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The GNU Manifesto is a call-to-action by Richard Stallman encouraging participation and support of the GNU Project's goal in developing the GNU free computer operating system. The GNU Manifesto was published in March 1985 in Dr. Dobb's Journal. It is held in high regard within the free software movement as a fundamental philosophical source.

The full text is included with GNU software such as Emacs, and is publicly available.

Background

Some parts of the GNU Manifesto began as an announcement of the GNU Project posted by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983, in form of an email on Usenet newsgroups. The project's aim was to give computer users freedom and control over their computers by collaboratively developing and providing software that is based on Stallman's idea of software freedom (although the written definition did not exist until February 1986). The manifesto was written to familiarize more people with these concepts, and to find more support in the form of work, funding, programs and hardware.

The GNU Manifesto was published with its title and full written form in 1985 but was updated slightly in 1987.

The manifesto lays a philosophical basis for launching the project, and importance of bringing it to fruition — proprietary software is a way to divide users, who are no longer able to help each other. Stallman refuses to write proprietary software as a sign of solidarity with them.

The author provides many reasons for why the project and software freedom is beneficial to users, although he agrees that its wide adoption will make the work of programmers less profitable.

A large part of the GNU Manifesto is focused on rebutting possible objections to GNU Project's goals. They include the programmer's need to make a living, the issue of advertising and distributing free software, and the perceived need of a profit incentive.

Inspired by GNU Manifesto

Throughout history, the GNU Manifesto has inspired various other UNIX-related manifestos. Based on it, 10 years later, a popular magazine Linux Focus released its manifesto. 20 years later, a popular illustrations publisher has published their Linux developer manifesto.

See also

  • History of free and open-source software

References

  • GNU Manifesto