On today's "I love Free Software Day" I would like to thank again Bram Moolenaar, creator of the widely used Vim text editor and all the people active in the community around VIM.
While many people in the movement for software freedom know about VI, VIM, NeoVim, or other flavours, for many people outside our movement this software is installed on their computers, but often without them actively installing it or noticing it as a separate component. There are no exact numbers, but with all the installations on GNU/Linux (servers, virtual machines, desktop, ... ), BSD and Unix systems, MacOS, Microsoft Windows and the Windows Subsystem for Linux) I feel comfortable to claim there are way more than 1 billion installations.
Matthias and Raphael at SFSCON 2024 asking all people in the audience to stand up if are using Vim, or have used Vim in the past. Matthias showing the VI M sign with his fingers - CC-BY-SA 4.0 NOI
While it is a "hidden software" for many out there, it is one of the most important tools for other; including myself. IIRC I started using the text editor Vim in 1999 when I installed my first GNU/Linux distribution. In an e-mail from July 2001, a friend complains that he had some encoding issues with a file I sent him, where I told him that I wrote it with Vim, in November 2001 I sent parts of my Vim config file to another person from our Free Software user group, and my first public post seems to be in 2002 when I engaged in discussions about Vim on the German Debian User mailing list (yes, I would today engage differently in such discussions).
For 25 years, a quarter of a decade, I almost daily write notes and e-mails using the Vim key bindings, all the papers at university (through Latex), almost everything that is published from my had its origin in a text file I edited the "Vim way". The commands are meanwhile part of my muscle memory.
In the preparation for the European SFS Award 2024 I had the honour of talking to many people who closely worked with Bram and with his family. To express my gratitude, let me quote the laudatio again, which was a quite emotional moment for me (if you prefer, you can also watch the video recording).
Matthias: It is an honor to present the European SFS Award 2024. The FSFE and LUGBZ worked together again this year to find a winner from all nominations. This year’s European SFS Award goes to someone whose work transformed how many interact with computers, creating a tool for Free Software contributors, developers, and creators. A tool that new users might be a little afraid of because it can be tricky to exit.
Raphael: (Yes, you may know the software we’re talking about.) A piece of code that makes every keystroke feel like a power move, where “Esc” is the most important key on your keyboard. Since its launch in 1991, this software has spread across more than 15 operating systems and is installed on millions of computers around the world.
Matthias: For our winner, efficiency of computer users was crucial. His mantra was: “Detect inefficiencies, find a quicker way, make it a habit!” and he helped many people to how to actually accomplish this. He went on to help those he met on mailing lists, at conferences like SFSCON in 2009, or at his workplace. He even talked to public administrations, so they actually use and thereby benefit from Free Software. He wanted to ensure that all software which is procured by public administrations is published under a Free Software license for the good of society.
Raphael: Educating others to empower them was also important for him outside of the technology field. He helped children in Uganda -- who often lost their parents due to HIV -- to get education at the Kibaale Community Centre. He enabled school education for many of them so they can take care about themselves and their families in the long run. He founded an NGO to collection donations for this work, even on his work desk there was a piggy bank so that visitors can easily donate.
Matthias: There was a huge online rivalry between the users of his software and those on the other side: those who used another "operating system" and who called his software the "editor of the beast". This rivalry became an enduring part of hacker culture and the Free Software community. A huge fan of Monty Pythons, this year's winner did not shy away from engaging in such banter.
Raphael: His dedication was enormous. His family will not forget the moments, in which he disappeared on Christmas day, because he "needed to fix some bugs". It gave him great pleasure to develop and use his software, and he wanted to help others to also experience this joy. "If you are happy, I am happy!" was one of his sayings. He took every opportunity to work on his projects, even while in the hospital.
Matthias:With his death on 3 August 2023 the Free Software community lost a person who enabled thousands of people to contribute efficiently to software freedom. We regret that he was not able to live longer with his beloved turtles, finishing his plans for a vacuum robot that could clean stairways, fixing bugs, implementing new features for the users of his software, and being here with us.
Raphael: For his remarkable contributions to software freedom the European SFS Award 2024 goes posthumously to Bram Moolenaar, the creator of Vi IMproved -- or VIM.
Matthias: So, please join us in a big round of applause for Bram Moolenaar.
On today's "I love Free Software" day, let me thank again Bram Moolenaar for all the mentioned work. Thank you, Christian Brabandt and the other contributors who took the coordination of Vim after Bram passed away. Thank you to Sven Guckes (I wrote about his death in 2022) who helped me and others with many Vim questions plus showed me how to do the "VI M" with my fingers like in the picture above, and thank you to all the people from projects like NeoVIM, Nvi, Busybox Vi, who develop and maintain their Vi flavour.
Matthias thanking Bram Moolenaar on stage at SFSCON 2024 with picture of Bram coding on Vim in the background - CC-BY-SA 4.0 NOI