Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) is a non-commercial, volunteer-organized European event centered on

free and open-source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

development. It is aimed at developers and anyone interested in the free and open-source software movement. It aims to enable developers to meet and to promote the awareness and use of free and open-source software. FOSDEM is held annually, usually during the first weekend of February, at the Université Libre de Bruxelles Solbosch campus in the southeast of

Brussels, Belgium Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

History

FOSDEM was started in 2000 under the name Open Source Developers of Europe Meeting (OSDEM) by Raphael Bauduin. Bauduin said that since he felt he lacked the brains to properly contribute to the open-source community, he wanted to contribute by launching a European event in Brussels. Bauduin teamed up with Damien Sandras. The team repeated the event. The F (of FOSDEM) was added at the request of Richard Stallman. The event has been annually in February since then, with growing numbers of visitors, talks and tracks. It is organized thanks to the help of many volunteers. The meeting hosted about 4,000 visitors every year by 2011. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, FOSDEM 2021 and 2022 were held entirely online.

Conference history

* 2001 – Event named OSDEM, started by a team of five people. Organized in two months. * 2002 – Event renamed to FOSDEM, at the request of Richard Stallman. Attendance grew to a few thousand. * 2003 **Keynotes: The History of Free Software ( Jon 'Maddog' Hall), FSF (Richard Stallman) **Tracks: databases, desktop, education, multimedia, security, toolkit, tutorials **Developer rooms: embedded software, gnome developers, GNUstep, KDE, Mozilla, PostgreSQL *2004 **Keynotes: The open source paradigm shift ( Tim O'Reilly), FSF (Richard Stallman) **Tracks: accessibility, Java,

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...

, Scripting languages, security, X&Co **Developer rooms: Debian, Java, OpenMosix, MySQL, Embedded software, KDE, Mozilla, Tcl **Tutorials, unofficial talks'' served as a platform for ad hoc talks. Jimbo-wales---fosdem-2005

*2005 **Keynotes: Wikipedia (

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known on Wikipedia by the pseudonym Jimbo, is an American-British Internet entrepreneur, webmaster, and former financial trader. He is a co-founder of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedi ...

), FSF (Richard Stallman) **Tracks: Desktop, Development tools, GRID/Clusters, Linux kernel, Packaging tools, security **Developer rooms: Calibre, Clustering, Dokeos, Embedded software, Gnome, GNU Hurd, KDE, Opengroupware, PHP/Pear, GNU Classpath, Debian, Drupal, Gentoo, GNUstep, Jabber, Mozilla, Perl, Tcl **Unofficial talks were again present. *2006 **Keynotes: Richard Stallman, GPLv3 discussion **Tracks: Desktop, Development, Security, Systems, Voice over IP, Web 2.0 **Developer rooms: Ada, GNU Classpath, Embedded software, Gnome, Jabber, Linux on Laptops, Opengroupware, Tcl/Tk, Calibre, Debian, Gentoo, GNUstep, KDE, Mozilla, openSUSE, X.org *2007 **Keynotes: OLPC ( Jim Gettys), Liberating Java ( Simon Phipps) **Tracks: ***main tracks: Opening/closing talks, Security, Desktop applications, Development and languages, Kernel, Web, Internet Services ***side tracks: Lightning Talks, Key signing party **Developer rooms: CrossDesktop, KDE, Gnome, openSUSE, Mozilla, GNU Classpath+OpenJDK DevJam, CentOS+Fedora, Jabber, OpenGroupware+GNUstep, Python, Research Room, X.org, Gentoo, Debian, Embedded *2008 **Keynotes: "Tux with Shades, Linux in Hollywood" (

Robin Rowe Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') **Bush-robin **Forest rob ...

), How a large scale opensource project works ( Robert Watson), Status update of Software Patents (

Pieter Hintjens Pieter Hintjens (3 December 1962 – 4 October 2016) was a Belgian software developer, author, and past president of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), an association that fights against software patents. In 2007, ...

