Vim developer Bram Moolenaar posthumously receives the European SFS Award

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The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and Linux User Group Bolzano-Bozen (LUGBZ) posthumously honored Bram Moolenaar, creator of the widely used Vim text editor, with the European SFS Award at SFSCON 2024. This award celebrates Moolenaar’s invaluable contributions to the Free Software community.

“This year’s European SFS Award goes to Bram Moolenaar whose mantra was ‘Detect inefficiencies, find a quicker way, make it a habit’, someone for whom efficiency of computers users was crucial. His work transformed how many interact with computers, maximizing programmers productivity by minimizing unnecessary keystrokes. His tool has become invaluable for Free Software contributors, developers, and creators.” said Matthias Kirschner, president of the FSFE as he presented the 2024 European SFS Award during SFSCON 24.

Bram Moolenaar is best known for developing VIM, a powerful, screen-based text editor. Released in 1991, Vim was originally a port of the Stevie editor for Amiga and has since become an indispensable tool for developers worldwide, available across multiple platforms. Vim remains one of the most popular and versatile development environments, supporting countless programmers and fostering a dedicated user community. Moolenaar released Vim as “charityware,” encouraging users to support children in the south of Uganda through charitable donations.

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