Z:gnu-www-ja-2001-12-03-Takeda--d42a5b-The Free Software Foundation,/en

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&mdash;particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants&mdash;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. Their web site, located at http://www.fsf.org, is an important source of information about GNU/Linux. They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA.