February 14th is traditionally recognized as Valentine’s Day, but for the free and open-source software (FOSS) community, it’s also “I Love Free Software Day” – a day dedicated to acknowledging the contributions of those who create, maintain, and advocate for software accessible to all. Initiated in 2013 by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), the annual event aims to express gratitude to the individuals and organizations that underpin the digital tools many rely on daily.
This year, the FSFE and its local groups focused on recognizing the often-overlooked work of software maintainers. These individuals are crucial to the health of FOSS projects, ensuring stability, functionality, and adaptation to evolving user needs. The FSFE highlighted that maintenance, particularly for smaller projects, is frequently unpaid or undervalued, leading to potential burnout among maintainers.
The 15th edition of “I Love Free Software Day,” celebrated in the week of February 14th, 2025, saw 19 events held across 11 European countries. Hundreds of individuals and organizations participated in discussions on the Fediverse, sharing appreciation for FOSS projects and their contributors. The FSFE provided a toolkit for local groups, offering guidance on event organization, presentations on FOSS, and interactive games.
The FSFE encourages several ways to demonstrate support for maintainers, including directly thanking them for their work and detailing how their software is used, contributing updates to projects, becoming a maintainer oneself, donating to FOSS projects, participating in hackathons, assisting with translations, and simply learning more about the inner workings of the software we use. The organization also provided a sharepic template for social media, allowing users to express their appreciation for specific projects or FOSS in general, using the hashtag #ILoveFS.
The FSFE specifically acknowledged GNU maintainers, recognizing their vital role in enabling the widespread use of free software. The organization emphasized that software freedom relies on individuals exercising the four freedoms – the ability to use, study, share, and improve software – and advocating for greater user control.
