What Does GNU Mean?
GNU is a Unix-compatible operating system developed by the GNU project, which was started in 1983 by Richard Stallman with the goal of producing nonproprietary software. As such, users may download, modify and redistribute GNU software.
GNU is a recursive acronym for GNU’s Not Unix!
Techopedia Explains GNU
GNU has a Unix-like design, but it is available as free software and does not contain any Unix code. GNU is comprised of a collection of software applications, libraries and developer tools, along with a program to allocate resources and communicate with the hardware, or kernel. GNU can be used with other kernels and is often used with a Linux kernel. A GNU/Linux combination is the GNU/Linux operating system. The main components of a GNU system include the following:
- GNU compiler collection
- GNU C library
- GNU Emacs text editor
- GNOME desktop environment
GNU programs can be ported to a multitude of other operating systems, including different platforms such as Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. GNU is sometimes installed on Unix systems as a replacement for proprietary utilities.
