(Free Software Foundation, Inc., Boston, MA) A non-profit organization founded in 1985 by Richard Stallman, dedicated to eliminating restrictions on copying and modifying programs by promoting the development and use of freely redistributable software. It oversees the development of software for its GNU computing environment and provides online and CD-ROM distribution of GNU and other programs. See
free software,
GNU Manifesto,
GNU,
GNU/Linux and
League for Programming Freedom.