Ian Kelling, senior systems administrator for the Free Software Foundation (FSF), has been confirmed as the organization’s new president, the FSF announced in October 2025. Kelling is the first staff member to hold the volunteer leadership position and the first union member to sit on the FSF board, according to the organization.
Kelling, 43, has been a board member and voting member since March 2021. His election, unanimously confirmed by the FSF board in September 2025, comes as the foundation approaches its 40th anniversary. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and has a long history with GNU/Linux, having used and contributed to the operating system even as working as a software developer in proprietary companies prior to joining the FSF in 2017.
“Ian has shown good judgment on the board, and a firm commitment to the free software movement,” said FSF founder Richard Stallman. Outgoing FSF President Geoff Knauth added that Kelling demonstrated “a clear understanding of the free software philosophy” since joining the board.
The FSF tech team, currently comprised of just two people including Kelling, maintains sixty-three different services, platforms, and websites for the FSF staff, the GNU Project, and the wider free software community. This infrastructure is hosted on a dozen physical servers in two Boston data centers. A significant portion of the team’s work involves identifying and verifying the licensing of software to ensure it meets the FSF’s standards for freedom.
Recently, Kelling spent approximately four hours re-reviewing the licensing of BigBlueButton, a videoconferencing service used by the FSF. The review was prompted by a change in MongoDB’s licensing in 2018, which BigBlueButton unintentionally incorporated in versions 2.3 and 2.4. The FSF raised concerns with the BigBlueButton team in late 2020.
To address the licensing issue, the FSF assisted developers of FerretDB, a MongoDB alternative, to ensure compatibility with BigBlueButton. The BigBlueButton developers subsequently made architectural changes in their 3.0 release, released in 2025, to remove the dependency on MongoDB, restoring the software’s status as entirely free software.
The FSF emphasizes the importance of carefully evaluating software licenses, noting the proliferation of different licenses and the potential for misleading claims about their compatibility with free software principles. The FSF maintains a license review list and encourages developers to consult with the organization when creating new licenses. The organization also recommends checking whether a license is used by any package distributed in a libre GNU/Linux distribution, such as Trisquel, as an indicator of its adherence to free software standards.
The FSF is currently seeking to reach 100 new associate members by January 16, with membership costing $12 USD per month, or $6 for students. Kelling stated that support from members is crucial to the FSF’s ability to continue its work promoting and defending software freedom.
