The Free Software Foundation (FSF) recently announced the winners of the 2021 Free Software Awards, that are awarded annually at the LibrePlanet 2022 conference, which has been held online as in the last two years.
It hosted a virtual awards ceremony announcing the winners of the 2021 Annual Free Software Awards, established by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and awarded to individuals who have made the most significant contribution to the development of free software, as well as as socially significant free projects.
the commemorative plaques and the certificates presented at the ceremony were sent to the winners by mail (the FSF award does not imply a monetary reward).
The This year's award winners are Paul Eggert, Protesilaos Stavrou and SecuRepairs. As the ceremony was held virtually this year, each winner selected the person they wanted to present the award to them.
El Award for the Development and Advancement of Free Software went to Paul Eggert, Who responsible for maintaining the time zone database used by most Unix systems and all Linux distributions. The database reflects and accumulates information about all changes related to time zones, including time zone changes and changes in the transition to summer/winter time. Additionally, Paul has also been involved in the development of many open source projects like GCC for over 30 years.
In his recorded message honoring Eggert, Kooyman said:
“There are few people in the free software community who have had a track record of consistently excellent work. It's not just GNU who has benefited from his work, or everyone who uses GCC. It also points out the importance of projects that we can take for granted. Anytime our computers or phones 'magically' know where one time zone begins and another ends, Paul's work with TZDB comes in handy."
In the nomination given to projects that have brought significant benefits to society and contributed to the solution of important social problems, the award went to the SecuRepairs project, which brings together computer security professionals that defend the users' right to self-repair, studying the interior, maintaining and modifying the padding of devices or software products.
In addition to the rights of the owners, the SecuRepairs project also advocates the possibility of repair by independent professionals not affiliated with the manufacturer. The project attempts to counter initiatives by hardware manufacturers to make it more difficult for users to tamper with their devices. Getting the ability to make changes yourself is explained, for example, by the urgent need to fix vulnerabilities and privacy issues, without waiting for a response from the manufacturer.
Presenting the award to SecureRepairs, FSF Executive Director Zoë Kooyman stated:
“The right to repair movement is closely related to the free software movement. They both strive to put the most important parts of our technical lives under the control of users rather than corporations." and I am delighted that SecuRepairs is receiving this award.”
The New Contributor Featured Contribution category to Free Software, which honors newcomers whose early contributions show a visible commitment to the free software movement, it was awarded to Protesilaos Stavrou, who distinguished himself in the development of the Emacs editor.
Protesilaus develops several useful additions to Emacs and actively contributes to the community with blog posts and live streams. Protesilaus is cited as an example where a newcomer in just a few years can achieve key contributor status for a large free project.
In an award acceptance video, Stavrou thanked the entire Emacs community and stated:
“I want to thank the Free Software Foundation for this award. I didn't expect it, just as I didn't expect to make any kind of contribution to GNU Emacs given my non-technical background. Protesilaos went on to state, "While this award is given to an individual, I think it's really about the community [and] how those unsung heroes have helped a certain person achieve certain things."
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