Die Free Software Foundation Europe hat den diesjährigen europäischen SFS-Award dem VLC-Entwickler Jean-Baptiste Kempf verliehen.

Das chinesische Startup Moonshot AI hat mit Kimi K2 Thinking eines der größten Sprachmodelle mit der Fähigkeit zum Schlussfolgern überhaupt unter Open-Source-Lizenz veröffentlicht.

Die Social-Media-Plattform Mastodon verbessert in der neuen Version 4.5 die Konversationen über Communitys hinweg, bringt erweiterte Moderatoren-Tools und neuen Möglichkeiten für Administratoren,…

KI-Schwergewicht Anthropic gibt bekannt, dass es neue Büros in Paris und München eröffnen will, die zu den bereits vorhandenen europäischen Niederlassungen in London, Dublin und Zürich…

Jean-Baptiste Kempf receives the European SFS Award 2025 at SFSCON

The FSFE and LUGBZ have recognized VLC president and core developer with this European award for his long-term dedication to the project. What began as a student initiative has, through his continuous effort, evolved into one of the most widely used media players, with billion of users worldwide.

Picture by NOI Techpark - Marco Parisi CC-BY-SA 4.0.

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), together with the Linux User Group Bolzano‑Bozen (LUGBZ), is proud to recognize Jean-Baptiste Kempf with the European SFS Award 2025, in recognition of his outstanding and lasting contributions to the Free Software movement and his long-term dedication to the VLC project.

Born as a student project in 1996, this software has evolved into an essential, all-in-one media player that plays almost anything effortlessly. Originally a simple network streaming client, it has grown into a powerful universal media player that continues to evolve and impress.

“For many people running non-free operating systems, it was the very first Free Software they ever installed. For many people running Free Software, it saved them from installing and booting into a proprietary operating system”, declared Matthias Kirschner, president of the FSFE during the Award ceremony.

Jean-Baptiste Kempf joined the project as a student, and when it faced the risk of dying after the graduation of its original developers, he took the reins. With the help of other core developers, he transformed it into the indispensable media player we rely on today.

Over the years, Kempf has become not only the president of the VideoLAN non-profit but also one of the lead developers of VLC Media Player and the founder of VideoLabs. “It’s small, fast, friendly, and seems to "understand everything you throw at it. I have always thought of it as "the program that eats everything", said Raphael Barbieri, a member of LUGBZ, during the winner’s announcement.

"I am extremely honoured to receive the European SFS Award. The Free Software multimedia community is quite niche and unknown, but we work hard so that video content can be free, can be played and processed. The work done around the VideoLAN community has been tremendous, despite its little resources. I want to thank the whole VideoLAN and FFmpeg teams, who spend their time on those projects, often with little recognition", declares Jean-Baptiste Kemp.

The European SFS Award

My suggestion: The European SFS Award recognizes individuals whose work has made a significant and sustained difference in advancing Free Software across Europe. Since 2023 it is presented jointly by LUGBZ and the FSFE and honours those whose efforts strengthen software freedom, community building, and the ethical foundations of technology.

In previous years, the award was given to Frank Karlitschek (2023) for his leadership with Nextcloud, and posthumously to Bram Moolenaar (2024) for creating the Vim editor.

2025 Laudatio

Raphael: There’s a program most of us have used - on laptops, phones, tablets or desktops computers. It might have run on screens in supermarkets or shops. It’s small, fast, friendly, and seems to "understand everything you throw at it". I have always thought of it as "the program that eats everything."

Matthias: This amazing software did not come from a giant technology company with a huge budget. It began more than twenty years ago - as a modest experiment by a few students at an engineering school. They wanted to solve a problem they identified. Nothing fancy - just a student project to tinker, experiment, share, and have fun. No one knew that those first lines of code written for “network 2000” would one day reach billions of users.

Raphael: Like many student projects, it almost faded away when graduation came and the contributors had other priorities. But one young engineer, who had joined the group in 2000, refused to let it die. He reorganised the code, inspired new contributors, and slowly turned a university experiment into a world-class piece of software.

Matthias: He built a healthy community fostering the software. Hundreds of volunteers joined. They contributed by programming, testing, auditing, helping others, with translations, improving the design, or promoting the software. Thereby the community grew and people started using the software on every platform – GNU/Linux and other Unix like operating systems, Windows, Android, or MacOS and iOS. For many people running non-free operating systems, it was the very first Free Software they ever installed. For many people running Free Software, it saved them from installing and booting into a proprietary operating system.

