In 1983 Richard Stallman brought the so-called GNU-project to life. A one on UNIX based, operating system which is compatible with POSIX should be developed. The first steps to this aim were already taken in the early ninnties. At that time a big package with software was written and brought together.

Nevertheless, the operating system itself was still in its infancy. The available alternative was offered by the Berkeley Software Distribution. However, many consumers frightened to use this system as Berkeleys was involved in a lawsuit. Therefore, up to the beginning of the ninnties no completely developed free operating system was available to the users.