GNU ToolsGNU Tools are programs written for GNU's Not UNIX!. The ultimate goal of GNU's Not UNIX creators is to provide a computer programmer or user with a fully integrated software system that is meant to be fully compatible with the UNIX operating system.
GNU Tools refers to many different programs masterminded by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The goal of the FSF is to supply the public with a fully operational system that can be freely copied and modified by any user. While the software is not completely free , it is close to it. (I found a compact disc with over 200 tools for less than $45.00.)Users who purchase GNU Tools from retailers pay only for the distribution fees: a user never pays licensing fees to the FSF. Besides being inexpensive, GNU comes without the strict copyright rules imposed by most commercial software providers. In fact, the FSF provides the source code with the programs, and even encourages users to make modifications as needed.
Many users who do not know how to program can get the same benefits from expensive commercial programs that they would using GNU Tools, and buying a pre-packaged product complete with a manual can be easier to work with than an alpha or beta version of a GNU Tool. Those who do use many of the GNU Tools do so because they're inexpensive, and because the users want to share in Richard Stallman's (the creator of the FSF) vision of a universe with computer programs free from copyright and modification restrictions.
GNU Tools are not copyrighted. Instead, they have been copylefted. This means that they are not in the public domain, as being in the public domain would allow users to download binary versions of programs and sell them. The copyleft principle prevents this from happening. "A copyleft is a legal instrument that makes everybody free to copy a program as long as the person getting the copy gets with it the freedom to distribute further copies, and the freedom to modify their own copy (which means that they must have access to the source code). Typical software companies use copyrights to take away these freedoms; now software sharers use copylefts to preserve these freedoms. " (FSF). Copyleft is a combination of the FSF's copyright notice and the "GNU General Public License"
GNU Tools run the gamut from debuggers and program language compilers to a very popular UNIX text editor called EMACS. The programmers at the Free Software Foundation are currently working on an operating system called HURD (Herd of Unix-Replacing Daemons). Like Unix, HURD will be a multitasking, multi-user, high-level operating system. While HURD is not yet even at the alpha release stage, many of the other GNU Tools are already in use. The following is a very brief listing of some of the most popular GNU Tools:
While FSF's relatively few employees spend their time developing new software, commercial organizations are making money supporting what they create. The best example of this is the corporation Cygnus Support. Cygnus currently provides GNU software support to many large corporations. It should be noted, however, that FSF and support organizations such as Cygnus have very different agendas. FSF is in the business of revolutionizing the way software is distributed. Organizations such as Cygnus actually help FSF achieve its goal by bringing the software to a clientele that might otherwise not use it.