Initial GNU Announcement by Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman’s September 27, 1983 announcement laid out the blueprint for the GNU Project, declaring his intent to build a complete, Unix-compatible system from scratch to avoid signing nondisclosure agreements. He proposed starting with a kernel and C utilities—editor, shell, compiler, linker—before expanding to include a text formatter, YACC, an Empire game, and a spreadsheet. The design promised specific improvements over standard Unix, including longer filenames, file version numbers, a crashproof file system, and a Lisp-based window system allowing shared screens between Lisp and C programs. Stallman relied on the fixed interface specifications of Unix to coordinate distributed contributions, arguing that if individual utilities worked with existing Unix systems, they would naturally integrate into GNU.

The document includes retrospective footnotes clarifying that the original phrasing "give it away free" was a mistake in terminology; Stallman intended to grant freedom of use and modification, not necessarily zero cost. The announcement also notes that the project’s start was delayed until January 1984 and that key philosophical concepts regarding free software were only clarified years later. It remains a primary source for understanding the GNU Project’s origins, detailing Stallman’s credentials as the inventor of EMACS and his specific request for hardware donations from manufacturers to ensure early compatibility with residential machines.