CINXE.COM

Philosophy of the GNU Project - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation

<!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link rel="author" href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org" /> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/graphics/gnu-head-mini.png" /> <meta name="ICBM" content="42.355469,-71.058627" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/layout.min.css" media="screen" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/print.min.css" media="print" /> <!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> <title>Philosophy of the GNU Project - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> <style type="text/css" media="print,screen"><!-- @media (min-width: 55em) { .table { display: table; } .left-column { display: table-cell; width: 65%; vertical-align: top; padding-right: 1em; } .right-column { padding: 1em 0 0 2em; } } --></style> <!-- begin translist file --> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="/philosophy/philosophy.html" hreflang="x-default" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="en" hreflang="en" href="/philosophy/philosophy.en.html" title="English" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="bg" hreflang="bg" href="/philosophy/philosophy.bg.html" title="български" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="ca" hreflang="ca" href="/philosophy/philosophy.ca.html" title="català" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="cs" hreflang="cs" href="/philosophy/philosophy.cs.html" title="čeština" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="da" hreflang="da" href="/philosophy/philosophy.da.html" title="dansk" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="de" hreflang="de" href="/philosophy/philosophy.de.html" title="Deutsch" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="el" hreflang="el" href="/philosophy/philosophy.el.html" title="ελληνικά" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="es" hreflang="es" href="/philosophy/philosophy.es.html" title="español" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" href="/philosophy/philosophy.fa.html" title="فارسی" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" href="/philosophy/philosophy.fr.html" title="français" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="hr" hreflang="hr" href="/philosophy/philosophy.hr.html" title="hrvatski" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="it" hreflang="it" href="/philosophy/philosophy.it.html" title="italiano" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" href="/philosophy/philosophy.ja.html" title="日本語" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" href="/philosophy/philosophy.nl.html" title="Nederlands" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="pl" hreflang="pl" href="/philosophy/philosophy.pl.html" title="polski" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="pt-br" hreflang="pt-br" href="/philosophy/philosophy.pt-br.html" title="português" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="ro" hreflang="ro" href="/philosophy/philosophy.ro.html" title="română" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" href="/philosophy/philosophy.ru.html" title="русский" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="sq" hreflang="sq" href="/philosophy/philosophy.sq.html" title="Shqip" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="sr" hreflang="sr" href="/philosophy/philosophy.sr.html" title="српски" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="tr" hreflang="tr" href="/philosophy/philosophy.tr.html" title="Türkçe" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="zh-cn" hreflang="zh-cn" href="/philosophy/philosophy.zh-cn.html" title="简体中文" /> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" lang="zh-tw" hreflang="zh-tw" href="/philosophy/philosophy.zh-tw.html" title="繁體中文" /> <!-- end translist file --> <!-- start of server/banner.html --> <!-- start of head-include-2.html --> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/server/banners/fundraiser.css" media="screen" /> <style type="text/css" media="screen"><!-- .progress-bar { width: 9%; } .percentage { text-align: left; left: 100%; padding-right: 1em; padding-left: .5em; } --></style> <style type="text/css" media="screen"> <!-- TRANSLATORS: Change direction to rtl if you translate the fundraiser and your script is right-to-left. --> #fundraiser { direction: ltr; } </style> <!-- end of head-include-2.html --> </head> <body> <div class="inner"> <!-- start of server/body-include-1.html --> <div id="top"> <p><a class="skip" href="#content"><b>Skip to main text</b></a></p> </div> <div id='fundraiser'> <div class="message"> <p class="headline"><b>Come build a better world with us!