Raphael: With this success our winner was offered tempting deals - big money, advertising, corporate buyouts. Every time, he gently said no. Because it was not about maximising profit. It was about maximising freedom for computer users.

Matthias: To protect that freedom, he later founded a non-profit organisation - so the software would always belong to its community. He also founded a company to support the technical side - keeping development professional while staying true to the values of software freedom. Under his leadership, the initiative has reached billions of downloads, maintained and added amazing features - all without losing its soul.

Raphael: And there’s another thing this community is famous for - its sense of humour. Their symbol? A bright orange-and-white traffic cone. Legend has it that the original students used to collect these cones after late nights out. When it came time to pick a logo, they chose it proudly - a playful symbol of creativity, chaos, and collaboration.

Matthias: Nowadays, that little cone has become an icon you find on a huge amount of computers worldwide. At conferences their contributors wear the cones on their heads with pride as a clear sign of who they are and what they stand for.

Raphael: And the person behind it? He’s not just a brilliant engineer. He’s a leader, a mentor, and a true advocate for software freedom. In 2018, his contributions were honoured with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite - the first Free Software developer ever to receive that distinction. Yes - a real knight of software freedom.

Matthias: His “Holy Grail” was not fame or fortune - it’s freedom: the freedom for billions of people to watch, listen, and share multimedia files without restrictions or surveillance. He has shown the world that integrity, community, and a bit of humour can change how we experience digital media.

Raphael: Today, we celebrate someone who has made it possible for all of us to enjoy open, universal access to media - and who continues to prove that Free Software is powerful, beautiful, and fun.

Matthias: It is our great pleasure to present the European SFS Award 2025 to the president of the VideoLAN non-profit, one of the lead developers of VLC media player, the founder of VideoLabs, the bearer of the traffic cone, and a true knight of Free Software....

Matthias & Raphael: Jean-Baptiste Kempf!

Support FSFE

Ich erkläre, wie man NAS-Ordner mounten kann, wenn sie in bestimmten Programmen fehlen.

Auch wenn uns X11 noch einige Jahre begleiten wird, schwenken zunehmend Distributionen und Desktops auf Wayland um. Mit GNOME 50 verschwindet X11 komplett aus der GNOME Shell.

Nach einer längeren Entwicklungsphase meldet sich Flatpak eindrucksvoll zurück. Sebastian Wick von Red Hat hat kürzlich Einblicke in die Arbeit am beliebten Linux-Sandboxing-Framework gegeben. Die Pre-Release-Version 1.17 markiert die erste Aktualisierung seit sechs Monaten und startet eine neue instabile Serie und beerbt Version 1.16.1. Wick räumte ein, dass Flatpak Anfang 2025 eine eher ruhige Phase […]

Der Beitrag Flatpak 1.17 – das steht uns bevor erschien zuerst auf fosstopia.

ODF steht für OpenDocument Format und ist ein 2005 erstmals vorgestellter quelloffener Standard für das Speichern und Austauschen der Dateiformate

SUSE hat die allgemeine Verfügbarkeit von Linux Enterprise Server 16 (SLES 16) bekanntgegeben. Die neue Version setzt Maßstäbe für Enterprise Linux. Sie bietet eine stabile Grundlage für die IT der nächsten Dekade. Erstmals integriert SUSE ein Agentic-KI-Framework direkt in das Betriebssystem. Die Lösung soll Infrastrukturmanagement vereinfachen, Kosten senken und Prozesse beschleunigen. Administratoren profitieren von automatisierter […]

Der Beitrag SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16: KI und langfristige Enterprise Stabilität erschien zuerst auf fosstopia.

Wo sein sauer verdientes Geld hingeht, findet Mike Schilli mittels Auswertung der aus dem Finanzprogramm YNAB exportierten Buchungsdaten heraus.

Amazon, das über hundert Milliarden Dollar allein in diesem Jahr in eigene KI-Infrastruktur investiert und gerade einen Deal mit OpenAI im Umfang von 38 Milliarden Dollar besiegelt hat, streitet…

Red Hat hat einen neuen Service angekündigt: Red Hat Confirmed Sovereign Support. Er richtet sich an Unternehmen in allen 27 Mitgliedstaaten der EU. Ziel ist es digitale Souveränität zu fördern. Der Support wird ausschließlich von EU-Bürgern erbracht und lokal innerhalb der EU bereitgestellt. Das Unternehmen betont, dass echte digitale Souveränität nur mit Open Source möglich […]

Der Beitrag Red Hat startet souveränen Support für alle EU-Staaten erschien zuerst auf fosstopia.

