Editing Cygnus Solutions (section)

{{Short description|American software company}}
{{refimprove|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox company
| name          = Cygnus Solutions
| logo          = Cygnus-logo.svg
| fate          = Merged with [[Red Hat]]
| successor     = [[Red Hat]]
| foundation    = {{Start date and age|1989}}
| defunct       = {{Start date and age|2000}}
| location      = 
| industry      = [[software|Computer software]]
| key_people    = [[John Gilmore (activist)|John Gilmore]], [[Michael Tiemann]], and David Henkel-Wallace
| products      = Compilers, debuggers, development tools, [[eCos]], [[Cygwin]]
| num_employees = 
}}
'''Cygnus Solutions''', originally '''Cygnus Support''', was founded in 1989 by [[John Gilmore (activist)|John Gilmore]], [[Michael Tiemann]] and David Henkel-Wallace to provide commercial support for [[free software]]. Its tagline was: ''Making free software affordable''.

For years, employees of Cygnus Solutions were the maintainers of several key [[GNU]] software products, including the [[GNU Debugger]] and [[GNU Binutils]] (which included the [[GNU Assembler]] and [[GNU Linker|Linker]]).  It was also a major contributor to the [[GNU Compiler Collection|GCC]] project and drove the change in the project's management from having a single gatekeeper to having an independent committee.  Cygnus developed [[Binary File Descriptor library|BFD]], and used it to help port GNU to many architectures, in a number of cases working under [[Non-disclosure agreement|non-disclosure]] to produce tools used for initial bringup of [[software]] for a new chip design.

Cygnus was also the original developer of [[Cygwin]], a [[POSIX]] layer and the [[GNU]] toolkit port to the [[Microsoft Windows]] [[operating system]] family, and of [[eCos]], an embedded [[real-time operating system]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=A brief history of the Cygwin project|url=https://www.cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/brief-history.html|access-date=2021-04-14|website=www.cygwin.com|archive-date=2021-05-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508135245/https://www.cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/brief-history.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the 2001 documentary film ''[[Revolution OS]]'', Tiemann indicates that the name "Cygnus" was chosen from among several names that incorporated the acronym "GNU" such as "magnum", "wingnut", and "lugnut". According to [[Stan Kelly-Bootle]], it was recursively defined as ''Cygnus, your GNU Support''.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/farewell-devils-advocate/240167145
| title=Farewell, Devil's Advocate
| first=Andrew
| last=Binstock
| date=2014-04-22
| publisher=[[Dr. Dobb's Journal]]
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052803/http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/farewell-devils-advocate/240167145
| archive-date=2016-03-04
| url-status=dead
| access-date=2019-08-18}} (NB. The article refers to and cites from [[Stan Kelly-Bootle]]'s original article "FAQs of Life" in the "Devil's Advocate" column of [[UNIX Review]], July 1994, where CYGNUS is recursively defined as "Cygnus, your GNU Support".)</ref>

On November 15, 1999, Cygnus Solutions announced its merger with [[Red Hat]], and it ceased to exist as a separate company in early 2000.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/press-cygnusacquisition|title=Red Hat To Acquire Cygnus and Create Global Open Source Powerhouse|date=November 15, 1999|publisher=[[Red Hat]]|access-date=2019-08-18|archive-date=2017-02-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223132116/https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/press-cygnusacquisition|url-status=live}}</ref> {{As of|2007}}, a number of Cygnus employees continue to work for Red Hat, including Tiemann, who serves as Red Hat's Vice President of Open Source Affairs, and formerly served as [[Chief technology officer|CTO]].{{Update inline|reason=outdated, uses present tense, and Tiemann hasn't been with RH since 2022 according to his Linkedin profile|date=March 2024}}