LICENSEWARE
Contribute
Publisher · Open source

GNU nano

GNU nano is a small terminal text editor for Unix-like systems, originally written by Chris Allegretta as a free replacement for Pico. It is free software released under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later.

Licensing at a Glance

  • Open source

  1. GNU nano source files state that the program may be redistributed and/or modified under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or (at the user's option) any later version.[1]

  2. GNU nano source files carry copyright notices for the Free Software Foundation and for the current maintainer, Benno Schulenberg.[2]

  3. The nano project lists Chris Allegretta as the original author and Benno Schulenberg as the current maintainer.[3]

  4. According to the nano FAQ, nano was started in late 1999 because the licence of Pico was not considered free software; the older University of Washington licence did not allow distribution of modified binaries.[4]

Products

References

  1. nano.c « src - nano.git - GNU nano · cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
  2. nano.c « src - nano.git - GNU nano · cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
  3. nano – Who's who · nano-editor.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
  4. The GNU nano editor FAQ · nano-editor.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
Esc