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Education → Educational Resources → Educational Free Software

Educational Free Software

Before addressing the subject in this section, we would like to remind our readers that the word "Free" in "Free Software" does not refer to price but to liberty. Free Software is software that grants you freedom, namely the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. To learn more, see the Free Software definition.

What you will find in this section

We are looking for free educational games, or information about free games that can be used for educational purposes. Contact <education@gnu.org>.

These pages do not constitute an exhaustive listing of available educational free programs. Our aim is to present some examples so as to illustrate how educational institutions can put into practice and effectively apply the freedoms that Free Software grants them. For each program described, we will show how those freedoms were actually applied.

People who wish to migrate to Free Software or are looking for a free libre program to accomplish a particular task, should refer to the Free Software Directory, which consists of a catalog of more than 6,000 free programs that run on free operating systems. In particular, the Education section of the Directory lists programs inherent to different levels of education, from pre-elementary school to highly specialized levels, including university and research.

Some of the programs presented here, like GCompris, are part of the GNU Project. This means that developers of these programs agree to pay attention to making the program work well with the rest of the GNU System. A GNU program uses the latest version of the license that the GNU Project recommends in order to protect the users' fundamental freedoms. A GNU program does not recommend the use of any non-free program, and it does not refer the user to any non-free documentation for Free Software, as defined in our campaign for free documentation.

The following are the examples that we present:

GCompris | GIMP | Tux Paint |

If you know of a Free Software program that is being used by an educational institution for specific purposes, or has been modified or otherwise adapted by its users to meet their own educational needs, please let us know by sending an email to <education@gnu.org>.

[FSF logo] “Our mission is to preserve, protect and promote the freedom to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer software, and to defend the rights of Free Software users.”

The Free Software Foundation is the principal organizational sponsor of the GNU Operating System. Support GNU and the FSF by buying manuals and gear, joining the FSF as an associate member, or making a donation, either directly to the FSF or via Flattr.

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