GNU

Example: "The developer installed a GNU operating system on his secondary computer."

GNU (a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix") is a Unix-like operating system that is available in several distributions. Most use the Linux kernel and are collectively called GNU/Linux operating systems. Some popular examples include gNewSense, Trisquel, and Venenux.

All GNU systems and programs are distributed as free software, without requiring a commercial license. Instead, they are made available under the GNU General Public License (or GPL), which states that the software may be freely used and distributed and the same rights must be passed on to other users. While the GNU General Public License was originally designed for GNU software, it is now used by many other free software programs as well.

Now when someone tells you about GNU, you can say you already "gnu" what it was.

Published: June 26, 2010