Chapter 2: The GNU Manifestoi I 31 2 The GNU Manife$to The GNU Manifesto was writte at the beginning of the GNU Project, to ask for participation and support. R r the first few years, it was updated in minor ways to accountfor developments,but now it seemsbest to leave it unchangedas mostpeople haveseen it. Since t t time, we have learned about certain common misunderstandingsthat different w rding could helpavoid, andfootnotes have been r- addedover the years to explain the e misunderstandings. It t, )e GNU, which stands for Gnu'~ ot Unix, is the name for the complete Unix- ot compatible software systemwhi~h I am writing so that I can give it away free to ~n everyonewho can use it.! StverW ther volunteers are helping me. Contributions of time, money,programs and equi ment are greatly needed. re So far we have an Emacs text ditor with Lisp for writing editor commands, U a source-leveldebugger, a yacc-co patible parser generator,a linker, and around 11, 35 utilities. A shell (command int rpreter) is nearly completed. A new portable optimizing C compiler has compile itself and may be releasedthis year. An initial kernel exists but many more feature are neededto emulateUnix. When the kernel and compiler are finished, it will be ossibleto distribute a GNU systemsuitable for program development.We will use TEX as our text formatter, but an nroff is being worked on. We will use the free, p able X window systemas well. After this we nd will add a portable CommonLisp, Empire game,a spreadsheet,and hundredsof Je- otherthings, plus on-line doc1limenttion. We hope to supply,eventually, everything ~lf, useful that normally comes with a nix system,and more. GNU will be able to run Unix p ograms, but will not be identical to Unix. We :at- will make all improvements that e convenient, based on our experience with for other operatingsystems. In particu ar, we plan to have longer file names,file ver- me sion numbers, a crashproof file sy tern, file name completion perhaps, terminal- ci -I I ea II!! The wording here was careless,The inte tion was that nobodywould haveto pay for permission .-~- to use the GNU system. But the words do not make this clear, and people often interpret them itly as saying that copies of GNU should a1 ays be distributed at little or no charge. That was never I' ,., the intent; later on, the manifesto menti ns the possibility of companiesproviding the service of m't (\i! f" distribution for a profit. SubsequentlyI h ve learnedto distinguish carefully between"free" in the i to I.!~ ~i: I senseof freedomand "free" in the sens of price. Free software is software that usershave the freedomto distribute and change. Someusers may obtain copies at no charge,while others pay L to obtain copies-and if the funds help upport improving the software,so much the better. The ~" '*;ir importantthing is that everyonewho has a copy has the freedomto cooperatewith others in using ~eo . it. I !. I ,'- f Originally written in 1984,this versiollis part of ree Software.Free Society: SelectedEssays of Richard M. Sta/l- [I R man,2002, GNU Press(http://www.gnupress.org ; ISBN 1-882114-98-1. f : Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is i permitted in any mediu , provided this notice is preserved le.1 32 Free Software, Frpe Society: SelectedEssays of Richard M. Stallman independent display support, nd perhaps eventually a Lisp-based window sys- tem through which severalLis programsand ordinary Unix programscan sharea screen. Both C and Lisp will e available as systemprogramming languages.We will try to supportuucP, MIT haosnet,and Internetprotocols for communication. GNU is aimed initially at m chines in the 68000/16000class with virtual mem- ory, becausethey are the easi st machinesto make it run on. The extra effort to make it run on smaller mac~i es will be left to someonewho wants to use it on them. To avoid horrible confusiqn, pleasepronounce the 'G' in the word 'GNU' when it is the nameof this project., Why I Must Write G~U I consider that the golden Ie requires that if I like a program I must share it with otherpeople who like it. S ftware sellers want to divide the usersand conquer them, making eachuser agree ot to sharewith others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this way. cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreementor a softwarelicense agreement. For years I worked within the Artificial Intelligence Lab to resist such endenciesand other inhospitalities, but eventually they had gone too far: I could ot remain in an institution where such things are done for me againstmy will. So that I can continue