I te tau 1985, i whakaputaina e Stallman te GNU Manifesto, e whakaatu ana i tana kaupapa mo te hanga i tetahi punaha whakahaere koreutu e kiia ana ko GNU, e hototahi ana ki a Unix. Ko te ingoa GNU he tohu whakahua mo te "GNU's Not Unix". I muri tata mai, ka tiimata e ia tetahi umanga koreutu e kiia ana ko te Free Software Foundation ki te whakamahi i nga kaiwhakawhanake raupaparorohiko koreutu me te whakarato i tetahi hanganga ture mo te nekehanga raupaparorohiko koreutu. Ko Stallman te perehitini koreutu o te FSF, he 501 ((c) ((3) whakahaere koreutu i whakatuhia i Massachusetts. I whakarewahia e Stallman te kaupapa o te copyleft, he tikanga ture hei tiaki i nga mana whakarereke me te tohatoha ano mo te raupaparorohiko koreutu. I whakatinanahia tuatahihia i te GNU General Public License Emacs 1989, ana i te raupaparorohiko GNU General Public License (GPL) motuhake tuatahi i tukuna. I te tau, kua oti te nuinga o te raupaparorohiko GNU.
Ko te tau 1989