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FOSDEM 2026 – Open-Source Conference in Brussels – Day#1 Recap

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Re: FOSDEM 2026 – Open-Source Conference in Brussels – Day#1 Recap

#91

Post by whilenot-dev »

dijit wrote: post #58
GreenDolphinSys wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire idea of F/OSS itself is political, and was very radical. We're just accustomed to it now, so it's not "political", in other words, it's not "controversial". Perhaps F/OSS is -more- political than other spaces because we organize around projects? Here, and on Reddit, we see the fallout of drama all the time in various F/OSS communities over disagreeing over policies. That's... politics. Unless you happen to…

I grew up poor enough that my classmates called me "Tramp". Hand-me-downs so threadbare they could pass for actual rubbish, couldn't afford deodorant or adequate dental hygiene; the works. The 10-year-old £5 computer that barely wheezed into life was my escape into a world that genuinely didn't care about any of that. On the internet (1hr per day, courtesy of the local library), I was just the words on the screen. No…

Anonymity was a given in the beginnings of the internet, and we now need to fight hard for any remaining form of it. Your post makes me longing for my past, whereas GPs post makes me longing for our future.

The virtual world(s) felt like equality of opportunity because everything was a blank canvas, or some canvas that barely had any fingerprints on it. For a lot of people the internet currently consists out of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Google News. So tell me, what is truly radical, what is revolutionary anymore?

Re: FOSDEM 2026 – Open-Source Conference in Brussels – Day#1 Recap

#92

Post by CorrectHorseBat »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #31
rurban wrote: post #3

With the car? I go by train, and then either by bike or tram. Much easier

Brussels is my native city: I grew up there. If you're at peak traffic hours (8-10am and 3-6pm) during weekdays then, depending where to where you go, there can be really bad traffic jams. But outside of these hours the car is simply much more convenient. I lived in Brussels for 42 years and did everything that wasn't walking distance by car (very mostly in the pre- Uber days). You simply know where the parking spots…

Brussels cycling infrastructure has improved a _lot_ in the last decade and the number of cyclists is growing every year while the number of households with a car is decreasing every year (less than half of the househols have a car now).

As they say, there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. The weather in the Netherlands is not very different and it doesn't stop them.

Also the public transportation is by far the best of the country, but that doesn't say a lot.

Re: FOSDEM 2026 – Open-Source Conference in Brussels – Day#1 Recap

#93

Post by greatgib »

NeutralForest wrote: post #30

It was fun but indeed, I spent a lot of time waiting in line for talks and in some rooms I couldn't even enter at all.

On my side, I had the feeling that there was less room/talk full to the point you can't enter compared to previous years.

Except in the H building.

Re: FOSDEM 2026 – Open-Source Conference in Brussels – Day#1 Recap

#94

Post by weinzierl »

NeutralForest wrote: post #30

It was fun but indeed, I spent a lot of time waiting in line for talks and in some rooms I couldn't even enter at all.

That is how it's supposed to be. You can watch the talks at home at any time but the opportunity to meet random yet like-minded people from all over Europe is unique.

Re: FOSDEM 2026 – Open-Source Conference in Brussels – Day#1 Recap

#95

Post by mixmastamyk »

fvdessen wrote: post #77
mixmastamyk wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not clear what you want them to do instead.

Have an AI track focused on how to use AI to improve OSS software instead of how to run LLama on RISC-V. Invite the open source developpers behind popular OSS AI frameworks such as opencode, etc. Invite talkers from large companies that produce open source software and models such as Mistral.AI Invite talkers from companies that run OSS LLMs at scale such as groq Invite the people who build drones in Ukraine, (probab…

It's been ~three years now we've been hearing about "AI" non-stop. Am a bit tired of it to be honest.

Re: FOSDEM 2026 – Open-Source Conference in Brussels – Day#1 Recap

#96

Post by greatgib »

What saddens me a lot is that a lot of talks become low level beginner introduction fast food talks.

I think that it was better when most talks were 45 mins to 1h with deeper more advanced and senior content.

At the same time, with the overcrowded aspect, it becomes harder to socialize and meet people really involved in maintaining open source projects in my opinion. There are a lot lot lot more "users" on both sides (visitors and speakers) than what it used to be 10 years ago.

Re: FOSDEM 2026 – Open-Source Conference in Brussels – Day#1 Recap

#98

Post by fvdessen »

ignoramous wrote: post #89
fvdessen wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OSS original point wasn't just to have fun among nerds, but to have a real impact on the world. Fun and curiosity is fine, but there's a line where it becomes a tech themed larp event, and FOSDEM is trending towards the later. Corporate Open Source should have its place at FOSDEM. The linux dinosaur companies such as Redhat are still there. But what about the new ones ? What about Mistral, Odoo ? Even the 'evil' ones…

Looking at the talk lineup of a LLM related devroom, it sounds forward looking to me: https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track/ai/ > but to have a real impact on the world. I did find devrooms, stands, and main track talks on this. > Even the 'evil' ones such as facebook, github, etc, aren't they contributing a lot of open software Google is one of the two lead financial sponsors of FOSDEM (the other being RedHat). So…

> Looking at the talk lineup of a LLM related devroom, it sound forward looking to me: https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track/ai/

It doesn't to me at all, it is mainly focused on self hosting llms, which is a complete deadend. It just isn't feasible to self host the useful models, the hardware requirements are just too big.

The current topic of focus around AI are: how to adapt development practice to agentic coding, agent harness, agent orchestration, mcp integrations, etc.

I guess there is some unease in the oss community to rely on large companies to run and host the models. But this isn't entirely new, we also relied on big companies to manufacture our computers. It's just the way it is.

> Well, for better or for worse, FOSDEM is not a tech start-up event.

It is weird, there are a lot of startups present, look at all the stands showcasing projects. Aren't those startups ? What I noticed is that they are usually funded by public grants rather than VCs. I am not sure why this is the case.

Re: FOSDEM 2026 – Open-Source Conference in Brussels – Day#1 Recap

#99

Post by fvdessen »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #95
fvdessen wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have an AI track focused on how to use AI to improve OSS software instead of how to run LLama on RISC-V. Invite the open source developpers behind popular OSS AI frameworks such as opencode, etc. Invite talkers from large companies that produce open source software and models such as Mistral.AI Invite talkers from companies that run OSS LLMs at scale such as groq Invite the people who build drones in Ukraine, (probab…

It's been ~three years now we've been hearing about "AI" non-stop. Am a bit tired of it to be honest.

It is extremely exhausting, but it's also the biggest change in tech since the invention of the internet. It don't think it can be ignored.

Re: FOSDEM 2026 – Open-Source Conference in Brussels – Day#1 Recap

#100

Post by lmf4lol »

throw567643u8 wrote: post #62
fvdessen wrote: post #48

I for one found this event really sad. It's like the OSS community has rejected the past 5 years of software and technological changes and now choses to live in a retro computing bubble. We're in 2026, hardware is made in dark factories in shenzhen in fully automated assembly lines by the million of units. Software is written using LLMs hosted in gigantic datacenters. Millions of people are now writing their own soft…

> What is the FOSDEM community's answer to the real concerns that these changes pose ? I only caught half a dozen talks, and two of them talked about this exact point.

which ones ? would like to watch them. thanks in advance
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