GNU

GNU

Debian GNU/Hurd console startup and login
Developer	Community
Written in	Various (notably C and assembly language)
OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Current
Source model	Free software
Marketing target	Personal computers, mobile devices, embedded devices, servers, mainframes, supercomputers
Platforms	IA-32 (with Hurd kernel only) and Alpha, ARC, ARM, AVR32, Blackfin, C6x, ETRAX CRIS, FR-V, H8/300, Hexagon, Itanium, M32R, m68k, META, Microblaze, MIPS, MN103, OpenRISC, PA-RISC, PowerPC, s390, S+core, SuperH, SPARC, TILE64, Unicore32, x86, Xtensa (with Linux-libre kernel only)
Kernel type	Microkernel (GNU Hurd) or Monolithic kernel (GNU Linux-libre, fork of Linux)
Userland	GNU
License	GNU GPL, GNU LGPL, GNU AGPL, GNU FDL, GNU FSDG
Official website	gnu.org

GNU ⁱ/ɡnuː/ is an operating system and an extensive collection of computer software. GNU is composed wholly of free software, most of which is licensed under the GNU Project's own GPL.

GNU is a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix!", chosen because GNU's design is Unix-like, but differs from Unix by being free software and containing no Unix code. The GNU project includes an operating system kernel, GNU HURD, which was the original focus of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). However, non-GNU kernels, most famously Linux, can also be used with GNU software; and since the kernel is the least mature part of GNU, this is how it is usually used. The combination of GNU software and the Linux kernel is commonly known as Linux (or less frequently GNU/Linux; see GNU/Linux naming controversy).

Richard Stallman, the founder of the project, views GNU as a "technical means to a social end". Relatedly Lawrence Lessig states in his introduction to the 2nd edition of Stallman's book Free Software, Free Society that in it Stallman has written about "the social aspects of software and how Free Software can create community and social justice."