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22 events, one message: Maintainers Matter and we love Free Software

The 2026 edition of “I Love Free Software Day” demonstrated, once again, the strength and gratitude of our Free Software community. 22 celebrations in 12 European countries highlighted the invaluable work of Free Software maintainers as well as bringing people together to thank everyone who contributes to Free Software. Appreciation also extended across the Fediverse, alongside other surprises.

We are really proud of our community and what the Free Software ecosystem is achieving day after day, but there is one special moment each year when we invite everyone to shout it out into the world. “I Love Free Software Day” is our yearly celebration dedicated to saying thank you to all those behind our favourite Free Software projects.

Every year on 14 February, or in the days around it, our communities come together across Europe and online to express their appreciation. Whether through local meet-ups, talks, workshops, postcards, blog posts, social media messages, or simple words of gratitude, the message is clear: Free Software exists and thrives because of the people who build, maintain, document, translate, test, and support it.

For the 2026 celebration, and under the motto “Maintaners Matter”, our communities organised 22 events across 12 different European countries, reaching more than 300 people offline. From cosy café meet-ups to university gatherings and hacker spaces, people came together to say a heartfelt “Thank you” to Free Software maintainers, contributors, and developers.

And many more people celebrated it online. Hundreds of individuals and organisations joined the celebration on the Fediverse, sharing appreciation posts and gratitude messages. The hashtag #ilovefs ranked among the most used hashtags on the day. For the first time, the celebration also reached the front page of Hacker News, thanks to a “thank you” blog post by Matthias Kirschner, the president of the FSFE, who shared his appreciation for Arch Linux and the extensive ArchWiki.

New countries, Badges, Fediwall, a comic, and a map

For the first time, “I Love Free Software Day” reached Croatia and Norway, each hosting a local event and expanding the celebration further north and south across Europe. New cities joined as well, including Bonn (Germany) and Amsterdam (Netherlands). And also Tirana (Albania) returned for this edition.

The Polish community, which reactivated its activities around last year’s “I Love Free Software Day”, strengthened continued its strong engagement with events in Łódź, Warsaw, and Poznań. Poznań hosted one of the largest gatherings in 2026, bringing together nearly 80 participants for a vibrant day of talks, discussions, and shared appreciation.

Across Europe, communities also met in Oxford and the Potteries (UK), Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Eindhoven (Netherlands), Zurich (Switzerland), Barcelona and Madrid (Spain), Frankfurt, Berlin, Bonn and Nuremberg (Germany), as well as in Portugal, where ANSOL organised an online celebration, and many more.

This year also saw remarkable volunteer-driven innovations:

• A new Fediwall system was developed to highlight and visualise online participation across the Fediverse.
• A Polish volunteer set up a BadgeFed instance, creating dedicated “I Love Free Software Day” badges for organisers, participants, and contributors. A creative new way to publicly recognise engagement!
• A long-standing wish for a dedicated event map became reality thanks to Tom, the project leader of mapforge, who made a customised “I Love Free Software Day” map possible, showcasing celebrations across Europe.

To convey the importance of the day in a more visual and accessible way, the 2026 celebrations also introduced a brand-new comic, explaining why appreciation and recognition for Free Software contributors matter so much.

For the 2026 edition, the Software Freedom Podcast released its 47th episode, “ILoveFS: Let’s meet our maintainers”. In this episode, Bonnie Mehring speaks with maintainer Lorenz Kästle about the rewards and challenges of maintaining Free Software projects in one’s free time.

“I Love Free Software Day” has grown into a well-established online and offline celebration of Software Freedom. Above all, the day remains what it has always been: a joyful celebration full of gratitude, connection, and recognition.

To everyone who organised an event, sent a postcard, shared a hashtag, joined a podcast, created a badge, developed tools, or simply said “Thank you”: thank you for making “I Love Free Software Day 2026: Maintainers Matter” such a special and inspiring celebration.

Wanna know more? Read our Report about the 2026 I love Free Software day celebrations

Support FSFE

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