A cikin 1985, Stallman ya wallafa GNU Manifesto, wanda ya bayyana dalilinsa na ƙirƙirar tsarin aiki kyauta da ake kira GNU, wanda zai dace da Unix. Sunan GNU shine taƙaitaccen ma'anar "GNU's Not Unix". Ba da daɗewa ba bayan haka, ya fara kamfani mai zaman kansa da ake kira Free Software Foundation don yin amfani da masu shirye-shiryen software kyauta da kuma samar da kayan aikin shari'a don motsi na software kyauta. Stallman shine shugaban da ba a biya ba na FSF, wanda yake shi ne 501 ((c) ((3) kungiyar da ba ta riba ba da aka kafa a Massachusetts. Stallman ya yada manufar copyleft, wata hanyar doka don kare gyare-gyare da sake rarraba haƙƙin software kyauta. An fara aiwatar da shi a cikin GNU General Public License na 1989, kuma a cikin shirin farko mai zaman kanta na GNU General Public License (GPL) aka saki. A shekara ta, an kammala tsarin GNU. Tambaya: Mene ne?
Shekara ta 1989