Gna.org
Encyclopedia
Gna! is a centralized location where software developers can develop, distribute and maintain free software
.
for the distribution of free software
.
On the 12 April 2001, GNA turned into the French chapter of Free Software Foundation
(FSF).
At the end of 2003, the GNU Savannah
server was replaced by FSF after a security compromise. A dispute broke out between FSF, who owned the new Savannah, and the maintainers of Savannah, including developers of the Savannah software over the levels of administration the FSF should be given. FSF announced that it was going to switch to the GForge
software, leaving frayed tempers among the developers, as result of a conflict about Savannah maintainers role.
Loïc Dachary (who also started GNU Savannah
) and several former GNU Savannah
maintainers set up "Gna!" as a continuation of the Savannah project, but this would be hosted on servers owned by the Free Software Foundation France. Today, Gna! stands for "Gna's Not an Acronym". It is managed by a self-organized team, supported by Free Software Foundation France.
For the hosted projects, Gna! provides source code version control (a choice between CVS
, Subversion and Arch
), download space, project monitoring facilities, etc.
One of its most notable exceptions to other free software community
portals is Gna's strict licensing restrictions: only GNU General Public License
compatible projects may be developed on the server. This is one of the reasons why it is significantly smaller than similar portals. Its small userbase is advertised as a positive because it generally aids in the quick resolution of problems; a process which can take weeks on the larger sites.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
.
History
In the beginning, GNA stood for "Gna's Not Axis". This was an association formed by Loïc DacharyLoïc Dachary
Loïc Dachary has been a free software developer and activist in France since 1987. Dachary currently contributes to Free Software projects and acts as president of the Free Software Foundation in France. He is a speaker for the GNU Project and the April association.- Career :Dachary started as a...
for the distribution of free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
.
On the 12 April 2001, GNA turned into the French chapter of Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
(FSF).
At the end of 2003, the GNU Savannah
GNU Savannah
GNU Savannah is a project of the Free Software Foundation initiated by Loïc Dachary, which serves as a collaborative software development management system for Free Software projects. Savannah currently offers CVS, GNU arch, Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, mailing list, web hosting, file...
server was replaced by FSF after a security compromise. A dispute broke out between FSF, who owned the new Savannah, and the maintainers of Savannah, including developers of the Savannah software over the levels of administration the FSF should be given. FSF announced that it was going to switch to the GForge
GForge
GForge is a free software fork of the web-based project-management and collaboration software originally created for SourceForge, called Savane...
software, leaving frayed tempers among the developers, as result of a conflict about Savannah maintainers role.
Loïc Dachary (who also started GNU Savannah
GNU Savannah
GNU Savannah is a project of the Free Software Foundation initiated by Loïc Dachary, which serves as a collaborative software development management system for Free Software projects. Savannah currently offers CVS, GNU arch, Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, mailing list, web hosting, file...
) and several former GNU Savannah
GNU Savannah
GNU Savannah is a project of the Free Software Foundation initiated by Loïc Dachary, which serves as a collaborative software development management system for Free Software projects. Savannah currently offers CVS, GNU arch, Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar, mailing list, web hosting, file...
maintainers set up "Gna!" as a continuation of the Savannah project, but this would be hosted on servers owned by the Free Software Foundation France. Today, Gna! stands for "Gna's Not an Acronym". It is managed by a self-organized team, supported by Free Software Foundation France.
For the hosted projects, Gna! provides source code version control (a choice between CVS
Concurrent Versions System
The Concurrent Versions System , also known as the Concurrent Versioning System, is a client-server free software revision control system in the field of software development. Version control system software keeps track of all work and all changes in a set of files, and allows several developers ...
, Subversion and Arch
GNU arch
In computing, GNU arch is a distributed revision control system that is part of the GNU Project and licensed under the GNU General Public License...
), download space, project monitoring facilities, etc.
One of its most notable exceptions to other free software community
Free software community
The free-software community is an informal term that refers to the users and developers of free software as well as supporters of the free-software movement. The movement is sometimes referred to as the open-source software community or a subset thereof...
portals is Gna's strict licensing restrictions: only GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
compatible projects may be developed on the server. This is one of the reasons why it is significantly smaller than similar portals. Its small userbase is advertised as a positive because it generally aids in the quick resolution of problems; a process which can take weeks on the larger sites.