Editing GNU Project (section)

== Operating system development ==

[[File:HURD Live CD.png|thumb|GNU Hurd live CD]]
{{main|GNU}}

The first goal of the GNU Project was to create a whole free-software operating system. Because UNIX was already widespread and ran on more powerful machines, compared to contemporary [[CP/M]] or [[MS-DOS]] machines of time,<ref>{{cite web
 | url = https://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull1.txt
 | title = GNU's Bulletin Volume 1 No.1
 | date = February 1986
 | access-date = 2020-08-16
 | archive-date = 2015-06-23
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150623180723/http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bull1.txt
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref> it was decided it would be a Unix-like operating system. Richard Stallman later commented that he considered MS-DOS "a toy".<ref>{{cite web
 | url = https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/1699424/richard-stallman-freedom
 | title = Richard Stallman: Freedom
 | website = [[Radio New Zealand]]
 | date = August 9, 2008
 | access-date = August 16, 2020
 | archive-date = October 31, 2020
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201031195307/https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/1699424/richard-stallman-freedom
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref>

By 1992, the GNU Project had completed all of the major operating system utilities, but had not completed their proposed [[Kernel (operating system)|operating system kernel]], [[GNU Hurd]]. With the release of the [[Linux kernel]], started independently by [[Linus Torvalds]] in 1991, and released under the GPLv2 with version 0.12 in 1992, for the first time it was possible to run an operating system composed completely of free software. Though the Linux kernel is not part of the GNU Project, it was developed using [[GNU Compiler Collection|GCC]] and other GNU programming tools and was released as free software under the [[GNU General Public License]].<ref>{{cite web
 | url = https://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.minix/browse_thread/thread/76536d1fb451ac60/b813d52cbc5a044b
 | title = What would you like to see most in minix?
 | author = Linus Benedict Torvalds
 | publisher = comp.os.minix
 | date = August 26, 1991
 | access-date = July 28, 2016
 | archive-date = April 30, 2013
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130430234536/http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.minix/browse_thread/thread/76536d1fb451ac60/b813d52cbc5a044b
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref> Most compilation of the Linux kernel is still done with GNU toolchains, but it is currently possible to use the [[Clang]] compiler and the [[LLVM]] toolchain for compilation.<ref>{{Cite web
 | url = https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v5.8/kbuild/llvm.html
 | title = Building Linux with Clang/LLVM
 | author = The Kernel Development Community
 | publisher = The Linux Kernel Docs
 | access-date = 2022-10-08
 | archive-date = 2022-09-27
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220927180305/https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v5.8/kbuild/llvm.html
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref>

As of present, the GNU Project has not released a version of [[GNU/Hurd]] that is suitable for production environments since the commencement of the GNU/Hurd project over {{Time ago|Dec 31, 1990}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd/status.html|title=GNU Hurd/ hurd/ status|website=GNU Operating System|publisher=Free Software Foundation|access-date=2018-04-15|quote="It may not be ready for production use, as there are still some bugs and missing features."|archive-date=2020-11-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112030809/https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd/status.html|url-status=live}}</ref>