The GNU Operating System

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The GNU operating system is the Unix-like operating system, which is entirely free software, that we in the GNU Project have developed since 1984. The GNU system contains all of the official GNU software packages (which are listed below), and also includes much non-GNU free software, such as the X Window System. Also, the GNU system is not a single static set of programs; users and distributors may select different packages according to their needs and desires. The result is still a variant of the GNU system.

If you're looking for a whole system to install, see our list of GNU/Linux distributions which are entirely free software.

To look for individual free software packages, both GNU and non-GNU, please see the Free Software Directory: a categorized, searchable database of free software. The Directory is actively maintained by the Free Software Foundation and includes links to program home pages where available, as well as entries for all GNU packages. Another list of all GNU packages is below. Free software documentation links are listed separately.

We also maintain a list of high-priority free software projects. Please help with these projects if you can. For other ways to contribute to GNU, including taking over unmaintained GNU packages and helping with development, see the GNU help wanted page.

If you are developing a GNU package, or you are thinking of starting, you may be interested in GNU Software Developer Resources. If you'd like to make your software an official GNU package, see the evaluation information and submission form. For information on the licenses used for GNU software, and on other free software licenses, see our Licenses page.

Finally, we have a short list of free software for Microsoft Windows, for the Windows user who would like to try free software.

How to get GNU software

GNU software is available by several different methods:

• Download a wholly free GNU/Linux distribution.
• Buy a computer with a wholly free GNU/Linux system preinstalled from one of the companies that offers this.
• Download individual packages from the web or via FTP: we provide source code for all GNU software as free software, and free of charge. (Please also make a donation to the FSF, if you can, to help us write more free software.)
• Get a copy from a friend. (Likewise please make a donation if you can.)
• Use the GNU SRC package to easily install many of the latest GNU package releases on their own, without conflicting with any system versions.
• Use the GNU PPA or GNUstep PPA (Personal Package Archive) on Trisquel, gNewSense, or related distros to get the latest releases suitably packaged.
• Get the development sources for a package and build them, to help with development. Many GNU packages keep their development sources at the GNU hosting site savannah.gnu.org. Some packages use other source repositories, or have none at all. Each package's web pages should give the specifics.

All GNU packages

Here is a list of all current GNU packages, using their package identifiers (rather than long names) for brevity, and sorted alphabetically. If you have corrections to or questions about this list, please email <maintainers@gnu.org>.

There are also comprehensive lists of documentation for GNU packages (arranged by category), and GNU package logos.

