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GNU Project:

If you use Linux for any amount of time you will run across the word "GNU" quite a bit. This is the description of the GNU Project from their web site:

"The GNU Project was launched in 1984 to develop a complete UNIX style operating system which is free software: the GNU system. (GNU is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not UNIX”; it is pronounced “guh-noo.”) Variants of the GNU operating system, which use the kernel Linux, are now widely used; though these systems are often referred to as “Linux,” they are more accurately called GNU/Linux systems. This is also the web site of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). FSF is the principal organizational sponsor of the GNU Project. FSF receives very little funding from corporations or grant-making foundations. We rely on support from individuals like you who support FSF's mission 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. "

You will find that there are quite a few "recursive acronyms" in the Linux software world. (A recursive acroynm is one in which the acronym itself appears as one of the words in the acronym.) This is kind of joke to Linux and Unix programmers and they seem to like doing it quite a bit. GNU is probably the most famous recursive acronym of all.

The GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation were both started and run by Richard Stallman. Without the work of the GNU Project and the FSF, Linux would not be as popular as it is today. Richard Stallman's pioneering work has allowed GNU/Linux to grow and it has made it possible for desktop Linux to exist today.

Links:

GNU Project homepage:
http://www.gnu.org/

Free Software Foundation:
http://www.fsf.org/fsf/fsf.html

Richard Stallman:
http://www.stallman.org/