This week the Free Software Foundation published memorabilia items for an online silent auction — part of their big 40th anniversary celebration. “Starting March 17, the FSF will unlock items each day for bidding on the LibrePlanet wiki at 12:00 EDT.. Bidding on all items will conclude at 15:00 EDT on March 21, 2025…
“During the auction, the FSF welcomes everyone who supports user freedom to bid on historical and symbolic free software memorabilia,” they annouced this week:
The auction is split into two parts: a silent auction hosted on the LibrePlanet wiki from March 17 through March 21 and a live auction held on the FSF’s Galène videoconferencing server on March 23 from 14:00-17:00. The auction is only the opening act to a months-long itinerary celebrating forty years of free software activism…
Executive director Zoë Kooyman adds: “These items are valuable pieces of FSF history, and some of them are emblematic of the free software movement. We want to entrust these memorabilia in the hands of the free software community for preservation and would love to see some of these items displayed in exhibitions.” All in all, there are twenty-five pieces that are either directly part of the FSF’s history and/or representative of the free software movement that will be available in the silent auction.
Winning bidders can rest assured that all proceeds from this auction will go towards the FSF’s continued work to promote computer user freedom worldwide.
Silent auction items include:
- A mid-1980s VT220 terminal that “still works, and can be connected to your favorite free machine over the serial interface… This is the same terminal that was on the FSF reception desk for some time, introducing visitors to ASCII art, NetHack, and other free software lore.” Bids start at $250… (with estimate shipping costs of $100)
- An Amiga 3000UX donated to the GNU project “sometime in 1990.” While it now has a damaged battery, “FSF staff programmers used it at MIT to help further some early development of the GNU operating system.” Starting bid: $300 (with estimated shipping costs of $400).
- “A variety of plush animals that had greeted visitors at its former offices in Boston on 51 Franklin Street…”
“The most notable items have been reserved for the live auction on Sunday, March 23,” they note — including the Internet Hall of Fame medal awarded to FSF founder Richard Stallman in 2013 “as ultimate recognition of free software’s immense impact on the development and advancement of the Internet.”
