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

Onsite Value vs Recordings & Overcrowding

• Many note FOSDEM’s chronic scale issues: long queues, full rooms, and frustration when trying to hop between tracks.
• Common coping strategies: “camp” in one devroom, arrive a talk early for popular sessions, or deliberately pick less crowded talks (app indicators helped).
• Several argue onsite is still worth it because the true value is meeting people, hallway chats, random discoveries, and the unique “vibe,” with recordings used to catch up later.
• Others question whether, given crowding, it’s better to stay home and just watch videos.

Travel and Local Logistics

• Debate over driving vs train/bike: some see driving early as a way to secure campus parking and leave flexibly; others find that reframing a hassle as a “benefit.”
• Comments highlight German rail pricing (flexibility is costly) vs Belgian trains (cheaper, any-train tickets), plus suggestions for park-and-ride across borders.
• This year’s Belgian public transport strikes and train issues pushed some back to cars.
• Locals disagree on car vs bike: one stresses car convenience and theft/bad weather for bikes; another notes big improvements in Brussels cycling and strong public transport.

Talk Quality, Format, and Content

• Mixed impressions: some praise high-quality content; others found many talks shallow, beginner-level, or product pitches.
• Shorter slots are blamed for less depth and almost no Q&A, which some say used to be a major source of value.
• With more “users” than core maintainers, a few feel it’s getting harder to meet deeply involved contributors.

AI, Modernity, and FOSDEM’s Direction

• One strand claims FOSDEM feels like a retro-computing bubble ignoring current realities: AI-driven development, massive datacenters, and consumer-level “vibe coding.”
• Examples cited: self-hosting older LLMs, soldering hardware, and low-level tinkering instead of grappling with large-scale, hosted AI and modern workflows.
• Others push back: note there is an AI devroom and talks on AI-related security and verification; also argue hobbyist experimentation and curiosity are legitimate FOSS goals.
• Disagreement over focus: some see self-hosted LLM work as a dead-end versus wanting more on agents, orchestration, and large hosted models; others are simply exhausted by nonstop AI hype.

Politics, FOSS, and “Everything is Political”

• Thread branches into whether “everything is political” and how much politics should permeate FOSS spaces and conferences.
• Some try to “detach” for mental health and see FOSS as an apolitical, pre-competitive, purely technical or intellectual domain.
• Others respond that FOSS itself is deeply political (licensing, governance, funding, access) and that claiming apolitical status often reflects privilege—those not personally threatened by political decisions.
• There is nostalgia for early pseudonymous internet spaces where only code and arguments “counted,” contrasted with today’s expectations around identity, conduct, and respect.
• Some participants express fatigue at tool choices (Nix, AI, blockchain, specific distros) being moralized and politicized.

Digital Sovereignty & Transatlantic Tensions

• Discussion around “European digital sovereignty” triggers concerns from US commenters that EU actors may conflate American OSS with US tech giants and government.
• European-side responses emphasize the risk of foreign proprietary software, support state investment in OSS, and describe the “US model” as monopoly- and capture-prone.
• Tension arises over grouping “American OSS” with American corporations, and over differing attitudes toward governments: some Americans frame all states as potential tyrants; some Europeans see their governments as less adversarial and welcome public OSS funding.

Community, Demographics, and Social Aspects

• Many emphasize that FOSDEM is “about socializing”: meeting like-minded people across Europe, spontaneous conversations, and community rituals (stickers, mascots, fries, beer, Mozilla cookies).
• One commenter portrays the crowd as mostly over 40 and stuck in nostalgia; others strongly dispute this, reporting many students and younger attendees.
• Some lament that growing size and busyness make in-depth conversations harder, likening the feel more to a bustling city than a tight-knit hacker meetup.

Representation and Global South

• One attendee is disappointed by what they see as underrepresentation of mainland China and the broader Global South, and suggests corporate sponsorship may encourage self-censorship about authoritarian regimes.
• Replies are sharply critical of any perceived soft-pedaling of Chinese state politics, arguing that less representation from Beijing-linked actors can be a feature, not a bug, for a conference centered on open collaboration.