The FSF's list consists of ready-to-use full GNU/Linux systems whose developers have made a commitment to follow the Guidelines for Free System Distributions. This means each distro includes and steers users toward exclusively free software. All distros on this list reject nonfree software, including firmware "blobs" and nonfree documentation. The Guix System Distribution is a new and growing distro that currently ships with just over 1000 packages, already including almost all of the programs available from the GNU Project.

As the name suggests, at the heart of the Guix System Distribution is the GNU Guix (pronounced like "geeks") package management system. GNU Guix offers users uncommon features such as transactional upgrades and rollbacks, as well as declarative operating system configuration.

"The Guix System Distribution is a flexible, cutting edge, and bare bones distro ideally suited for experienced users. However, both the distro and the GNU Guix package management system itself have an active and welcoming community of contributors. I look forward to watching this project mature and encourage people to get involved," said Joshua Gay, FSF's licensing and compliance manager.

"The goal of GNU Guix is to bring the GNU system, as was envisioned 31 years ago, and to transcribe its ethical goals in the implementation. For example, functional package management means that Guix provides the complete 'Corresponding Source' of its packages, in the sense of the GNU GPL -- users know precisely how a binary package was obtained. Unprivileged users can install packages, and the whole system is customizable and hackable, à la Emacs. We hope to help federate GNU hackers and computing freedom supporters around the project. It's ambitious, but because it can help strengthen GNU and defend user freedom, I think it's worth it," said Ludovic Courtès, lead maintainer of GNU Guix.

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at https://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

More information about the FSF, as well as important information for journalists and publishers, is at https://www.fsf.org/press.

About the GNU Operating System and Linux

Richard Stallman announced in September 1983 the plan to develop a free software Unix-like operating system called GNU. GNU is the only operating system developed specifically for the sake of users' freedom. See https://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html.

In 1992, the essential components of GNU were complete, except for one, the kernel. When in 1992 the kernel Linux was re-released under the GNU GPL, making it free software, the combination of GNU and Linux formed a complete free operating system, which made it possible for the first time to run a PC without non-free software. This combination is the GNU/Linux system. For more explanation, see https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html.

Media Contacts

Joshua Gay
Licensing & Compliance Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
licensing@fsf.org