5 ms·

> What is the FOSDEM community's answer to the real concerns that these changes pose ? Let's hand solder raspberry pis ! let's self host LLMS from 2 years ago o

by benou 8mo ago

> What is the FOSDEM community's answer to the real concerns that these changes pose ? Let's hand solder raspberry pis ! let's self host LLMS from 2 years ago on FreeBSD ! Look, i can run wasn linux on this risc-v cpu ! Maybe, just maybe, they're having fun? FOSS is not only about corporate open-source, but also genuine curiosity. Both can have their place. > no wonder that nobody younger than 40 was attending the conference. The next generation is doing something else and rightly so. I saw a lot of students at FOSDEM, attending, presenting and helping the at organization.

fvdessen 8mo ago
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 such as facebook, github, etc, aren't they contributing a lot of open software ? Aren't they more relevant than let's say Olimex ? There were some students, yes but the attendence is growing old, and the chit chat is more about 'remember this and that' than 'we're building the future'
- ignoramous 8mo ago
  Looking at the talk lineup of a LLM related devroom, it sounds forward looking to me: https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track/ai/ 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 clearly, there doesn't seem to be any restriction or judgement by the organizers on whether BigTech is 'evil'. I get that Jack Dorsey (of Square/Block) withdrew his main track talk the year prior, which was unfortunate. > the chit chat is more about 'remember this and that' than 'we're building the future' Well, for better or for worse, FOSDEM is not exclusively a tech start-up event.
  - fvdessen 8mo ago
    > Looking at the talk lineup of a LLM related devroom, it sound forward looking to me: https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track/ai/ 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.
    - direwolf20 8mo ago
      I met several people self–hosting LLMs including a man from Tenstorrent demonstrating their accelerator card. > What I noticed is that they are usually funded by public grants rather than VCs. I am not sure why this is the case. American VC culture derives from America's privileged position in the global financial system. It can't be replicated by a country that doesn't have a ton of money floating around looking for investments. Second reason: nobody likes what American VC culture created, so they don't want it to be replicated. Government grant funding can make decisions on axes other than profitability.
      - menaerus 8mo ago
        Public grants are nice but they have couple of shortcomings and which is why they can get you only that far. They are normally low in capital, the execution is really slow (couple of months to one year), and larger grants too involve politics. The process is too formal (inflexible and too time-consuming) and also quite discriminating to individuals/small-groups who do have the big ideas but are not running the business already (I mean how can they). Proposal evaluation also has its own shortcomings - there's very little incentive for the actual experts to join the evaluation process (it's paid pennies) and generally speaking this leads to another chicken&egg problem - you're presenting something novel to the pool of people who might not have the capacity to understand the idea - neither the vision nor execution. That said, I am not attracted to the VC culture but their process delivers the value which creates successful companies.

by benou 8mo ago

fvdessen 8mo ago

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 such as facebook, github, etc, aren't they contributing a lot of open software ? Aren't they more relevant than let's say Olimex ? There were some students, yes but the attendence is growing old, and the chit chat is more about 'remember this and that' than 'we're building the future'

ignoramous 8mo ago
Looking at the talk lineup of a LLM related devroom, it sounds forward looking to me: https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track/ai/ 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 clearly, there doesn't seem to be any restriction or judgement by the organizers on whether BigTech is 'evil'. I get that Jack Dorsey (of Square/Block) withdrew his main track talk the year prior, which was unfortunate. > the chit chat is more about 'remember this and that' than 'we're building the future' Well, for better or for worse, FOSDEM is not exclusively a tech start-up event.
- fvdessen 8mo ago
  > Looking at the talk lineup of a LLM related devroom, it sound forward looking to me: https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/track/ai/ 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.
  - direwolf20 8mo ago
    I met several people self–hosting LLMs including a man from Tenstorrent demonstrating their accelerator card. > What I noticed is that they are usually funded by public grants rather than VCs. I am not sure why this is the case. American VC culture derives from America's privileged position in the global financial system. It can't be replicated by a country that doesn't have a ton of money floating around looking for investments. Second reason: nobody likes what American VC culture created, so they don't want it to be replicated. Government grant funding can make decisions on axes other than profitability.
    - menaerus 8mo ago
      Public grants are nice but they have couple of shortcomings and which is why they can get you only that far. They are normally low in capital, the execution is really slow (couple of months to one year), and larger grants too involve politics. The process is too formal (inflexible and too time-consuming) and also quite discriminating to individuals/small-groups who do have the big ideas but are not running the business already (I mean how can they). Proposal evaluation also has its own shortcomings - there's very little incentive for the actual experts to join the evaluation process (it's paid pennies) and generally speaking this leads to another chicken&egg problem - you're presenting something novel to the pool of people who might not have the capacity to understand the idea - neither the vision nor execution. That said, I am not attracted to the VC culture but their process delivers the value which creates successful companies.