The Free Software Foundation (FSF) was established in 1985 to promote "computer users' rights to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs." That is, the organization promotes the development and use of free software, particularly for the GNU operating system (GNU/Linux). FSF is the primary sponsor of the GNU Project, which was established to create new distribution terms that would prevent the project from being turned into proprietary software. The website provides information on current FSF projects, such as providing development systems support for GNU software maintainers and raising awareness about the Free Software license and how to use it. They also maintain the Free Software Directory, which catalogs "all useful free software that runs under free operating systems" and currently contains over 3,000 entries. The Directory can be accessed from this website and searched by keyword or browsed by application area, such as Business and Productivity, Database, Education, Email, Games, Mathematics, Network Applications, Printing, Science, Security, Software development, and Web Authoring. The website also provides information on how to add packages to the Directory and how to donate to the Foundation.
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