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Florine Kamdem
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As we reflect on 2025, it is clear that this has been a transformative year for the FreeBSD Project and the FreeBSD Foundation. From expanding educational outreach and strengthening our social presence to fostering deeper connections across the global community, we continued to advance our mission of supporting FreeBSD through advocacy, visibility, and community engagement.
Thanks to the generosity of our donors and the dedication of contributors, partners, and staff, we delivered meaningful impact across advocacy, marketing, events, and collaboration. Below are the key highlights that shaped our advocacy and community efforts in 2025.
Throughout 2025, the Foundation expanded its role in promoting FreeBSD and supporting community growth. Our work centered on making FreeBSD more visible, accessible, and engaging for both new and experienced users.
The 2025 Community Survey, sponsored jointly by the FreeBSD Core Team and the Foundation, provided valuable insights into user needs, particularly regarding onboarding, documentation, and accessibility, which helped shape our advocacy and educational priorities for the year.
To strengthen authentic community engagement, we encouraged users to share their FreeBSD success stories through blog submissions and social channels. This storytelling helped highlight FreeBSD’s value across research, industry, and education.
A standout example was Leah Budzicka, a student who discovered the Foundation through our social media and later attended EuroBSDCon through our Travel Grant Program:
https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/2025-eurobsdcon-trip-report-leah-budzicka/
These trip reports continue to illustrate the real-world impact of community support, mentorship, and Foundation-funded programs.
Throughout the year, the Foundation participated in major events across the open-source and BSD ecosystems. These gatherings strengthened relationships across the Project, provided spaces for technical collaboration, and allowed us to share FreeBSD updates with global audiences.
Key 2025 events included:
A full list of events can be viewed here:
https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/events/past-events/
These events provided opportunities to highlight key FreeBSD Project work, including progress on FreeBSD 15, CI/CD improvements, CHERI integration, Sovereign Tech Agency collaborations, and Google Summer of Code achievements, while also supporting students, new contributors, and long-time community members.
Our advocacy and community programs play a critical role in ensuring FreeBSD remains visible, inclusive, and welcoming. By listening to user needs, amplifying community stories, and showing up at events around the world, we help grow a stronger, more connected FreeBSD ecosystem.
2025 marked a year of growth in educational outreach, communications, and global engagement. Through sustained advocacy work, we continued expanding visibility for FreeBSD and strengthening connections within the community.
Across YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Mastodon, Instagram, and Bluesky, we published educational content, technical explainers, interviews, and event highlights to help users learn, adopt, and explore FreeBSD.
A major milestone was the restructuring of our YouTube channel and a focus on high-production-quality technical content.
By separating meeting recordings out into a dedicated “FreeBSD Meetings” channel, we helped the YouTube algorithm to ultimately give a better experience for our viewers.
Together, these efforts helped the main FreeBSD YouTube channel grow by more than 3,000 new subscribers this year, a 50% increase. Engagement has been outstanding, and the overwhelmingly positive feedback reinforces what we’re seeing elsewhere: interest in FreeBSD is on the rise.
Additionally, we continued developing blogs, videos, and long-term learning resources designed to onboard the next generation of FreeBSD contributors.
Top Blogs of 2025:
Top YouTube Videos of 2025:
In 2025, we used social media to tell the FreeBSD story, highlighting community voices, technical innovation, and the work powering the project forward. Through consistent storytelling across LinkedIn and YouTube, we expanded our reach, strengthened community engagement, and brought greater visibility to technical milestones, educational content, and contributor voices. These efforts helped grow our audience, drive meaningful discussion, and connect more developers and users to the FreeBSD ecosystem. A detailed breakdown of metrics, growth, and platform performance is available in our full Social Media Year-End Report.
We are deeply grateful for the organizations that invest in FreeBSD’s future through annual contributions and sponsorships. Their support directly funds software development, infrastructure improvements, community programs, and global advocacy.
If your company is not yet a donor but recognizes the importance of investing in FreeBSD, we invite you to explore our partnership program.
A full list of 2025 supporters can be viewed here:
https://freebsdfoundation.org/donors/
This year reinforced an essential truth across open source: meaningful progress only happens when communities, contributors, and organizations share responsibility for sustaining the work that supports us all.
The FreeBSD community continues to demonstrate what collaborative stewardship looks like. From maintainers and developers to documentation writers, testers, advocates, educators, sponsors, and donors, every contribution helps move the Project forward.
We are grateful for the bug reports, code reviews, travel grant stories, conference talks, documentation improvements, tutorials, and moments of mentorship that shaped 2025. Your support—whether financial, technical, or community-driven—ensures that FreeBSD remains modern, stable, and accessible to everyone who relies on it.
Thank you for helping build a stronger, more resilient, and more sustainable FreeBSD ecosystem.
As we enter 2026, the Foundation will continue investing in high-impact development, improving the contributor experience, strengthening global infrastructure, and expanding educational programs that empower both new and experienced users.
If you’d like to invest in our efforts, please consider donating to the Foundation. Your support, no matter the size, makes a direct impact on the work we do for the Project. Together, we are building the long-term future of FreeBSD, and we are grateful to everyone who helps make this work possible.
Donate to FreeBSD Foundation | FreeBSD Foundation
The post 2025: A Year of Advocacy, Community, and Growth first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.
Continue reading...
Consider this when replying.
As we reflect on 2025, it is clear that this has been a transformative year for the FreeBSD Project and the FreeBSD Foundation. From expanding educational outreach and strengthening our social presence to fostering deeper connections across the global community, we continued to advance our mission of supporting FreeBSD through advocacy, visibility, and community engagement.
Thanks to the generosity of our donors and the dedication of contributors, partners, and staff, we delivered meaningful impact across advocacy, marketing, events, and collaboration. Below are the key highlights that shaped our advocacy and community efforts in 2025.
