I ♥ Free Software Day 2025: Let's celebrate the people who make and maintain free software

We wouldn't have free software without a strong and dedicated community of developers, maintainers, advocates, and users.

February 14 is a day to proclaim your love to those around you, including the people who make free software possible. I Love Free Software Day, the same day as Valentine's Day, was started by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) in 2013. It was launched as a special day to tell everyone maintaining and contributing to free software, including people advocating for it, "thank you." The free software movement wouldn't be anywhere near the size it is today without the massive community of individuals and organizations building a world where everyone can use, share, study, and improve the technology we all use.

In the 2020s, with tens of thousands of free software programs to choose from, it can be really easy to take for granted all the programs that can be used in freedom. It hasn't always been this way, as archivists and long-term advocates know. While most of us can name a few large free software projects, many of us don't think or talk very often about the people behind the scenes on our favorite free software projects, nor the countless hours they invest into making a particular program reality. For the twelfth annual I Love Free Software Day, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is joining the FSFE in paying special attention to "hidden projects."

Every day is a great day to shine a spotlight on less popular free software projects. This Friday, we suggest talking about and appreciating those free software projects that operate a little more quietly than more famous projects. These hidden projects, the ones that make a lot of what we use every day possible, deserve a little extra love this I Love Free Software Day. We have a few ideas for how you can celebrate free software projects big and small.

We hope your relationship with free software lasts forever!

Use free software to

❤️ Make a video with free software talking about why you love free software.

❤️ Create a social media image with the sharepic template created by the FSFE proclaiming why you love a particular project or just free software in general.

❤️ Make a free software themed Valentines Day card (using free software), either for a loved one or a project that deserves special attention.

❤️ Try a free software program that you've been curious about.

❤️ Teach yourself something new. There are lots of helpful videos and written tutorials on how to do a wide variety of things with free software, including the basics of command line or how to make a song.

Study the software you use by

❤️ Reflecting on which project(s) you used over the past year. What did you enjoy about your experience?

❤️ Examining how a program you use frequently actually works.

❤️ Comparing free software programs to each other, noticing their differences and similarities, and why one of them works better for your needs.

Share how much you care by

❤️ Reaching out to a project that you really appreciate, and telling them why you love the program.

❤️ Sharing something you made with free software, like a video, social media image, or Valentine's Day card (printed or digital). If sharing on social media, please tag #ilovefs.

❤️ Telling someone else about your favorite project, and maybe even showing them the basics of using it. For some ideas on which programs to show someone, check out the Freedom Ladder.

Improve

❤️ Donating to a free software project (it doesn't have to be a lot of money - it could just be the cost of a drink from your favorite cafe).

❤️ Helping with a translation if you know more than one language.

Special thanks!

Thank you to everyone who develops and maintains free software. The tools to create the greeting card, the video, let alone our website, would not be possible without dedicated and community-oriented developers, and their willingness to share their work with others. We can't thank them often enough.

Thank you to the FSFE for starting I Love Free Software Day and designing the sharepic SVG.

Finally, thank you for being part of the free software community. Software freedom relies on individual people using the four freedoms and advocating for greater user freedom. We can celebrate I Love Free Software Day because of all the activists who have worked hard to make sure that we still have software freedom. Thank you for helping protect user freedom.

While user freedom is still very much under attack worldwide, it's important that we take time to recognize how far we've come and get energized about the work we have ahead. We need to remain persistent in defending our right to software freedom, but to do so, we also need to remain grounded in why it's a cause worth fighting for. Let's have a little fun and celebrate why we love free software!

"Picture of the Chaos Communication Camp 2019" © 2019, CountCrapula. This image is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

"You + me are like free software...Valentine's Day card" © 2025, Free Software Foundation, Inc., by Eko K. A. Owen. This image is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.