GnuTLS consists of a library that allows client applications to start secure sessions using the available protocols.
It also provides command-line tools, including an X.509 certificate manager, a test client and server, and random key and password generators.
GnuTLS was initially created around March[6] to November[7] 2000, by Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos to allow applications of the GNU Project to use secure protocols such as TLS. Although OpenSSL already existed, OpenSSL's license is not compatible with the GPL;[8] thus software under the GPL, such as GNU software, could not use OpenSSL without making a GPL linking exception.
GnuTLS was created for the GNU Project,[12][13] but in December 2012 its maintainer, Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos, dissociated the project from GNU after policy disputes with the Free Software Foundation.[12][13]Richard Stallman opposed this move and suggested forking the project instead.[14] Soon afterward, developer Paolo Bonzini ended his maintainership of GNU Sed and Grep, expressing concerns similar to those of GnuTLS maintainer Mavrogiannopoulos.[15]
^Mavrogiannopoulos, Nikos (26 March 2013). "The perils of LGPLv3". gnutls.org. Retrieved 18 November 2015. LGPLv3 is the latest version of the GNU Lesser General Public License. It follows the successful LGPLv2.1 license, and was released by Free Software Foundation as a counterpart to its GNU General Public License version 3. The goal of the GNU Lesser General Public Licenses is to provide software that can be used by both proprietary and free software. This goal has been successfully handled so far by LGPLv2.1, and there is a multitude of libraries using that license. Now we have LGPLv3 as the latest, and the question is how successful is LGPLv3 on this goal? In my opinion, very little. If we assume that its primary goal is to be used by free software, then it blatantly fails that.