) **Tracks: Opening/Closing talks, Languages, Build Systems, Games, Packaging, Virtualization, Web **Developer rooms: BSD+PostgreSQL, CentOS+Fedora, CrossDesktop, Debian, Drupal, Embedded, Free Java, GNOME, JBoss, Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, openSUSE, Research Room, Ruby on Rails, X.org **There were ''lightning talks'' about miscellaneous subjects. *2009 **Keynotes: "Free. Open. Future?" (

Mark Surman Mark Surman is a Canadian open internet activist and the executive director of the Mozilla Foundation. He is a leading advocate for trustworthy AI, digital privacy, and the open internet. Before joining the Mozilla Foundation, Mark spent more tha ...

), Debian (

Bdale Garbee Bdale Garbee () is an American computer specialist who works with Linux particularly Debian. He is also an amateur radio hobbyist (''KB0G''), and a member of AMSAT, Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (former vice-president), and the American Radio Relay ...

), Google Summer of Code: A behind the scenes look at a large scale community ( Leslie Hawthorn) **Tracks: Distributions, Languages, Security, Systems, Collaboration, Kernel **Developer rooms: Ada, BSD+PostgreSQL, CentOS+Fedora, CrossDesktop, Debian, Drupal, Embedded, Free Java, GNOME, GNUStep+Groupware, Jabber+XMPP, KDE, Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, openSUSE, Ruby on Rails, X.org **There were ''lightning talks'' about miscellaneous subjects. **''Various activities:'' Key Signing Party, Open Source Initiative special session, etc. Fosdem2010-bowyer

* 2011 ** Keynotes: "Why Political Liberty Depends on Software Freedom More Than Ever" ( Eben Moglen), "LLVM and Clang" ( Chris Lattner), "How kernel development goes wrong and why you should be a part of it anyway" ( Jonathan Corbet) ** Tracks: Systems, Web browsing, Cloud, Languages, Office, Web frameworks ** Developer rooms: Crossdesktop, Data analytics, Cross distro, Embedded, Free Java, GNU, Jabber & XMPP, Mono, Mozilla, MySQL & friends, Security & hardware crypto, World of GNUstep, Accessibility, Configuration & Systems management, LibreOffice, New challenges in virtualization, Open source telephony, Perl, PostgreSQL **There were ''lightning talks'' about miscellaneous subjects. ** ''Various activities:'' PGP key signing, certification exams, beer drinking, and other social events. * 2012 ** Keynotes: "Free Software: A viable model for Commercial Success" (Robert Dewar), "A new OSI for a new decade" (Simon Phipps), "Re-thinking system and distro development" (Lars Wirzenius), "Freedom, out of the box!" (

) ** Tracks: Future of UI, Hypervisors, Network and IO, System, Community, Development ** Developer rooms: Ada, CrossDesktop, CrossDistribution, Embedded, Free Java, GNUstep, Hardware Cryptography, JBoss.org, Jabber and XMPP, Legal Issues, LibreOffice, Mono, Mozilla, Open Mobile Linux, PostgreSQL, Virtualization and Cloud, X.Org+OpenICC, Configuration and Systems Management, Graph Processing, Microkernel OS, MySQL and friends, Open Source Game Development, Perl, Security, Smalltalk, Telephony and Communications, **There were ''lightning talks'' about miscellaneous subjects. * 2013 ** Keynotes: "How we made the Jenkins community" (Kohsuke Kawaguchi), "The Devil is in the Details" (Amelia Andersdotter), "The Keeper of Secrets" (Leslie Hawthorn) ** Tracks: Graphics hardware and FOSS * 2014 ** Developer rooms: Ada, Automotive development,

BSD The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...

, Configuration management, Desktops, Distributions, Embedded, Energy-efficient computing, Game development, Go, Graph processing, Graphics, High-performance computing and computational science, Internet of things, Java, JavaScript, Legal issues, LLVM, Microkernel and component-based operating systems, Mozilla, MySQL,

NoSQL A NoSQL (originally referring to "non- SQL" or "non-relational") database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data that is modeled in means other than the tabular relations used in relational databases. Such databases have existed ...

, Open document editors, Perl,

PostgreSQL PostgreSQL (, ), also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. It was originally named POSTGRES, referring to its origins as a successor to the In ...

