Framasoft is a network of non-formal education, originating from the educational world and initially dedicated to free and open source software. Our non-profit organization has 3 main goals:

• promote, spread and develop free and open source software
• extend and promote free culture in the broadest acceptation
• propose online free and open source services

Framasoft relies almost exclusively on gift economy. We are independent and are accountable to our donators and contributors only.

• Articles by Scott Nesbit on OpenSource.com : Part 1 - Part 2

• Videos : Let's De-google-ify the Internet (25mn) - De-google-ify is not enough (25mn)

• “AskMeAnything on Framasoft & PeerTube” : https://www.reddit.com/r/freesoftware/comments/8vt9tq/ama_with_framasoft_and_peertube_send_your/

Framasoft started in 2001, with a public and collaborative online directory of Free and Open source Software for Education. Framasoft became an association in 2004 and dedicated its directory only to Free Softwares for every operating systems. Thanks to the energy of contributors, permanent and non-permanent members and thanks to every donations, Framasoft is nowadays a network of several Free projects with 3 main topics : Free Software, Free Culture, online Free web services.

Framasoft gathers everyone who participated and participate directly or indirectly to the different projects. To structure it all, Framasoft is based on a non-profit organisation from the public interest. Now, it's its responsibility to make it work smoothly and be sure that the community can help in the best possible conditions. There is three permanent members of staff and is mainly financed thanks to the individuals donations collected on the Internet.

Framasoft homepage displays several panels introducing its 3 main ranges of activity: software, culture, services.

A navigation toolbar (we call it Framanav) makes it easier to switch from one site to another according to your needs.

A free software offers the users the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.

This is allowed technically by getting and reading the source code, and legally thanks to the free license attached to the software. These four freedoms encourage transparency, trust, exchange, share and collaboration within communities.

Framasoft offers a directory, USB keys, DVDs and a Windows installer in order to discover free software and use them frequently.

Thanks to the Internet and to the digitization, the « free culture » is a moving culture directly inspired from the Free software for its philosophy and its licenses in order to promote et spread intellectual creations.

It's exploring a lot of different fields such as art, education, sciences, materials… These works could be considered as common goods. The most representative example is the free encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Since 2011, Framasoft provides to the general public a series of free online services which are respectful of personal data and privacy. In September 2014, considering the huge success of some of our services, we have decided to offer alternative services to popular but proprietary services that are centralized and tracking users' data. Framasoft is now involved in this long-distance huge project called: Dégooglisons Internet (Let's Ungooglize the Internet).

Framasoft proposition sounds simple: for the most popular proprietary services, we highlight and promote a Free, Libre, Ethical, Decentralized and Solidary service. Of course we don't want to take the monopoly over existing ones, but we want to demonstrate as a proof of concept that free and respectful alternatives exist, that they are reliable and can be spread sharing knowledge with tutorials, so that they can reach the general public.

Gathered in a general meeting on 2004 december, 20th and 22th, the association Framasoft decided to create a new democratic structure consisting of an administration council and several committees: A management commitee (2 to 5 co-presidents), technical committee, human resources committee, legal committee, financial committee, strategic committee, partnerships committee, etc.

Framasoft has projects aiming at the whole French-speaking community worldwide and possibly other languages and countries. Headquarters of our association are in Lyon, France with at least one permanent employee. Framasoft members and contributors are mainly French.

If you wish to contact Framasoft (medias / press, events, informations): Contact. Every important decision is subject to a vote by Framasoft members, that is why the answer may require a variable delay.

October: launching of the campaign « Let's Ungooglize the Internet ». This campaign marks a turning point for Framasoft as it's aiming, for the long term, to center the use and the spreading of free softwares, ethical, decentralized and solidary, against the GAFAM.

May: Framasoft takes an active part to the organization and the activity of « Vosges Free Operation » in Gérardmer. The Free Operations aim to gather, during a week-end, different stakeholders of the Free Software community in order to initiate the process in favor of the open data in small cities and towns, presenting the available tools, especially free software.

April: Framasoft reorganize its fields of activity with a three-part work : softwares, culture and free services. The landing page is updated.

February: « Liberty Pack », common support campaign of April, Framasoft and La Quadrature du Net.

October : Putting online different projects: Framacalc, Framindmap and Framavectoriel.

November: Framasoft is launching its 2013 support campaign.

November: Putting online the Framazic project.

December: « Liberty Pack 2 », new common support campaign with April, Framasoft and La quadrature du Net.

Framasoft is beginning a new reorganization and includes free hosting services based on free software open to the public. The aim is to encourage their dissemination to the public while providing functional and credible alternatives to free services offered by well-known web giants.

March: Framapad project is online

June: Framadate project is online.

January: Framapack project is online.

October: To address the more and more important needs in terms of infrastructure and salaries, the association launched the support campaign “1000 10 1”, whose challenge is to find thousand donors of ten euros per month for a year.

October: Release of a school version of Framadvd, project lead by Cyrille Largillier.

January: Setting of a support site to collect donations and testimonials.

February: Birth of Framatube video project.

May: Relase of a DVD, Framadvd, project realized with students in Master 2 Communication et multimédia from Paris II17 University.

Framasoft receives the Lutèce d'Or award for its achievement as the best community project, during the event Paris Capitale du Libre ¹⁾

Framabook project is surfacing. The first volume of the collection Utilisez Thunderbird 1.5 by Georges Silva is published. September is the month when Framablog is pushed to the Web with its original contents, but also translations from Framalang team.

By December 2006, Framasoft is hosting and supporting its first partner site Veni Vidi Libri

The group reorganizes itself and creates the association Framasoft ²⁾. The directory gives up free (as in free beer) softwares to keep only the free (as in freedom) ones. It is also not focused on Windows anymore, and becomes a collaborative project maintained by many contributors such as Thomas Cézard, Simon Leblanc, Paul Lunetta, Rui Nibau and Georges Silva.

Framagora knows an attendance peak as the main forum for monitoring the DADVSI.

Framasoft decides to distribute original free tools. The very first one of them is the Framakey. The associated website is created thanks to Pierre-Yves Gosset.

French traduction of TheOpenCD 2.0, a CD compilation of free softwares for Windows. It is published in a special edition of Freelog magazine in june 2005 and distributed on Ikarios, a mail order website by Nat Makarevitch.

Framasoft trends to a larger audience, not only to promote free software, but also to became a place to share knowledge. The Framagora forum is born, administrated by Thierry Bernard.

Framasoft opens itself to contributors and includes tutorials and an open forum.

The website Framasoft.net is born, created by Alexis Kauffmann, Mathematics teacher. The name comes from Framanet (FRAnçais et MAthématiques en intraNET : French and Mathematics in intranet) which is an interdisciplinary educative project co-created with Caroline d'Atabekian, a literature teacher in the Saint-Denis secondary school ³⁾. Framasoft was first a software section of Framanet and then became independent ⁴⁾. The website was still personal and consists of a directory of free softwares for Windows. It was static and hosted by the Amen company.