Everyone brings something to the table

Free software only exists through the hard work of countless people. Every single free software program was built on and lives through community efforts, whether it be a few individuals or millions of people. As we begin our forty-first year of advocating for user freedom, we will spend time this year recognizing projects and groups of people that have contributed to the strength and limitlessness of free software. We invite free software supporters like you to join us in this spirit of gratitude, and will be offering multiple ways for you to get involved.

If you've been following the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for quite some time (we're glad you're here!), you know there are some projects we don't talk about much in our publications. Generally, we make this choice because these projects may include nonfree components or they don't insist on freedom like the FSF does. For example, they may use the term "open source," a term which doesn't serve freedom. While we cannot encourage users to interact with all such projects, we will be expressing our gratitude in 2026 for the work that these programs or projects have done, in conjunction with the fully free builds of those programs, and how this work supports and furthers free software as a whole.

Free software doesn't just pop into existence: it needs people every step of the way. We are incredibly thankful for every person who chooses to write, maintain, or improve free software, not just for the program that is being worked on, but for the foundations laid for future projects. It is because of their hard work that we can live so much of our daily lives in freedom, have an internet powered by free software, and a catalog of over 17,000 projects in the Free Software Directory, allowing everyone to use at least one freedom-respecting program. The vast majority of computer and mobile phone users use at least one libre program without even knowing it, all thanks to countless free software developers, maintainers, and contributors.

But, it isn't just contributors, maintainers, and developers who we would like to thank: we must also recognize users. Without people choosing to use free software in spite of intense pressure from social norms, government, work, and peers, we wouldn't have much of a movement to fight for. Every time someone uses a free software program instead of a nonfree one, it sends a powerful message to proprietary software companies and governments that digital freedom matters to us all. Of course, we know the path towards freedom looks very different for each user, and making the switch to free software in every aspect of life isn't possible for everyone. Regardless of how many free software programs you use every day, we are grateful you're working with us towards a world that respects everyone's user freedom.

Making a list of all the free programs we use for any given task is a daunting one even for us, and we're behind the Free Software Directory! But in the interest of recognizing the projects and programs that make this post possible, we'd like to start by thanking CiviCRM, GNU Mailman, Request Tracker (RT), Gnus, and Mozilla Thunderbird, which is the basis of the fully free "Icedove" build we use and recommend.

Thank you for supporting free software.

"Thank you for your support" © 2025 by Maqsuel Maqson for the Free Software Foundation, Inc. This image is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.