, Python,

Smalltalk Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed reflective programming language. It was designed and created in part for educational use, specifically for constructionist learning, at the Learning Research Group (LRG) of Xerox PARC by Alan Ka ...

Software-defined radio Software-defined radio (SDR) is a radio communication system where components that have been traditionally implemented in analog hardware (e.g. mixers, filters, amplifiers, modulators/demodulators, detectors, etc.) are instead implemented by me ...

, Testing and automation, Valgrind,

Virtualisation In computing, virtualization or virtualisation (sometimes abbreviated v12n, a numeronym) is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something at the same abstraction level, including virtual computer hardware platforms, sto ...

, Wikis, Wine. *2015 ** Keynotes: "Identity Crisis: Are we who we say we are? ( Karen Sandler), "What is wrong with Operating Systems" (Antti Kantee), "Living on Mars: A Beginner's Guide" (Ryan MacDonald). *2016 ** Keynotes: "systemd and Where We Want to Take the Basic Linux Userspace in 2016" ( Lennart Poettering), "Ian Murdock – In Memoriam" ( Martin Michlmayr), and "Putting 8 Million People on the Map – Revolutionizing crisis response through open mapping tools" (Blake Girardot). ** DevRooms: Ada;

; Coding for Language Communities; Configuration Management; Containers and Process Isolation; Desktops; Distributions; EDA; Embedded, Mobile and Automotive; Free Java; GNU Guile; Geospatial; Go; Graph Processing; Graphics; high-performance computing,

big data Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...

and data science;

Internet of things The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other comm ...

(IoT); LLVM toolchain; Legal and Policy Issues; Lua; Microkernels; Mozilla; MySQL and Friends; Open Document Editors; Open Game Development; Open Media; Open Source Design; PHP and Friends; Perl;

; Python; Real Time; Ruby; SDN and NFV; Security; Software Defined Radio; Testing and Automation;

and IaaS.

*2017 **Keynotes: "Kubernetes on the road to GIFEE" (Brandon Philips), "Software Heritage" (Stefano Zacchiroli, Roberto Di Cosmo), "Understanding The Complexity of Copyleft Defense" (

Bradley M. Kuhn Bradley M. Kuhn (born 1973) is a free software activist from the United States. Kuhn is currently Policy Fellow and Hacker-in-Residence of the Software Freedom Conservancy, having previously been executive director. Until 2010 he was the FLOSS C ...

), "Using Linux in Air Traffic Control" (Gerolf Ziegenhain) ** DevRooms:

; Backup and Disaster Recovery; Community; Config management; Decentralised Internet; Desktops; Distributions; Electronic Design Automation (EDA); Embedded, mobile and automotive; Free Java; GNU Guile; Geospatial; Go; Graph; HPC, big data and data science; oT; LLVM toolchain; Legal and Policy Issues; Linux Containers and Microservices;

Lua Lua or LUA may refer to: Science and technology * Lua (programming language) * Latvia University of Agriculture * Last universal ancestor, in evolution Ethnicity and language * Lua people, of Laos * Lawa people, of Thailand sometimes referred t ...

; Microkernels and Component-based OS, Monitoring and Cloud; Mozilla; MySQL and Friends; Open Document Editors; Open Game Development; Open Media; Open Source Design; PHP and Friends; Perl;

; Python; Real Time Communications; Ruby; SDN and NFV; Security; Software Defined Radio; Software Defined Storage; Testing and Automation; Valgrind;

and IaaS. *2018 **Keynotes: "Consensus as a Service" ( Simon Phipps), "Next Generation Internet Initiative" (Rob van Kranenburg, Michiel Leenaars, Marietje Schaake, Georgios Tselentis), "Exploiting modern microarchitectures" (Jon Masters). **DevRooms: Ada;

