Examples of free software

Notable free software:

Operating systems: GNU/Linux, BSD, and Darwin.

GCC compilers, GDB debugger and C libraries.

Servers: BIND name server, Sendmail mail transport, Apache web server, and Samba file server.

Relational database systems: MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Programming languages: Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and Tcl.

GUI related: X Window System, GNOME and KDE desktop environments.

OpenOffice.org office suite, Mozilla and Firefox web browsers and the GIMP graphics editor.

Typesetting and document preparation systems TeX and LaTeX.

MediaWiki, the software which runs Wikipedia.

The Free Software Directory is a free software project that maintains a large database of free software packages.

Much free software supports the non-free Microsoft Windows or non-free Unix platforms, and non-free software can support free platforms, although purists prefer all-free software on a free platform such as GNU/Linux.

Free software packages constitute a software ecosystem where software provides services, resulting in mutual benefit: for instance, the Apache web server handling the HTTP protocol, using mod_python to provide dynamic content.