Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

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
        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)}.
     
        Unofficial WWW pages: {PDX
        (http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/)}, {DeLorie
        (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)