Software Freedom Day (SFD) is an annual worldwide celebration of Free Software organized by the Digital Freedom Foundation (DFF). SFD is a public education effort with the aim of increasing awareness of Free Software and its virtues, and encouraging its use.
SFD was established in 2004 and was first observed on 28 August of that year. About 12 teams participated in the first Software Freedom Day. Since that time it has grown in popularity and while organisers anticipated more than 1,000 teams in 2010 [1] the event has stalled at around 400+ locations over the past two years, representing a 30% decrease over 2009.
Since 2006 Software Freedom Day has been held on the third Saturday of September. In 2023, this event will be held on 16 September.
Each event is left to local teams around the world to organize. Pre-registered teams (2 months before the date or earlier) receive free schwag sent by DFF to help with the events themselves. The SFD wiki contains individual team pages describing their plans as well as helpful information to get them up to speed. Events themselves varies between conferences explaining the virtues of Free and Open Source Software, to workshops, demonstrations, games, planting tree ceremonies, discussions and InstallFests. [2]
Time | Teams | Countries | Source |
---|---|---|---|
28 August 2004 | 12 | N/A | linux.com Archived 30 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine |
10 September 2005 | 136 | 60 | linux.com Archived 30 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine SFD 2005 map |
16 September 2006 | 180 | 70 | SFD 2006 map |
15 September 2007 | 286 | 80 | SFD 2007 map |
20 September 2008 | 563 | 90 | SFD 2008 map |
19 September 2009 | 700 | 90 | SFD 2009 map |
18 September 2010 | 397 | 90 | SFD 2010 map |
17 September 2011 | 442 | 87 | SFD 2011 map |
15 September 2012 | 301 | 73 | SFD 2012 map |
21 September 2013 | 316 | 81 | SFD 2013 map |
20 September 2014 | 197 | 59 | SFD 2014 map |
19 September 2015 | 141 | 47 | SFD 2015 map |
17 September 2016 | 128 | 51 | SFD 2016 map |
16 September 2017 | 88 | 44 | SFD 2017 map |
15 September 2018 | 71 | 37 | SFD 2018 map |
21 September 2019 | 59 | 36 | SFD 2019 map |
19 September 2020 | 18 [3] | 18 | SFD 2020 wiki |
18 September 2021 | 60 [4] | 28 | SFD 2021 wiki |
17 September 2022 | 43 [5] | 20 | SFD 2022 wiki |
16 September 2023 | 49 [6] | 30 | SFD 2023 wiki |
Note on the figures above: it is difficult to find figures of the early years. The maps on the SFD website are only reliable after 2007, however some years such as 2009 saw extra teams from two different sources which did not "officially" register with DFF. There was about 80 teams from China and a hundred from the Sun community (OSUM) who heavily subsidized goodies for their teams. [7] In the early year of SFD the map was an optional component not connected with the registration script and therefore some teams did not go through the troubles of adding themselves.
In the past, the event has been sponsored by entities like Canonical Ltd., IBM, Sun Microsystems, DKUUG, Google, Red Hat, Linode, Nokia and MakerBot Industries.
Currently, this event is supported by Earth Cause, Linode, Mailman, Musescore, Digital Peak, FSF, FSFE, Joomla, Creative Commons, Admin Magazine, Linux Journal, Ubuntu User and Woman Tech. [8]
Each local team can seek sponsors independently, especially local FOSS supporting organizations and often appears in local medias such as newspapers and TV. [9]
Free software or libre software or libreware is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price; all users are legally free to do what they want with their copies of a free software regardless of how much is paid to obtain the program. Computer programs are deemed "free" if they give end-users ultimate control over the software and, subsequently, over their devices.
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the steward of the Open Source Definition, the set of rules that define open source software. It is a California public-benefit nonprofit corporation, with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
The Open Software Foundation (OSF) was a not-for-profit industry consortium for creating an open standard for an implementation of the operating system Unix. It was formed in 1988 and merged with X/Open in 1996, to become The Open Group.
