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. Moolenaar released Vim as “charityware,” encouraging users to support children in the south of Uganda through charitable donations.

Vim developer Bram Moolenaar posthumously receives the European SFS Award

This award commemorates Moolenaar’s unwavering dedication to help others to better understand computers and software. It gave him great pleasure to participate in conferences, explain the Free Software culture at his work place, and help others to develop and use his software. He wanted others to also experience this joy. “If you are happy, I am happy!” was one of his sayings. Moolenaar passed away on 3 August, 2023, due to a rapidly deteriorating illness. His legacy in the developer community and in social work is expected to continue.