Award for the Advancement of Free Software
The Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software is presented annually to an individual who has made a great contribution to the progress and development of free software, through activities that accord with the spirit of free software. The winner of the 2020 award was announced at LibrePlanet 2021. This year's winner will be announced at LibrePlanet 2022. Nominations for this year's award are now closed.
Individuals who describe their projects as "open" instead of "free" are eligible nonetheless, provided the software is in fact free/libre.
Watch the acceptance speech from Jim Meyering at LibrePlanet 2020
The 2020 award was received by Bradley Kuhn, a free software activist with a long history of being a staunch defender of the GNU General Public License (GPL) through his work at both the Free Software Foundation and Software Freedom Conservancy. Presenting the award was John Sullivan, executive director of the Free Software Foundation.
Previous winners include Jim Meyering, Deborah Nicholson, Karen Sandler, Alexandre Oliva, Werner Koch, Sébastien Jodogne, Matthew Garrett, Dr. Fernando Perez, Yukihiro Matsumoto, Rob Savoye, John Gilmore, Wietse Venema, Harald Welte, Ted Ts'o, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Alan Cox, Larry Lessig, Guido van Rossum, Brian Paul, Miguel de Icaza and Larry Wall.
For awards prior to 2004, historical award information is also available.