to use computerswithout dishonor, I have decided to put togethera sufficient body of fre softwareso that I will be able to get along without any software that is not free. I h ve resignedfrom the AI lab to deny MIT any legal excuseto preventme from givi g GNU away. Unix is not my ideal sYstem~ut it is not too bad. The essential features of Unix seem to be good ones, and I .nk I can fill in what Unix lacks without spoiling them. And a system compatib e with Unix would be convenient for many other people to adopt. I ~~~; How GNU Will Be Available GNU is not in the public dOE ain. Everyone will be permitted to modify and r~distribut~ GNU, but no ~istrib tor ~ill b.eallo,,:,ed to restrict its further redistribu- tion. That IS to say, propnetary modIficatIons wIll not be allowed. I want to make I"",\;11:MY?~i ...,,"'~, sure that all versions of GNU re ain free. ~tii":i;q: ~~!\'*~;,! .'-;I,~{t! ~ " !'I~ ~' ~ ,.IE I;;O ,~1(1'~ I have found many other pro~ ammers who are excited about GNU and want to help. !t}.~(; ~J Many programmersare unh ppy about the commercialization of system soft- Ware. It may enable them to ake more money, but it requires them to feel in 34 Once GNU is written, eve one will be able to obtain good system software free, just like air.3 c This means much more th just saving everyonethe price of a Unix license. i; It means that much wasteful duplication of system programming effort will be I, avoided. This effort can go in tead into advancingthe stateof the art. Complete systemsources ill be availableto everyone. As a result, a userwho needschanges in the system ill always be free to make them himself, or hire any available programmer or com any to make them for him. Users will no longer be at the mercy of one programm r or companywhich owns the sourcesand is in sole position to make changes. Schools will be able to pro ide a much more educational environment by en- couraging all studentsto stud and improve the systemcode. Harvard's computer lab used to have the policy th t no program could be installed on the systemif its sourceswere not on public d.splay, and upheld it by actually refusing to install certain programs. I was very uch inspired by this. Finally, the overheadof con idering who owns the systemsoftware and what one is or is not entitled to do with i will be lifted. Arrangementsto make peo Ie pay for using a program, including licensing of copies, always incur a tremen ous cost to society through the cumbersomemech- anisms necessaryto figure out how much (that is, which programs) a person must pay for. And only a police stat can force everyoneto obey them. Considera space station where air must be man factured at greatcost: charging each breatherper liter of air may be fair, but we .ng the meteredgas mask all day and all night is intolerable evenif everyonec afford to pay the air bill. And the TV camerasev- erywhere to seeif you ever tak the mask off are outrageous.It's better to support the air plant with a headtax an chuck the masks. Copying all or parts of a pro ram is as naturalto a programmeras breathing,and as productive. It ought to be as free. Some easily rebuttedobjecti ns to GNU's goals: "Nobody will use it if lit s free, because that means they can't rely on any support." "You have to chargefor programto pay for providing the support." If people would rather payor GNU plus service than get GNU free without service, a companyto provide ust service to people who have obtained GNU free ought to be profitable. We must distinguishbetwee supportin the fonn of real programming work and mere hand-holding. The fonn r is somethingone cannot rely on from a software vendor. If your problem is not hared by enoughpeople, the vendor will tell you to get lost. 3 This is anotherplace I failed to diS ~ngUiShcarefully betweenthe two different meaningsof "free." The statementas it standsis not f se-you can get copies of GNU software at no charge, from your friends or over the Internet. B t it does suggestthe wrong idea. ~ , Chapter2: The GNU Manifesto I'" 35 Ii .Ii ,,' 1).1 f' If your businessneeds to be able to rely on support, the only way is to have all II :",", the necessarysources and tools. Then ou can hire any availableperson to fix your :1" "'1I' Ii I problem; you are not at the mercy of individual. With Unix, the price of sources !1if, i puts this out of considerationfor most usinesses.With GNU this will be easy. It is still possible for there to be no availabl competentperson, but this problem cannot be blamed on distribution arrangemen .GNU does not eliminate all the world's problems, only some of them.