; CAD and Open Hardware; Community; Config Management; Containers; DNS; Debugging tools; Decentralised Internet and Privacy; Distributions; Embedded, mobile and automotive; Free Java; Geospatial; Go; Graph Processing; Graphics; HPC, Big Data, and Data Science; Hardware Enablement; Identity and Access Management; Internet of Things; LLVM Toolchain; Legal and Policy Issues; Microkernels; Monitoring and Cloud; Mozilla; MySQL and Friends; Open Document Editors; Open Media; Open Source Design; Package Management; Perl Programming Languages; PostgreSQL; Real Time Communications; Retrocomputing; Rust; SDN and NFV; Software Defined Radio; Software Defined Storage; Source Code Analysis; Testing and automation; Tool the Docs; Virtualization and IaaS. *2019 **Keynotes: "Can Anyone Live in Full Software Freedom Today? Confessions of Activists Who Try But Fail to Avoid Proprietary Software" (

, Karen Sandler), "FLOSS, the Internet and the Future" ( Mitchell Baker), "Blockchain: The Ethical Considerations" (Deb Nicholson), "The Cloud is Just Another Sun" (Kyle Rankin), "2019 – Fifty years of Unix and Linux advances" ( Jon 'maddog' Hall). **DevRooms: .NET and TypeScript; Ada;

; Blockchain and Crypto Currencies; CAD and Open Hardware; Collaborative Information and Content Management Applications; Community devroom; Containers;

DNS The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...

; Decentralized Internet and Privacy; Distributions; Free Java; Free Software Radio; Free Tools and Editors; Geospatial; Go; Graph Processing; Graphics; HPC,

Big Data Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...

and

Data Science Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a br ...

; Hardware Enablement; Infra Management; Javascript; LLVM; Legal and Policy Issues; ML on Code; Microkernels and Component-based OS; Minimalistic Languages; Monitoring and Observability; Mozilla; MySQL, MariaDB and Friends; Open Document Editors; Open Media; Open Source Design; PHP & Friends;

; Python;

Quantum Computing Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though ...

; RISC-V; Real Time Communications (RTC); Retrocomputing; Rust; Search; Security; Software Defined Networking; Software Defined Storage; Tool the Docs; Virtualization and IaaS. *2020 **Keynotes: "The Linux Kernel: We have to finish this thing one day ;) - Solving big problems in small steps for more than two decades" (

Thorsten Leemhuis Thorsten (Thorstein, Torstein, Torsten) is a Scandinavian given name. The Old Norse name was ''Þórsteinn''. It is a compound of the theonym ''Þór'' (''Thor'') and ''steinn'' "stone", which became ''Thor'' and ''sten'' in Old Danish and Old Swed ...

), "FOSSH - 2000 to 2020 and beyond! - maddog continues to pontificate" ( Jon 'maddog' Hall), "FOSDEM@20 - A Celebration - The cliché of constant change" (

Steven Goodwin Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; h ...

) **DevRooms: Free Java; Software Defined Networking;

; Web Performance; Open Source Computer Aided Modeling and Design; Collaborative Information and Content Management Applications; Coding for Language Communities; Erlang, Elixir and Friends; Graph Processing; Ada; Open Research Tools and Technologies; Open Source Game Development; RISC-V; Retrocomputing; LLVM toolchain; X.Org/Graphics; Hardware-aided Trusted Computing; Confidential Consortium Framework; Open Source Firmware, BMC and Bootloader; Security;

; Legal and Policy Issues; Testing and Automation; Python; Open Document Editors; Backup and Recovery; Dependency Management; Infra Management; Containers; Embedded; JavaScript; Software Defined Storage; Virtualization and IaaS; Open Source Design;

; Software Defined Radio;

; Minimalistic Languages; Geospatial; Distributions; Rust; Debugging tools; Hardware Enablement; Microkernels and Component-based OS; Mozilla; MySQL, MariaDB and Friends; Kotlin; Decentralized Internet and Privacy; Open Media; Go; Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment; HPC and computational science; Community Development; Free Tools and Editors; Monitoring and Observability; Real Time Communications; Internet of Things *2021
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this event was held online. *2022
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this event was held online.

Financing

Entrance and participation in the event is entirely free. It is financed by sponsors who accept the non-commercial nature of the event, and by donors amongst the visitors. Donors receive an incentive in form of a token present and everything is organized and set up by volunteers.

FSF Award

The Free Software Foundation's ceremony for the Award for the Advancement of Free Software was held at FOSDEM from 2002 to 2006 (for the awards for 2001 to 2005).

References

External links