Free Software Foundation Europe says I ♥ Free Software

by Joe Brockmeier - Feb. 15, 2010Comments (0)

FSFE Banner It might be a day too late for Valentine's Day, but it's never too late to show your love for Free Software. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) asked users to show their love for Free Software on Valentine's Day — but there's no reason why that can't run all year long.

The foundation has come up with a couple of graphics ranging from full-on standard banner sizes to 80x15 buttons users can display on their blogs or other sites to show support for Free Software, and some ideas to spread the love. And, if the FSFE has any luck, raise a few dollars while it's at it. The FSFE is not only spreading the love, but also soliciting donations to support the foundation. The campaign encourages users to show support to developers, buy a related book as a present (nothing says "happy Valentine's Day, honey!" like Larry Lessig, after all...), or make a donation to the FSFE or similar organizations.

OK, it might seem a bit hokey, but it's a more positive way to raise awareness for and about Free Software. And I'd take hokey any day over negative. I've been pretty critical of the Defective By Design campaigns because they're inherently negative, and more likely to alienate users who aren't already sold on Free Software than they are to convince anyone about the merits of Free Software. Being against something, rather than showing support for software that supports the Four Freedoms is counter-productive. It's much better to show new users why Free Software is lovable than to try to demonize proprietary software.

Showing enthusiasm for Free Software is much better. The only failing I see with the campaign is that it doesn't do a lot to explain why people should love Free Software. If the FSFE runs this next year, I hope they'll build it out a bit more to give advocates a bit more to work with.

Want to show your love? Grab the graphics on the "I ♥ Free Software" page, or one of the Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) files if the pre-made graphics aren't quite the right size for you. In addition to the graphics, the FSFE asks users to tag pictures and messages with #ilovefs, which might be a good way to show support on Identi.ca and Twitter.

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years covering IT. Formerly the openSUSE Community Manager for Novell, Brockmeier has written for Linux Magazine, Sys Admin, Linux Pro Magazine, IBM developerWorks, Linux.com, CIO.com, Linux Weekly News, ZDNet, and many other publications.