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative, public manner. Open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration, meaning any capable user is able to participate online in development, making the number of possible contributors indefinite. The ability to examine the code facilitates public trust in the software.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is an eingetragener Verein incorporated under German law. It was founded in 2001 to support all aspects of the free software movement in Europe, with registered chapters in several European countries. It is the European sister organization of the US‑based Free Software Foundation (FSF), although each foundation exists as a separate organization. Following the return of Richard Stallman to the FSF in 2021, the FSFE declared themselves "unable to collaborate" with the FSF.
The O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) was an American annual convention for the discussion of free and open-source software. It was organized by publisher O'Reilly Media and was held each summer, mostly in Portland, Oregon, from 1999 to 2019.
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software. This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright licensing and the source code is usually hidden from the users.
A Freedom Toaster is a public kiosk that will burn copies of free software onto user-provided CDs and DVDs.
In the 1950s and 1960s, computer operating software and compilers were delivered as a part of hardware purchases without separate fees. At the time, source code, the human-readable form of software, was generally distributed with the software providing the ability to fix bugs or add new functions. Universities were early adopters of computing technology. Many of the modifications developed by universities were openly shared, in keeping with the academic principles of sharing knowledge, and organizations sprung up to facilitate sharing. As large-scale operating systems matured, fewer organizations allowed modifications to the operating software, and eventually such operating systems were closed to modification. However, utilities and other added-function applications are still shared and new organizations have been formed to promote the sharing of software.
Linux began in 1991 as a personal project by Finnish student Linus Torvalds to create a new free operating system kernel. The resulting Linux kernel has been marked by constant growth throughout its history. Since the initial release of its source code in 1991, it has grown from a small number of C files under a license prohibiting commercial distribution to the 4.15 version in 2018 with more than 23.3 million lines of source code, not counting comments, under the GNU General Public License v2.
A Linux User Group or Linux Users' Group (LUG) or GNU/Linux User Group (GLUG) is a private, generally non-profit or not-for-profit organization that provides support and/or education for Linux users, particularly for inexperienced users. The term commonly refers to local groups that meet in person but is also used to refer to online support groups that may have members spread over a very wide area and that do not organize, or are not dependent on, physical meetings. Many LUGs encompass FreeBSD and other free-software / open source Unix-based operating systems.
The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) foundation dedicated to fostering First Amendment freedoms for all. The organization advances First Amendment freedoms through programs that include Today's Front Pages, the Power Shift Project, the annual Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference for high school juniors, annual First Amendment Festival, Free Expression Awards and other conferences. Freedom Forum operated the Newseum in Washington, D.C. until 2019, when it sold the building to Johns Hopkins University.
The Document Foundation (TDF) is a non-profit organization that promotes open-source document handling software. It was created by members of the OpenOffice.org community to manage and develop LibreOffice, a free and open-source office suite, and is legally registered in Germany as a Stiftung. Its goal is to produce a vendor-independent office suite with ODF support in a development environment free from company control.
Fórum Internacional de Software Livre (FISL) is an event sponsored by Associação SoftwareLivre.org, a Brazilian NGO that, among other goals, seeks the promotion and adoption of free software. It takes place every year in Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul.
Free Software Foundation Tamil Nadu is a not-for-profit organisation formed in 2008 as a part of Free Software Movement of India (FSMI). This organisation is a social movement that works towards enlightening the masses with the essence of free software and to liberate knowledge. FSFTN organises different workshops and seminars in Tamil Nadu among the youth to spread the idea of knowledge liberation.
The first open-source software project in Kosovo was the adjustment of the Open Office Packet in December 2003.
DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational technology company and cloud service provider. The company is headquartered in New York City, New York, USA, with 15 globally distributed data centers. DigitalOcean provides developers, startups, and SMBs with cloud infrastructure-as-a-service platforms.
Digital Freedom Foundation (DFF) is a non-profit organization established in 2004. The group is the lead organizer of Software Freedom Day, and Hardware Freedom Day, as well as other "freedom days".
Education Freedom Day (EFD) is an international event launched by the Digital Freedom Foundation in 2013. It's annually observed on March 21. It is similar to other Freedom Days, namely Software, Hardware and Culture Freedom Day. The goal of EDF is spread knowledge and awareness regarding the benefits of using free software and free educational resources for education.