Hibiscus unterstützt nun die Anfang Oktober eingeführte Empfängerüberprüfung bei Überweisungen. Zu der Verzögerung kam es, weil es an Entwicklern mangelt.

In der Ruby-Community kehrt Ruhe ein, nachdem sie ein heftiger Machtstreit um Open-Source erschüttert hat.

SAP startet mit einem eigenen KI-Modell SAP-RPT-1, das präzise Vorhersagen aus strukturierten Geschäftsdaten liefern soll.

Stability AI, der Schöpfer des Bildgenerators Stable Diffusion, hat einen Prozess vor dem Londoner High Court gegen die Bildagentur Getty Images gewonnen.

Der terminalbasierte Task-Manager dstask hat Version 1.0 erreicht. Die wichtigste Neuerung: Entwickler können das Tool nun auch unter Windows nutzen.

Das LXQt-Team hat LXQt 2.3.0 veröffentlicht. Die leichtgewichtige Qt-Desktopumgebung verbessert unter anderem die Wayland-Unterstützung und bringt ein neues Wiki mit.

Die Anforderungen an digitale Souveränität in Europa treibt auch Red Hat um.

Das Flatpak-Projekt schien in letzter Zeit in einer Krise zu stecken. Entwickler verließen das Projekt und die Entwicklung stagnierte. Mit Flatpak 1.17 scheint jetzt ein Wendepunkt erreicht zu sein.

DeepL, ein Unternehmen für KI-Produkte und –Forschung mit Sitz in Köln und Betreiber des geichnamigen maschinellen Übersetzungsdienstes hat im Rahmen seiner jährlichen Konferenz DeepL Dialogues…

“They are not alone in their work for software freedom”

Every year on 14 February we celebrate “I Love Free Software Day”, thanking all who contribute to Free Software. Without all of you we would not have such a great ecosystem today! Our Polish group joined our celebrations on 2025 for the first time, and we wanted to know more about them. So, we talked with Damian, our Poland group coordinator, about the Polish groups’ commitment to Free Software.

The Polish country team of the FSFE, FSFE Poland has existed since 2018. For some time there was a lull in the activities of the groups – but now they are back! Currently there are three local groups, Warsaw, Poznań and Wrocław, which are some of the largest cities in Poland. Together they do quite a lot and are actively organising events and campaigns. For a good view of their activity you can of course join their Matrix room (Polish only)

Together they decided to celebrate “I Love Free Software Day 2025”, taking this as the perfect opportunity to restart FSFE Poland. They organised three events to which everyone interested in Free Software was invited. Every event was visited by 20-30 people; there were lots of fun, interesting conversations with a focus on lesser known software, and lots of pizza!

FSFE: Hello Damian, we are glad that you could take the time for this interview. Can you tell us how many local groups there are in Poland? Can everybody who is interested join them?

Damian Fajfer, Coordinator of FSFE Poland: The Polish volunteers happen to be mostly from around Warsaw, Poznań and Wrocław so I would say there are three groups overall. Of course anyone can join; these are not strict groups at all and have no membership formalities whatsoever. If your goals align with ours and Free Software is important for you, we invite you to participate in our Matrix rooms, especially if you would be willing to help with our projects and activities.

FSFE: What did you do for I Love Free Software Day 2025?

Damian: This was our first time; we plan to celebrate the event each year. But for the future in a more coordinated manner! For 2025, we managed to make a unified template for all our local activities and helped each other organise the event in three cities: Wrocław, Poznań and Warsaw. Here you can find the code of our website, published by Michał Korczak under the SIC license. The result was meetings of about 20-30+ people in each location. We talked about Free Software projects with emphasis on those that are hidden, lesser-known projects, but important for us for some specific reason.

FSFE: Was there something you liked very much about the celebrations?

Damian: I feel like they helped us unify our standing a little bit. People got to acknowledge that FSFE supports their work and – hopefully – that they are not alone in their work for software freedom. I liked that we made a common template for the event and that we translated Pretalx to Polish - huge kudos to Wiktor Przybylski, Paweł "pomidor" Wiczyński, Kacper from Hackerspace Łódź and others for their excellent work.

