Harald Welte receives the European SFS Award 2026 at SFSCON
The FSFE and LUGBZ have recognized this Free Software advocate with the European award for his involvement in the Free Software community opening up mobile communications and his work defending users’ freedoms.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), together with the Linux User Group Bolzano‑Bozen (LUGBZ), is proud to recognize Harald Welte with the European SFS Award 2026 in recognition of more than 30 years working towards software freedom and his many contributions to the Free Software community, from his early work on netfilter to opening up mobile communications.
Harald has worked with Free Software since his teenage years. He joined the netfilter core team in the Linux kernel, took on much of its release and maintenance work, and eventually led the team, helping shape the firewall that became the Linux standard. He then founded gpl-violations.org and showed, including by taking companies to court, that the GNU GPL could be enforced. In doing so he protected the trust that holds the community together.
"Harald’s work helped protect the rights of computer users and ensure that companies could not simply take from the community without respecting the conditions under which its work was shared. Furthermore, it enabled the establishment of OpenWrt, a Free Software operating system for routers”, declared Matthias Kirschner, president of the FSFE during the Award ceremony.
Harald has always aimed to open up technologies held firmly by their manufacturers. He was lead system architect for Openmoko, a mobile phone built entirely on Free Software. Later, with OpenBSC, OsmocomBB and the wider Osmocom project, he opened up cellular protocols giving security researchers the tools to examine networks that billions of people rely on every day and build trusted systems.
Today he continues this work from Berlin through his company sysmocom, is a board member of Amateur Radio Digital Communications, a long term member of the Chaos Communication Club, and participants and speaker at many conferences all around the world. What makes Harald achievements important is not only what he built, but what he showed: that software freedom is protected not by licenses alone, but by people willing to defend them, open up what is closed, and share what they learn. He proves that one person with curiosity, skill, persistence and conviction can change how whole industries treat their users’ rights, and he shows the next generation that they could do the same.
“I'm thankful to receive the European SFS Award 2026 though I feel like I did nothing else but follow my convictions and my moral compass. A lot of it also relates to having the luck of the right opportunity at the right point in time, especially as in the past the IT industry and the Free Software world were much smaller than today”, says Harald Welte.
The European SFS Award
The European SFS Award recognizes individuals whose work has made a significant and sustained difference in advancing Free Software across Europe. Originating in South Tyrol with LUGBZ, and now presented jointly with FSFE since 2023, the award honours those whose efforts strengthen software freedom, community building, and the ethical foundations of technology.
In previous years, the award was given to Frank Karlitschek (2023) for his leadership with Nextcloud, posthumously to Bram Moolenaar (2024) for creating the Vim editor and to Jean-Baptiste Kempf (2025) as VLC president and core developer.
2026 Laudatio
Matthias: This year's award winner has been fascinated by technology for as long as he can remember. According to his parents, as a toddler he learned to stand up just to reach the buttons on his father's stereo. That curiosity would eventually lead him deep into digital communications. If it is not one of those few moments you see him on a motorbike, he figures out how computers talk to each other, how these systems work down to the smallest detail, and how we can build them better together.
Adrian: Already in the 1990s, he was helping others get online as a volunteer with the German Communication Network Franken (Kommunikationsnetzwerk Franken), a non-profit network helping people access the Internet. He has never been content to accept technology as a black box. Those who know him might remember him reading technical documentation with the same enthusiasm others reserve for a thriller. And he doesn't keep that knowledge to himself: he shares it, preserves it, and works with others to make technology that everyone can use, study, share, and improve.
Matthias: Around the turn of the millennium, he became part of the core team of Netfilter, the project behind essential networking and firewalling capabilities in Linux. Besides writing code and helping shape the project's direction, he took on the less glamorous but indispensable work of making a project run: preparing releases, maintaining source code repositories, and keeping track of tasks and plans.
Adrian: Today, Netfilter runs in over 15 billion computers around the world across an enormous range of devices, from routers and servers to phones and embedded systems. You may never have heard our award winner's name, but there is a good chance that computers around know his code.
Matthias: Then he discovered that companies using Free Software in their products were failing to comply with the licences that made that software possible. He decided that this had to change. In 2004, he founded gpl-violations.org and helped establish that the GNU General Public License was not just a statement of good intentions, but a licence whose terms could be enforced in court as he proofed when he was the first person to enforce the GNU GPL in court. His work helped protect the rights of computer users and ensure that companies could not simply take from the community without respecting the conditions under which its work was shared. Furthermore it enabled the establishment of OpenWRT a Free Software operating system for routers.
Adrian: But defending existing freedoms was not enough. He also wanted to open up technologies that were still firmly in the hands of their manufacturers. From 2006 to 2008, he was lead system architect for Openmoko, working towards a Linux-based smartphone built entirely around Free Software — an ambitious vision even before today's smartphone era had begun.
Matthias: And he went further still. After working on the electronics and software inside phones, he turned his attention to the mobile networks connecting them. He co-founded Osmocom in 2010, bringing together a community now working on more than 100 software, firmware, and hardware projects in telecommunications and software-defined radio. By making these technologies accessible, he and his fellow contributors enable people to study, research, understand, and build systems that would otherwise remain closed.
Adrian: He continues this work through sysmocom, which provides development and support for professional users of Osmocom technologies. He also contributes to the wider community, including through his contributions to the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) and the board of Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC).
Matthias: He reminds us that software freedom takes many kinds of commitment: the curiosity to understand technology, the persistence to build alternatives, the courage to defend our rights, and the generosity to share what we learn. These are all expressions of the same conviction: that people should have control over the technology they depend on.
Adrian: And anyone who knows him knows that he doesn't do this simply for the money. He follows his curiosity, takes on difficult challenges, and pursues ideas because they matter. He is a hacker in the best sense of the word: independent-minded, technically fearless, and driven by the conviction that things can be done better.
Matthias: For a lifetime of curiosity, for defending the rights of Free Software users, for opening up mobile communications, and for living the values of software freedom in practice.
Matthias & Adrian: It is our great pleasure to present this year's European SFS Award to Harald Welte!