</b></p> <p><a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?mtm_campaign=fall24&amp;mtm_source=banner">Please don't scroll past this. We've been building a better world with free software since 1985. Today, we ask for your support. Only with your help can the FSF continue to be the cornerstone of a more just digital society! Donate to help us reach the goal of USD $400,000 by Dec 31.<span class="gnun-split"></span></a></p> <p class="button"><a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?mtm_campaign=fall24&amp;mtm_source=banner">Donate<span class="gnun-split"></span></a> </p> <div style="clear: both"></div> </div><!-- .message --> <div class="progress"> <div class="progress-bar"><span class="percentage">$37,394</span></div> <span class="goal">$400,000<span class="gnun-split"></span> </span> </div><!-- .progress --> </div><!-- #fundraiser --> <div style="clear: both"></div> <div id="header" role="banner"> <p id="gnu-banner"> <a href="/"> <img src="/graphics/heckert_gnu.transp.small.png" height="48" width="49" alt="&nbsp;[A GNU head]&nbsp;" /><strong>GNU</strong> <span class="hide">Operating System</span></a><br /> <small id="fsf-support">Supported by the <a href="#mission-statement">Free Software Foundation</a></small> </p> <div id="switches"> <div id="search-button" class="switch"> <a href="//www.gnu.org/cgi-bin/estseek.cgi"> <img id="search-icon" height="30" width="30" src="/graphics/icons/search.png" alt="&nbsp;[Search www.gnu.org]&nbsp;" /></a> </div> <div id="language-button" class="switch"> <a href="#language-container"> <img id="language-icon" height="30" width="37" src="/graphics/icons/translations.png" alt="&nbsp;[Other languages]&nbsp;" /></a> </div> </div><!-- #switches --> </div><!-- #header --> <!-- end of server/body-include-1.html --> <!-- start of server/body-include-2 --> <div style="clear: both"></div> <div id="navigation" role="navigation"> <a id="more-links" href="#navigation" title="More..."> <span>Site navigation</span></a> <a id="less-links" href="#content"><b>Skip</b></a> <ul> <li id="tabAboutGNU"><a href="/gnu/gnu.html">ABOUT&nbsp;GNU</a></li> <li id="tabPhilosophy" class="active"> <span class='no-display'>=</span> <a href="/philosophy/philosophy.html">PHILOSOPHY</a> <span class="gnun-split"></span> <span class='no-display'>=</span> </li> <li id="tabLicenses"><a href="/licenses/licenses.html">LICENSES</a></li> <li id="tabEducation"><a href="/education/education.html">EDUCATION</a></li> <li id="tabSoftware"><a href="/software/software.html">SOFTWARE</a></li> <li id="tabDistros"><a href="/distros/distros.html">DISTROS</a></li> <li id="tabDoc"><a href="/doc/doc.html">DOCS</a></li> <li id="tabMalware"><a href="/proprietary/proprietary.html">MALWARE</a></li> <li id="tabHelp"><a href="/help/help.html">HELP&nbsp;GNU</a></li> <li id="tabAV"><a href="/audio-video/audio-video.html">AUDIO&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;VIDEO</a></li> <li id="tabArt"><a href="/graphics/graphics.html">GNU&nbsp;ART</a></li> <li id="tabFun"><a href="/fun/humor.html">FUN</a></li> <li id="tabPeople"><a href="/people/people.html">GNU'S&nbsp;WHO?</a></li> <li><a href="//directory.fsf.org">SOFTWARE&nbsp;DIRECTORY</a></li> <li><a href="https://h-node.org/">HARDWARE</a></li> <li><a href="/server/sitemap.html">SITEMAP</a></li> </ul> <div style="clear: both"></div> </div><!-- /"navigation --> <!-- end of server/body-include-2 --> <div id="content" role="main"> <!-- end of server/banner.html --> <div role="navigation"> <ul id="edu-navigation"> <li><a href="/philosophy/essays-and-articles.html">Essays&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;articles</a></li> <li><a href="/philosophy/speeches-and-interviews.html">Speeches&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;interviews</a></li> <li><a href="/philosophy/third-party-ideas.html">Third&nbsp;party&nbsp;ideas</a></li> <li><a href="/philosophy/latest-articles.html">Latest&nbsp;articles</a></li> <li><a href="/audio-video/philosophy-recordings.html">Recordings</a></li> </ul> </div> <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> <h2>Philosophy of the GNU Project</h2> <div class="thin"></div> <div class="table"> <div class="left-column"> <p><em>Free software</em> means that the software's users have freedom. (The issue is not about price.) We developed the GNU operating system so that users can have freedom in their computing.</p> <p>Specifically, free software means users have the <a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">four essential freedoms</a>: (0) to run the program, (1) to study and change the program in source code form, (2) to redistribute exact copies, and (3) to distribute modified versions.