FSFE: Why do you think I Love Free Software Day is important and why should everybody be celebrating this day?

Damian: Because it raises awareness in the community about the importance of Free Software. It also shows the importance of work done by volunteers who help with the development of Free Software. “I Love Free Software Day” is one of the few opportunities to meet in person, where Free Software is the leading conversation topic.

FSFE: What are the activities the local groups do and is there something happening where new people are welcome to join and support the effort?

Damian: You could say that each FSFE group is loosely associated around a Hackerspace, which provided a space to host the event in that city this year. People feeling associated with the Free Software movement just naturally gravitate towards these places. We are using Matrix channel as the sole medium of communication and everyone interested in Free Software is encouraged to join. I would say our main activities are promoting the Free Software movement by organising Free Software events in Poland: “Sesja Linuksowa” (“Linux Session”), “Poznańska Impreza Wolnego Oprogramowania” (“Poznań Free Software Party”), “Jesień Linuxowa” (“Linux Autumn”) and many more.

The FSFE volunteers are, in varying proportions, organisers of these events and I think it is now impossible to find a Free Software event without one of us being there. We are timidly trying to get more seriously into translations and have started writing reports regarding Free Software that I hope will appear by the end of the year.

FSFE: Was the celebration in 2025, the first time you celebrated “I Love Free Software Day” and what motivated you to participate?

Damian: Actually, the first “I Love Free Software Day” event I organised was in 2017 at Poznań University of Technology. I was a student and also the Free Software student club president so it felt pretty natural at that time. I had already helped organising Poznańska Impreza Wolnego Oprogramowania (“Poznań Free Software Party”) and Linux Presentation Days before. In 2016 I saw some FSFE stickers on someone’s laptop and the person suggested that we could order stickers from the FSFE website for our conference next time. I wanted to be part of the celebration because I loved the idea the first time and the timing for the event is ideal for a Free Software event because nothing much happens during the winter time.

FSFE: As a coordinator of the Poland group, you managed the communication for all three local groups. How was this from your perspective as coordinator and are there some pitfalls you can share with us that other country coordinators should watch out for?

Damian: I think I had a huge advantage already because I personally know people from the other cities. I have studied in Poznań and the organisers are ex-members of the Free Software student's club. Their friends and I met Michał from Wrocław during “Jesień Linuxowa” (“Linux Autumn”). His being one of the main organisers behind “Sesja Linuxowa” (“Linux Session”) made him an ideal candidate to organise a way smaller event like “I Love Free Software Day”.

In reality I did not have to coordinate much as I had very experienced organisers at hand that I could rely on. If I were to give a piece of advice to people coordinating things on a country level scale, it is that you need to find people with initiative and a sense of responsibility to cooperate with. In any kind of relationship, input from both sides is required. I do not think it would really work in other communities if I tried to force my way onto people that do not feel comfortable in such a role.

FSFE: Do you already have plans for celebrating "I Love Free Software Day 2026"?

Damian: There is a LAN party culture that we inherited from previous organisers of “Poznańska Impreza Wolnego Oprogramowania” (“Poznań Free Software Party”) that I really cherish. I think it would be nice if the “I Love Free Software Day” had some LAN-Party-like online events alongside (like those that these informal communities organise: onFOSS and FOSSGralnia.

There we could promote and raise awareness about this kind of software. Besides, I do not know if the theme is already announced but I hope everyone is aiming to affect more people, listen to more talks and eat more pizza.

FSFE: That sounds like a great party! We cannot wait to see your event and we will keep our community posted about this. Thank you for your time and your work for the Free Software community!

You can find more images in our gallery here!

Support FSFE

Die auf dem Qt-Framework basierende leichtgewichtige Desktopumgebung LXQt geht in Version 2.3.0 weiter den Weg der besseren Wayland-Integration

Beim diesjährigen Ubuntu Summit in London zeigte sich, wie stark Canonical das Linux-Ökosystem weiterhin prägt. Mehrere Unternehmen stellten Projekte vor, die sich direkt auf Ubuntu stützen, oft verbunden mit der Integration von Snap-Paketen, die die Verteilung und Wartung von Anwendungen deutlich vereinfachen sollen. Damit festigt Ubuntu seine Rolle als zentrale Plattform im offenen Softwareumfeld. Ein […]

Der Beitrag Ubuntu Summit 2025: Snap-Pakete, KI und neue Partnerschaften prägen das Bild erschien zuerst auf fosstopia.