FSF's Memorabilia Silent Auction Begins Today

This week the Free Software Foundation published memorabilia items for an online silent auction — part of their big 40th anniversary celebration. "Starting March 17, the FSF will unlock items each day for bidding on the LibrePlanet wiki at 12:00 EDT.. Bidding on all items will conclude at 15:00 EDT on March 21, 2025...

"During the auction, the FSF welcomes everyone who supports user freedom to bid on historical and symbolic free software memorabilia," they annouced this week: The auction is split into two parts: a silent auction hosted on the LibrePlanet wiki from March 17 through March 21 and a live auction held on the FSF's Galène videoconferencing server on March 23 from 14:00-17:00. The auction is only the opening act to a months-long itinerary celebrating forty years of free software activism...

Executive director Zoë Kooyman adds: "These items are valuable pieces of FSF history, and some of them are emblematic of the free software movement. We want to entrust these memorabilia in the hands of the free software community for preservation and would love to see some of these items displayed in exhibitions." All in all, there are twenty-five pieces that are either directly part of the FSF's history and/or representative of the free software movement that will be available in the silent auction.

Winning bidders can rest assured that all proceeds from this auction will go towards the FSF's continued work to promote computer user freedom worldwide.
Silent auction items include:

• A print of the famous Gnu-with-Tux-as-superheroes poster signed by Richard Stallman and artist Lissanne Lake. Bids start at $300...

• A mid-1980s VT220 terminal that "still works, and can be connected to your favorite free machine over the serial interface... This is the same terminal that was on the FSF reception desk for some time, introducing visitors to ASCII art, NetHack, and other free software lore." Bids start at $250... (with estimate shipping costs of $100)

• An Amiga 3000UX donated to the GNU project "sometime in 1990." While it now has a damaged battery, "FSF staff programmers used it at MIT to help further some early development of the GNU operating system." Starting bid: $300 (with estimated shipping costs of $400).

• "A variety of plush animals that had greeted visitors at its former offices in Boston on 51 Franklin Street..."

"The most notable items have been reserved for the live auction on Sunday, March 23," they note — including the Internet Hall of Fame medal awarded to FSF founder Richard Stallman in 2013 "as ultimate recognition of free software's immense impact on the development and advancement of the Internet."

Richard Stallmans ingrown toenail

[sixminuteabs]

Should go for no more than $20 but gweiher or whatever you call yourself ran out of floss so sky is the limit

lmao

[Anonymous Coward]

this is really pushing the boundary of "memorabilia" and I say that as someone who thinks RMS winning the Macarthur Grant was the best recipient they ever picked.

Re:

[unrtst]

Sadly, I have to agree.
Also, WTF is up with shipping? The Amiga 3000UX has a starting "price" of $300, and lists the approximate shipping costs in the US as $400!!! It's not some huge beast of a machine; Why is it $400 to ship?

Re:

[rsilvergun]

It's because shipping a computer that heavy is expensive and they could be shipping at anywhere so they have a high shipping fee and a low bid to cover their bases.

Even in a non-working condition in Amiga 3000 is going to be worth at least 1500. They are very rare and honestly fixing them isn't all that hard. It's just some battery damage to the traces.

Honestly if you can get it for $1,000 that's a steal. Even 1500 would be pretty good. You fix it and you can flip it on eBay for a hefty profit.

Re:

[omnichad]

This is a hoarder's estate sale.

400$ shipping for an Amiga?

[50000BTU_barbecue]

Is Richard Stallman in the box as well?

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

With a battery that has leaked and damaged the pcb.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

At least you can get the documents needed for repairs, but that shipping cost is absolutely insane. Anything more than about $80 is just a further cash grab.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

It's just an Amiga 3000, not a 3000T, so there's absolutely no need to use freight. UPS will carry it fine.

Re:

[unrtst]

TFA has a picture of the Amiga that has $400 shipping. It's the size of a typical full height desktop tower. It's not a pallet full of them.

Re: 400$ shipping for an Amiga?

[drinkypoo]

No, it's smaller than that. It's about the size of a PS/2 model 30.

Hope they wiped down

[zawarski]

The RMS stuff. Ewwww.

Re:

[Compaq Disk Rereader]

A signed copy of Stallman's infamous "minors can consent and you're all just upset your kids are growing up" blog post.

Condom Litter

[Compaq Disk Rereader]

I was hoping they'd be selling the used condoms that were rumored to litter the floor of Stallman's office. Bonus for ones used on any major contributor to project Athena.. big fan.

A worthy cause, but

[FlaSheridn]

A worthy cause (and who among us does not need more plush gnus?), but a starting bid for them of $200 does rather emphasize the distinct uses of the term “free” in the organization name.

Re:

[SteelCamel]

A worthy cause (and who among us does not need more plush gnus?), but a starting bid for them of $200 does rather emphasize the distinct uses of the term “free” in the organization name.

It's the Free Software Foundation, not the Free Plush Gnu Foundation. None of the things they're auctioning are software.

Though of course it's also free as in free speech not as in free beer, as you note - the FSF has always made some income from selling copies of software, though this must now be minimal in the age of near-universal internet access.

All these years

[DarkOx]

After all these years it is kinda sad there isn't 'more' in the way of interesting stuff to show for it all.

I guess this will start to be the norm more and more as more organizations do remote work, use BYO assets, and cloud resources.

Its just to bad there isnt more 'this is the Selectronic, I drafter the manifesto on', 'this is the RS600 that hosted...for 10 years', 'this is the photo of RMS shaking ... 's hand that hung in the front office' type stuff. Instead we get an Amiga 3000 someone donated, withou

Re:

[ItsJustAPseudonym]

I suspect a lot of the day-to-day office/electronic items from long ago simply got sold as surplus during the normal course of office upgrades. The computer I was using eight years ago at work is not memorabilia, it's been recycled.

Re:

[DarkOx]

I suspect a lot of the day-to-day office/electronic items from long ago simply got sold as surplus during the normal course of office upgrades.

Oh without a doubt. A lot of the early stuff was probably university property and the like as well, and got left behind there (because it had to be) or was disposed because it was seen as no longer useful. I just find it a bit surprising and as I said a little sad after so much time there inst just a little more. My computer form 10 years ago is also probably e-waste but I still have the same keyboard here as they day I started.

If I ever was considered to have done anything 'historically significant' I'd

Re:All these years

[_merlin]

It's "Selectric", "RS/6000" and "provenance". Anyway, I very much doubt they would have used an RS/6000 for anything - it's kind of the antithesis to "free as in beards".

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[dayL8]

Being a foundation so thoroughly rooted in the digital era, why aren't they auctioning NFTs? Of idk, v0.9 of the GPL or a poster digitally signed by RS or...

No, that would be stupid.

Re:

[wed128]

Because NFTs aren't real

So exciting!

[kamapuaa]

I hope they auction off Stallman's latest defense of pedophilia!