1.6 How does the Debian project fit in or compare with the Free Software Foundation's GNU project?

The Debian system builds on the ideals of free software first championed by the Free Software Foundation and in particular by Richard Stallman. FSF's powerful system development tools, utilities, and applications are also a key part of the Debian system.

The Debian Project is a separate entity from the FSF, however we communicate regularly and cooperate on various projects. The FSF explicitly requested that we call our system "Debian GNU/Linux", and we are happy to comply with that request.

The FSF's long-standing objective is to develop a new operating system called GNU, based on Hurd. Debian is working with FSF on this system, called Debian GNU/Hurd.