catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  Free Software Foundation
       
           (FSF) An organisation devoted to the creation and
          dissemination of free software, i.e. software that is free
          from licensing fees or restrictions on use.  The Foundation's
          main work is supporting the GNU project, started by Richard
          Stallman (RMS), partly to proselytise for his position that
          information is community property and all software source
          should be shared.
       
          The GNU project has developed the GNU Emacs editor and a C
          compiler, gcc, replacements for many Unix utilities and many
          Unix-like+operating+system+({HURD" rel="nofollow">other tools.  A complete Unix-like operating system ({HURD)
          is in the works (April 1994).
       
          Software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General
          Public License, which also provides a good summary of the
          Foundation's goals and principles.  The Free Software
          Foundation raises most of its funds from distributing its
          software, although it is a charity rather than a company.
          Although the software is freely available (e.g. by FTP - see
          below) users are encouraged to support the work of the FSF by
          paying for their distribution service or by making donations.
       
          One of the slogans of the FSF is "Help stamp out software
          hoarding!"  This remains controversial because authors want to
          own, assign and sell the results of their labour.  However,
          many hackers who disagree with RMS have nevertheless
          cooperated to produce large amounts of high-quality software
          for free redistribution under the Free Software Foundation's
          imprimatur.
       
          See copyleft, General Public Virus, GNU archive site.
       
          ftp://ftp.gnu.ai.mit.edu)" rel="nofollow">(ftp://ftp.gnu.ai.mit.edu).
       
          Unofficial WWW pages: PDX
          http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/)" rel="nofollow">(http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/), DeLorie
          http://www.delorie.com/gnu/)" rel="nofollow">(http://www.delorie.com/gnu/).
       
          E-mail: .
       
          Address: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Massachusetts
          Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
       
          Telephone: +1 (617) 876 3296.
       
          (1995-12-10)
       
       

  Free Software Foundation /fɹˈiː sˈɒftweə faʊndˈeɪʃən/ (FSF /ˌɛfˌɛsˈɛf/)
  Organisation zur Förderung freier Software

  Free Software Foundation /fɹˈiː sˈɒftweə faʊndˈeɪʃən/
  Fundația pentru Software Liber