</p> <p>Software differs from material objects&mdash;such as chairs, sandwiches, and gasoline&mdash;in that it can be copied and changed much more easily. These facilities are why software is useful; we believe a program's users should be free to take advantage of them, not solely its developer.</p> <div class="comment"> <p>The articles in the short list below give an overview of GNU philosophy. For further reading, please check the menu above, especially <b><a href="/philosophy/essays-and-articles.html">Essays &amp; Articles</a></b>, and <b><a href="/philosophy/speeches-and-interviews.html"> Speeches &amp; Interviews</a></b>.</p> </div> </div> <div class="right-column comment"> <hr class="no-display" /> <p class="announcement"> See the <a href="/audio-video/philosophy-recordings.html"> Audio&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Video section</a> for recordings of Richard Stallman's speeches.</p> <hr class="no-display" /> </div> </div> <h3 id="introduction">Introduction</h3> <div class="table"> <div class="left-column"> <ul> <li><a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">What is Free Software?</a></li> <li><a href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html"> Why we must insist on free software</a></li> <li><a href="/proprietary/proprietary.html"> Proprietary Software Is Often Malware</a></li> <li><a href="/gnu/gnu.html">History of GNU/Linux</a></li> <li><a href="/philosophy/pragmatic.html">Copyleft: Pragmatic Idealism</a></li> <li><a href="/philosophy/free-doc.html">Why Free Software Needs Free Documentation</a></li> <li><a href="/philosophy/selling.html">Selling Free Software</a> is OK!</li> <li><a href="/philosophy/fs-motives.html">Motives For Writing Free Software</a></li> <li><a href="/philosophy/right-to-read.html">The Right to Read: A Dystopian Short Story</a> by Richard Stallman</li> <li><a href="/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html">Why &ldquo;Open Source&rdquo; Misses the Point of Free Software</a></li> <li><a href="/philosophy/when-free-software-isnt-practically-superior.html">When Free Software Isn't (Practically) Superior</a></li> <li><a href="/philosophy/government-free-software.html">Measures Governments Can Use to Promote Free Software</a></li> <li><a href="/education/education.html">Free Software and Education</a></li> <li><a href="/philosophy/limit-patent-effect.html">Giving the Software Field Protection from Patents</a></li> </ul> </div> <!-- please leave both these ID attributes here. ... --> <!-- ... we removed this as an H$ section as it was duplicating the --> <!-- same information on links.html, but it's possible that some users --> <!-- have the URLs bookmarked or on their pages. -len --> <div id="TOCFreedomOrganizations" class="right-column comment"> <p id="FreedomOrganizations" class="announcement">We also keep a list of <a href="/links/links.html#FreedomOrganizations">Organizations that Work for Freedom in Computer Development and Electronic Communications</a>.</p> </div> </div> </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> <!-- begin server/footer-text.html --> <div style="clear:both"></div> <div id="language-container"> <div class="backtotop"> <hr class="no-display" /> <a href="#top"><b>&#9650;</b></a> </div> <div id="languages" class="rounded-corners"> <div class="button"> <a href="#top" class="close"><span>BACK TO TOP</span></a> </div> <div id="set-language" class="button"> <span class="gnun-split"></span> <a href="/server/select-language.html?callback=/philosophy/philosophy.html" rel="nofollow"> Set language <span class="gnun-split"></span> </a> </div> <p>Available for this page:</p> <div id="translations"> <p> <span dir="ltr" class="original">[en]&nbsp;<a lang="en" hreflang="en" href="/philosophy/philosophy.en.html">English</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[bg]&nbsp;<a lang="bg" hreflang="bg" href="/philosophy/philosophy.bg.html">български</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[ca]&nbsp;<a lang="ca" hreflang="ca" href="/philosophy/philosophy.ca.html">català</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[cs]&nbsp;<a lang="cs" hreflang="cs" href="/philosophy/philosophy.cs.html">čeština</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[da]&nbsp;<a lang="da" hreflang="da" href="/philosophy/philosophy.da.html">dansk</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[de]&nbsp;<a lang="de" hreflang="de" href="/philosophy/philosophy.de.html">Deutsch</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[el]&nbsp;<a