news
FSF turns forty with a groundbreaking new project and a new president
The FSF's fortieth birthday celebration, FSF40, was an action-packed event. The day began with a conversation between board members Christina Haralanova, Geoffrey Knauth, Gerald J. Sussman, Ian Kelling, and Richard M. Stallman, who discussed the FSF's mission and their vision for the FSF's future. It was during this discussion that Ian Kelling was presented as the new FSF president. When Kelling was later asked about his plans as president, he stated: "I aim to strengthen the FSF's ability to combat new threats to computer user freedom, as well as welcome more free software supporters into the movement than ever before."
After the new FSF board panel, the microphone was passed to prominent free software activists to offer their stories and experiences with free software. Three volunteers had a lot to say about their extensive work on free software projects. Amin Bandali, a computing scientist, has worked on various programs in the GNU project, EmacsConf, Debian development, Trisquel GNU/Linux distribution contributions, and with the the FSF SysOps team for many years. Corwin Brust, a Savannah Hacker since 2020, spoke mostly about his work with the Savannah Hackers and Emacs. Panos Alevropoulos, a lawyer from Thessaloniki, Greece, shared his experiences with the FSF as an intern and as a volunteer with the FSF’s Licensing & Compliance Lab as well as the FSF's End Software Patents campaign.
Linuxiac:
-
Free Software Foundation Turns 40, Unveils LibrePhone
The Free Software Foundation celebrated its 40th anniversary on Saturday, October 4, 2025, in Boston, Massachusetts, marking the milestone with two major announcements — a new president and a new project aimed at bringing software freedom to mobile devices.
As we informed you a few days ago, longtime systems administrator and board member Ian Kelling was officially introduced as the new president of the organization.
On the event, discussions included several familiar names, such as Richard Stallman, Geoffrey Knauth, Christina Haralanova, and Gerald Jay Sussman — all of whom reflected on the FSF’s mission and direction for the future.