Mission

The Free Software Foundation (FSF), founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer user freedom. We defend user's rights to use, study, copy, modify, and distribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free software, particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software. The FSF maintains preeminent articles covering free software philosophy and maintains the Free Software Definition — to show clearly what must be true about a particular software program for it to be considered free software. Successful projects include GPL Version 3; the GPL Compliance Lab, campaigns like Defective by Design and the Right to Repair, as well as projects that include technical expertise and push freedom forward, like LibrePhone. Additionally, FSF is committed to furthering the development of the GNU Operating System, providing development systems for GNU software maintainers.