Editing GNU Project (section)

== Strategic projects ==

{{see also|Free Software Foundation#High priority projects|GNU toolchain}}

From the mid-1990s onward, with many companies investing in free software development, the [[Free Software Foundation]] redirected its funds toward the legal and political support of free software development. Software development from that point on focused on maintaining existing projects, and starting new projects only when there was an acute threat to the [[free software community]]. One of the most notable projects of the GNU Project is the [[GNU Compiler Collection]], whose components have been adopted as the standard compiler system on many [[Unix-like]] systems.

The copyright of most works by the GNU Project is owned by the Free Software Foundation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Moglen |first=Eben |title=Why the FSF Gets Copyright Assignments from Contributors |url=https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.html |url-status=live |website=gnu project |access-date=2023-05-11 |archive-date=2023-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230511200705/http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.html }}</ref>

=== GNOME ===
The [[GNOME]] desktop effort was launched by the GNU Project because another desktop system, [[KDE]], was becoming popular, but required users to install [[Qt (toolkit)|Qt]], which was then [[proprietary software]]. To prevent people from being tempted to install KDE and Qt, the GNU Project simultaneously launched two projects. One was the [[Harmony toolkit]]. This was an attempt to make a free software replacement for Qt. Had this project been successful, the perceived problem with the KDE would have been solved. The second project was GNOME, which tackled the same issue from a different angle. It aimed to make a replacement for KDE that had no dependencies on proprietary software. The Harmony project did not make much progress, but GNOME developed very well. Eventually, the proprietary component that KDE depended on ([[Qt (toolkit)|Qt]]) was released as free software.<ref>{{cite web |author=Stallman |first=Richard |date=September 5, 2000 |title=Stallman on Qt, the GPL, KDE, and GNOME |url=https://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/stallman-on-qt-the-gpl-kde-and-gnome/ |access-date=2005-09-09 |publisher=Linux Today |archive-date=2012-04-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419013021/http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-09-05-001-21-OP-LF-KE |url-status=live }}</ref> GNOME has since dissociated itself from the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation, and is now independently managed by the [[GNOME Project]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

=== {{anchor | GNU Enterprise}}GNU Enterprise ===

'''GNU Enterprise''' ('''GNUe''') was a meta-project started in 1996,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gnuenterprise.org:80/community/history.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116060106/http://www.gnuenterprise.org/community/history.php|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-01-16|title=GNU Enterprise Project History – GNU Enterprise|date=2013-01-16|access-date=2019-02-18}}</ref> and can be regarded as a sub-project of the GNU Project. GNUe's goal is to create [[free software|free]] "enterprise-class data-aware applications" ([[enterprise resource planner]]s, etc.). GNUe is designed to collect Enterprise software for the GNU system in a single location (much like the GNOME project collects Desktop software), it was later decommissioned.<ref>{{Cite web |title=GNU Enterprise Homepage |url=https://www.gnu.org/software/gnue/}}</ref>