3dldf  a2ps  acct  acm  adns  aetherspace  alive  anubis  archimedes  aris  aspell  auctex  autoconf  autoconf-archive  autogen  automake  avl  ballandpaddle  barcode  bash  bayonne  bazaar  bc  bfd  binutils  bison  bool  bpel2owfn  c-graph  ccaudio  ccide  ccrtp  ccscript  cflow  cgicc  chess  cim  classpath  classpathx  clisp  cobol  combine  commoncpp  complexity  config  coreutils  cpio  cppi  cssc  dap  dc  ddd  ddrescue  dejagnu  denemo  dia  dico  diction  diffutils  dionysus  dismal  djgpp  dmd  dominion  dotgnu  dotgnu-forum  dotgnu-pnet  dr-geo  ed  edma  electric  emacs  emacs-muse  emms  enscript  eprints  epsilon  fdisk  ferret  findutils  fontutils  freedink  freefont  freeipmi  freetalk  fribidi  gama  garpd  gawk  gcal  gcc  gcide  gcl  gcompris  gdb  gdbm  gengen  gengetopt  gettext  gforth  ggradebook  ghostscript  gift  gimp  gleem  glib  global  glpk  glue  gmediaserver  gmorph  gmp  gnash  gnat  gnats  gnatsweb  gnome  gnowsys  gnu-arch  gnu-c-manual  gnu-crypto  gnuae  gnubatch  gnubg  gnubiff  gnubik  gnucap  gnucash  gnucomm  gnue  gnufm  gnugo  gnuit  gnujdoc  gnujump  gnukart  gnulib  gnumach  gnumed  gnumeric  gnump3d  gnun  gnunet  gnupg  gnupod  gnuprologjava  gnuradio  gnurobots  gnuschool  gnushogi  gnuskies  gnusound  gnuspeech  gnuspool  gnustandards  gnustep  gnutls  gnutrition  gnuzilla  goptical  gorm  gpaint  gperf  gprolog  grabcomics  greg  grep  gretl  groff  grub  gsasl  gsegrafix  gsl  gsrc  gss  gtick  gtk+  gtypist  guile  guile-dbi  guile-gnome  guile-gtk  guile-ncurses  guile-rpc  gurgle  gv  gvpe  gxmessage  gzip  halifax  health  hello  help2man  hp2xx  httptunnel  hurd  hyperbole  icecat  idutils  ignuit  indent  inetutils  intlfonts  jacal  java-getopt  jdresolve  jel  jwhois  kawa  kopi  leg  less  libc  libcdio  libextractor  libffcall  libgcrypt  libiconv  libidn  libmatheval  libmicrohttpd  libredwg  librejs  libsigsegv  libtasn1  libtool  libunistring  libxmi  lightning  lilypond  linux-libre  liquidwar6  lispintro  lrzsz  lsh  m4  macchanger  mailman  mailutils  make  marst  maverik  mc  mcron  mcsim  mdk  mediagoblin  melting  metaexchange  metahtml  mifluz  mig  miscfiles  mit-scheme  moe  motti  mpc  mpfr  mtools  myserver  nana  nano  ncurses  nettle  network  ocrad  octave  oleo  orgadoc  osip  packaging  panorama  paperclips  parallel  parted  pascal  patch  paxutils  pcb  pdf  pem  pexec  pgccfd  phantom_home  phpgroupware  pies  pipo  plotutils  polyxmass  powerguru  proxyknife  pspp  psychosynth  pth  pythonwebkit  qexo  quickthreads  r  radius  rcs  readline  recutils  reftex  rottlog  rpge  rush  sather  scm  screen  sed  serveez  sharutils  shishi  shmm  shtool  sipwitch  slib  smalltalk  smarteiffel  snakecharmer  social  solfege  sourceinstall  spacechart  speex  spell  sqltutor  src-highlite  stalkerfs  stow  stump  superopt  swbis  sysutils  talkfilters  tar  termcap  termutils  teseq  teximpatient  texinfo  texmacs  thales  time  tramp  trans-coord  trueprint  units  unrtf  userv  uucp  vc-changelog  vc-dwim  vcdimager  vera  vmgen  vmslib  w3  wb  wdiff  websocket4j  webstump  wget  which  womb  xaos  xboard  xhippo  xlogmaster  xmlat  xnee  xorriso  zile 

Decommissioned GNU packages

GNU packages are occasionally decommissioned, generally because they've been superseded by, or integrated into, other packages. If you have time and interest in resurrecting any of these, please contact <maintainers@gnu.org>. Here is the list; we leave the old project pages up (when they existed): aeneas, aroundme, 3dkit, abcsh, awacs, cfs-el, checker, cons, dgs (display ghostscript), dld, dr.genius, elib, ffp, fhp, free (gnu.free), gcron (see mcron), gfe, ggv (see gv), gicqd, giptables, gnochive, gnotary, gnotepad+, gnubios, gnu-queue, gnucad, gnufi, gnupedia (see wikipedia), gnusql, gnustep-db, gnuts, goldwater, goodbye, goose, gphoto, graphics, grover, gtkeditor, gtkeyboard, guss, hegemonie, lengualibre, leonardo, libopts (see autogen), mana, messenger, mgcp, mll2html, obst, octal, p2c, patchwork, pips, poc, proto, rat, songanizer, sweater, sxml, toutdoux, webpublish, xbase, xinfo, xmhtml, zebra.