lang="el" hreflang="el" href="/philosophy/philosophy.el.html">ελληνικά</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[es]&nbsp;<a lang="es" hreflang="es" href="/philosophy/philosophy.es.html">español</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[fa]&nbsp;<a lang="fa" hreflang="fa" href="/philosophy/philosophy.fa.html">فارسی</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[fr]&nbsp;<a lang="fr" hreflang="fr" href="/philosophy/philosophy.fr.html">français</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[hr]&nbsp;<a lang="hr" hreflang="hr" href="/philosophy/philosophy.hr.html">hrvatski</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[it]&nbsp;<a lang="it" hreflang="it" href="/philosophy/philosophy.it.html">italiano</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[ja]&nbsp;<a lang="ja" hreflang="ja" href="/philosophy/philosophy.ja.html">日本語</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[nl]&nbsp;<a lang="nl" hreflang="nl" href="/philosophy/philosophy.nl.html">Nederlands</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[pl]&nbsp;<a lang="pl" hreflang="pl" href="/philosophy/philosophy.pl.html">polski</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[pt-br]&nbsp;<a lang="pt-br" hreflang="pt-br" href="/philosophy/philosophy.pt-br.html">português</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[ro]&nbsp;<a lang="ro" hreflang="ro" href="/philosophy/philosophy.ro.html">română</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[ru]&nbsp;<a lang="ru" hreflang="ru" href="/philosophy/philosophy.ru.html">русский</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[sq]&nbsp;<a lang="sq" hreflang="sq" href="/philosophy/philosophy.sq.html">Shqip</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[sr]&nbsp;<a lang="sr" hreflang="sr" href="/philosophy/philosophy.sr.html">српски</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[tr]&nbsp;<a lang="tr" hreflang="tr" href="/philosophy/philosophy.tr.html">Türkçe</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[zh-cn]&nbsp;<a lang="zh-cn" hreflang="zh-cn" href="/philosophy/philosophy.zh-cn.html">简体中文</a> &nbsp;</span> <span dir="ltr">[zh-tw]&nbsp;<a lang="zh-tw" hreflang="zh-tw" href="/philosophy/philosophy.zh-tw.html">繁體中文</a> &nbsp;</span> </p> </div> </div> </div> <div id="mission-statement" role="complementary"> <div class="backtotop"> <hr class="no-display" /> <a href="#header"><span>BACK TO TOP </span>&#9650;</a> </div> <div style="clear: both"></div> <blockquote> <p style="direction:ltr; text-align:left"><a href="//www.fsf.org"><img id="fsfbanner" src="/graphics/fsf-logo-notext-small.png" alt="&nbsp;[FSF logo]&nbsp;" width="75" height="25" /></a><strong> &ldquo;The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom. We defend the rights of all software users.&rdquo;</strong></p> </blockquote> <div id="support-the-fsf" class="button"> <a class="join" href="//www.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom?referrer=4052">JOIN</a> <a class="donate" href="//donate.fsf.org/">DONATE</a> <a class="shop" href="//shop.fsf.org/">SHOP</a> </div> </div> <!-- end server/footer-text.html --> <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> <div class="unprintable"> <p>Please send general FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org">&lt;gnu@gnu.org&gt;</a>. There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org">&lt;webmasters@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p> <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, replace it with the translation of these two: We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> &lt;web-translators@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p> <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of our web pages, see <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a>. --> Please see the <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations of this article.</p> </div> <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the document was modified, or published. If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> <p>Copyright &copy; 2013, 2015-2018, 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p> <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> <!-- start of server/bottom-notes.html --> <div id="bottom-notes" class="unprintable"> <p><a href="//www.fsf.org/about/dmca-notice">Copyright Infringement Notification</a></p> <div id="generic"> </div> </div> <!-- end of server/bottom-notes.html --> <p class="unprintable">Updated: <!-- timestamp start --> $Date: 2022/10/20 10:06:39 $ <!-- timestamp end --> </p> </div> </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> </body> </html>

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10