Advocacy & Community Engagement
Throughout 2025, the Foundation expanded its role in promoting FreeBSD and supporting community growth. Our work centered on making FreeBSD more visible, accessible, and engaging for both new and experienced users.
The 2025 Community Survey, sponsored jointly by the FreeBSD Core Team and the Foundation, provided valuable insights into user needs, particularly regarding onboarding, documentation, and accessibility, which helped shape our advocacy and educational priorities for the year.
To strengthen authentic community engagement, we encouraged users to share their FreeBSD success stories through blog submissions and social channels. This storytelling helped highlight FreeBSD’s value across research, industry, and education.
A standout example was Leah Budzicka, a student who discovered the Foundation through our social media and later attended EuroBSDCon through our Travel Grant Program:
https://freebsdfoundation.org/blog/2025-eurobsdcon-trip-report-leah-budzicka/
These trip reports continue to illustrate the real-world impact of community support, mentorship, and Foundation-funded programs.
Events & Global Engagement
Throughout the year, the Foundation participated in major events across the open-source and BSD ecosystems. These gatherings strengthened relationships across the Project, provided spaces for technical collaboration, and allowed us to share FreeBSD updates with global audiences.
Key 2025 events included:
- FreeBSD Developer & Vendor Summits — San Jose, CA
- EuroBSDCon 2025 — Zagreb, Croatia
- EuroBSDCon Developer Summit — Zagreb, Croatia
- Open Source Summit North America — Denver, CO
- BSDCan 2025 — Ottawa, Canada
A full list of events can be viewed here:
https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/events/past-events/
These events provided opportunities to highlight key FreeBSD Project work, including progress on FreeBSD 15, CI/CD improvements, CHERI integration, Sovereign Tech Agency collaborations, and Google Summer of Code achievements, while also supporting students, new contributors, and long-time community members.
Why This Matters
Our advocacy and community programs play a critical role in ensuring FreeBSD remains visible, inclusive, and welcoming. By listening to user needs, amplifying community stories, and showing up at events around the world, we help grow a stronger, more connected FreeBSD ecosystem.
Marketing & Advocacy: Growing the Next Generation
2025 marked a year of growth in educational outreach, communications, and global engagement. Through sustained advocacy work, we continued expanding visibility for FreeBSD and strengthening connections within the community.
Expanding Educational Content & Visibility
Across YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Mastodon, Instagram, and Bluesky, we published educational content, technical explainers, interviews, and event highlights to help users learn, adopt, and explore FreeBSD.
A major milestone was the restructuring of our YouTube channel and a focus on high-production-quality technical content.
By separating meeting recordings out into a dedicated “FreeBSD Meetings” channel, we helped the YouTube algorithm to ultimately give a better experience for our viewers.
Together, these efforts helped the main FreeBSD YouTube channel grow by more than 3,000 new subscribers this year, a 50% increase. Engagement has been outstanding, and the overwhelmingly positive feedback reinforces what we’re seeing elsewhere: interest in FreeBSD is on the rise.
Additionally, we continued developing blogs, videos, and long-term learning resources designed to onboard the next generation of FreeBSD contributors.
Social Growth & Top Content of the Year
Top Blogs of 2025:
- OpenZFS RAID-Z Expansion: A New Era in Storage Flexibility
- How to Unlock High Speed Wi-Fi on FreeBSD 14
Top YouTube Videos of 2025:
- FreeBSD Desktop Installer Tech Preview – 44,000 views
- Run Linux containers on FreeBSD! – 9,500 views
In 2025, we used social media to tell the FreeBSD story, highlighting community voices, technical innovation, and the work powering the project forward. Through consistent storytelling across LinkedIn and YouTube, we expanded our reach, strengthened community engagement, and brought greater visibility to technical milestones, educational content, and contributor voices. These efforts helped grow our audience, drive meaningful discussion, and connect more developers and users to the FreeBSD ecosystem. A detailed breakdown of metrics, growth, and platform performance is available in our full Social Media Year-End Report.
Corporate Donor Highlights
We are deeply grateful for the organizations that invest in FreeBSD’s future through annual contributions and sponsorships. Their support directly funds software development, infrastructure improvements, community programs, and global advocacy.
If your company is not yet a donor but recognizes the importance of investing in FreeBSD, we invite you to explore our partnership program.
A full list of 2025 supporters can be viewed here:
https://freebsdfoundation.org/donors/
Community Appreciation & Sustainable Open Source Stewardship
This year reinforced an essential truth across open source: meaningful progress only happens when communities, contributors, and organizations share responsibility for sustaining the work that supports us all.
The FreeBSD community continues to demonstrate what collaborative stewardship looks like. From maintainers and developers to documentation writers, testers, advocates, educators, sponsors, and donors, every contribution helps move the Project forward.
We are grateful for the bug reports, code reviews, travel grant stories, conference talks, documentation improvements, tutorials, and moments of mentorship that shaped 2025. Your support—whether financial, technical, or community-driven—ensures that FreeBSD remains modern, stable, and accessible to everyone who relies on it.
Thank you for helping build a stronger, more resilient, and more sustainable FreeBSD ecosystem.
Looking Ahead to 2026
As we enter 2026, the Foundation will continue investing in high-impact development, improving the contributor experience, strengthening global infrastructure, and expanding educational programs that empower both new and experienced users.
If you’d like to invest in our efforts, please consider donating to the Foundation. Your support, no matter the size, makes a direct impact on the work we do for the Project. Together, we are building the long-term future of FreeBSD, and we are grateful to everyone who helps make this work possible.
Donate to FreeBSD Foundation | FreeBSD Foundation
The post 2025: A Year of Advocacy, Community, and Growth first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.
Continue reading...