system. GNU/Linux is used by millions, though many call it “Linux” by mistake.

GNU's own kernel, The Hurd, was started in 1990 (before Linux was started). Volunteers continue developing the Hurd because it is an interesting technical project.

More information.