grants two annual awards. Since 1998, FSF has granted the award for Advancement of Free Software and since 2005, also the Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit.
This is annually presented by the Free Software Foundation to a person whom it deems to have made a great contribution to the progress and development of free software, through activities that accord with the spirit of free software.
;1998 Larry Wall ;1999 Miguel de Icaza ;2000 Brian Paul ;2001 Guido van Rossum ;2002 Lawrence Lessig ;2003 Alan Cox ;2004 Theo de Raadt ;2005 Andrew Tridgell ;2006 Theodore Ts'o ;2007 Harald Welte ;2008 Wietse Venema ;2009 John Gilmore ;2010 Rob Savoye ;2011 Yukihiro Matsumoto ;2012 Fernando Pérez ;2013 Matthew Garrett ;2014 Sébastien Jodogne ;2015 Werner Koch ;2016 Alexandre Oliva ;2017 Karen Sandler ;2018 Deborah Nicholson ;2019 Jim Meyering, Programmer
Social benefit award
Source: . The Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit is an annual award granted by the Free Software Foundation. In announcing the award, the FSF explained that: According to Richard Stallman, former President of FSF, the award was inspired by the Sahana project which was developed, and was used, for organising the transfer of aid to tsunami victims in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The developers indicated that they hope to adapt it to aid for other future disasters. This is the second annual award created by FSF. The first was the Award for the Advancement of Free Software.
1998: Peter H. Salus, Scott Christley, Rich Morin, Adam Richter, Richard Stallman, and Vernor Vinge
1999: Peter H. Salus, no further details found
2000: no details found
2001 The selection committee included: Miguel de Icaza, Ian Murdock, Eric S. Raymond, Peter H. Salus, Vernor Vinge, and Larry Wall
2002 The selection committee included: Enrique A. Chaparro, Frederic Couchet, Hong Feng, Miguel de Icaza, Raj Mathur, Frederick Noronha, Jonas Öberg, Eric S. Raymond, Guido van Rossum, Peter H. Salus, Suresh Ramasubramanian, and Larry Wall
2003 The selection committee included: Enrique A. Chaparro, Frederic Couchet, Miguel de Icaza, Raj Mathur, Frederick Noronha, Jonas Öberg, Bruce Perens, Peter H. Salus, Suresh Ramasubramanian, Richard Stallman, and Vernor Vinge
2004: Suresh Ramasubramanian, Raj Mathur, Frederick Noronha, Hong Feng, Frederic Couchet, Enrique A. Chaparro, Vernor Vinge, Larry Wall, Alan Cox, Peter H Salus, Richard Stallman
2005: Peter H. Salus, Richard Stallman, Alan Cox, Lawrence Lessig, Guido van Rossum, Frederic Couchet, Jonas Öberg, Hong Feng, Bruce Perens, Raj Mathur, Suresh Ramasubramanian, Enrique A. Chaparro, Ian Murdock
2006: Peter H. Salus, Richard Stallman, Andrew Tridgell, Alan Cox, Lawrence Lessig, Vernor Vinge, Frederic Couchet, Jonas Öberg, Hong Feng, Raj Mathur, Suresh Ramasubramanian
2008: Suresh Ramasubramanian, Peter H. Salus, Raj Mathur, Hong Feng, Andrew Tridgell, Jonas Öberg, Vernor Vinge, Richard Stallman, and Fernanda G. Weiden.
2009: Suresh Ramasubramanian, Peter H. Salus, Lawrence Lessig, Raj Mathur, Wietse Venema, Hong Feng, Andrew Tridgell, Jonas Öberg, Vernor Vinge, Richard Stallman, Fernanda G. Weiden and Harald Welte.
2010: Suresh Ramasubramanian, Peter H. Salus, Raj Mathur, Wietse Venema, Hong Feng, Andrew Tridgell, Jonas Öberg, Vernor Vinge, Richard Stallman, Fernanda G. Weiden and Harald Welte.
2011: Suresh Ramasubramanian, Peter H. Salus, Raj Mathur, Wietse Venema, Hong Feng, Andrew Tridgell, Jonas Öberg, Vernor Vinge, Richard Stallman, Fernanda G. Weiden and Harald Welte.
2012: Suresh Ramasubramanian, Peter H. Salus, Raj Mathur, Wietse Venema, Hong Feng, Andrew Tridgell, Jonas Öberg, Vernor Vinge, Richard Stallman, Fernanda G. Weiden and Harald Welte.
2013: Suresh Ramasubramanian, Wietse Venema, Hong Feng, Andrew Tridgell, Jonas Öberg, Vernor Vinge, Richard Stallman, Fernanda G. Weiden, Rob Savoye and Harald Welte.
2014: Suresh Ramasubramanian, Marina Zhurakhinskaya, Matthew Garrett, Rob Savoye, Wietse Venema, Richard Stallman, Vernor Vinge, Hong Feng, Fernanda G. Weiden, Harald Welte, Jonas Öberg, and Yukihiro Matsumoto.
