BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Wednesday, February 28, 2018 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today published its Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Annual Report.

The report is available in low-resolution (11.5 MB PDF) and high-resolution (207.2 MB PDF).

The Annual Report reviews the Foundation's activities, accomplishments, and financial picture from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016. It is the result of a full external financial audit, along with a focused study of program results. It examines the impact of the FSF's programs, and FY2016's major events, including LibrePlanet, the creation of ethical criteria for code-hosting repositories, and the expansion of the Respects Your Freedom computer hardware product certification program.

"More people and businesses are using free software than ever before," said FSF executive director John Sullivan in his introduction to the FY2016 report. "That's big news, but our most important measure of success is the support for the ideals. In that area, we have momentum on our side."

As with all of the Foundation's activities, the Annual Report was made using free software, including Inkscape, GIMP, and PDFsam, along with freely licensed fonts and images.

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at https://fsf.org and https://gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at https://my.fsf.org/donate. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

More information about the FSF, as well as important information for journalists and publishers, is at https://www.fsf.org/press.

Media Contacts

Georgia Young
Program Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x 17
campaigns@fsf.org