FOSDEM 2026: From the couch

After attending FOSDEM in person last year, this time I watched from the comfort of my couch via the live streams. While I missed the energy of the hallway track and the Belgian waffles, the remote experience was surprisingly good.

A different perspective

What struck me most about this year’s FOSDEM was how deeply geopolitics has woven itself into almost every presentation. Whether the topic was cloud infrastructure, supply chain security, or AI governance, speakers consistently touched on themes of digital sovereignty, regulatory compliance across jurisdictions, and the shifting landscape of international tech policy.

The days of purely technical talks seem to be behind us. Presenters now naturally weave in discussions about export controls, data residency requirements, and the implications of various national AI regulations. It’s a reflection of our times - open source software doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and the community is clearly grappling with these realities.

The Eurostack narrative

Building on last year’s “Opendesk and beyond” talk, the European digital sovereignty theme was even more prominent. Multiple sessions touched on reducing dependencies on non-European cloud providers and building homegrown alternatives. The conversations felt more urgent and practical than before.

Remote viewing works

I have to give credit to the FOSDEM team - their streaming infrastructure handled the load well, and having multiple rooms available simultaneously meant I could hop between tracks without the physical constraints of the ULB campus. The trade-off, of course, is missing the serendipitous conversations and the unique atmosphere of thousands of developers crammed into lecture halls.

Looking forward

FOSDEM remains one of the most important gatherings in the open source world. The fact that geopolitical considerations are now part of the conversation shows how much our field has matured and how intertwined technology has become with broader societal concerns. I’m curious to see how these themes evolve in the coming years.

Perhaps next year I’ll make the trip to Brussels again. Nothing quite beats being there in person.