 thumb|180px|gnu mascot, by aurelio a. heckert (derived from a more detailed version by etienne suvasa) the gnu project  is a free software, mass collaboration project, announced on 27 september 1983, by richard stallman at mit. its aim is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and computing devices, by collaboratively developing and providing software that is based on the following freedom rights: users are free to run the software, share it (copy, distribute), study it and modify it. gnu software guarantees these freedom-rights legally (via its license), and is therefore free software; the use of the word "free" always being taken to refer to freedom. in order to ensure that the entire software of a computer grants its users all freedom rights (use, share, study, modify), even the most fundamental and important part, the operating system (including all its numerous utility programs), needed to be written. the founding goal of the project was, in the words of its initial announcement, to develop "a sufficient body of free software [...] to get along without any software that is not free." stallman decided to call this operating system gnu (a recursive acronym meaning "gnu's not unix"), basing its design on that of unix; however, in contrast to unix which was proprietary software, gnu was to be freedom-respecting software (free software) that users can use, share, study and modify. development was initiated in january, 1984. the goal of making a completely free software operating system was achieved in 1992 when the third-party linux kernel was released as free software, under version 2 of the gnu general public license, to be used with the gnu software stack. the project's current work includes software development, awareness building, political campaigning and sharing of the new material. == origins == richard
1983_establishments_in_the_United_States Copyleft_media Free_Software_Foundation GNU_Project