1983..

• Richard Stallman announced the GNU project
• Software development for the GNU operating system began in January 1984
• free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded in October 1985
• Definition of Free software - free as in free speech, not as in free beer.
• First version of GNU General Public License (GPL) to be updated to version 2 in 1991 and version 3 in 2007
• A set of GNU operating system components were completed by 1991, including GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
• GNU project's kernel, Hurd, failed to reach mature status, and is still not considered suitable for production environments