Open Source Week 2025

From Black Suit to Hoodies

Open Source Week 2025 From Black Suit to Hoodies What a week! So many important Open Source Events all in and around Brussels. I'm tired but satisfied and it was totally worth it.

Thursday - European Open Source Awards Ceremony?

We started off in Black Suit dress-code to attend the very first Open Source Awards Ceremony. This exclusive invite-only event was organized by the new European Open Source Academy to call out ‘the Oscars for Open Source’. SUSE ’s new partnership with Open Forum Europe was announced in the opening keynote - pretty big news!

Friday - Open Source Policy Forum

I ditched the tie on Friday, but kept the suit on for the Open Source Policy Summit. This was another invite-only event, with a mix of politicians, high-level civil servants, and Open Source Policy Officers from both the public and private sectors. “Open source is a democratic imperative,” said OpenForum Europe’s Astor Nummelin Carlberg, during his kick-off keynote. ”I personally felt honored to represent SUSE here together with Holger Pfister and Torsten Hallmann . SUSE was clearly visible as Gold Sponsor, at this prestigious event.?

Friday Evening - APELL Networking Event

In the evening my business shoes and pantalon were replaced with jeans and sneakers, still green ones by the way. This was for a networking event for the Open Source Companies that are involved in APELL - Association Professionnelle Européenne du Logiciel Libre . This is an European Umbrella Alliance of leading open source companies lobbying for this technology in the European Union. SUSE is involved in many ways; including me being Co-Founder of the DOSBA (Dutch Open Source Business Alliance), together with Ronny Lam , Marcel Kornegoor and Pieter Izeboud .

Saturday - FOSDEM day 1

The dress code is completely gone. T-shirt and hoody is almost overdressed as FOSDEM started; for those who don’t know FOSDEM. FOSDEM is the largest Open Source Conference in the world. They don’t count but estimate from 7000 to 10000 people come to Brussels for this event.

FOSDEM is a super colorful and inclusive event, where you'll find every kind of open source contributor imaginable.

Back when I first attended FOSDEM around 2005, it was purely technical, with lots of talks that were way too deep and boring presentation-wise.

These days, it's got something for everyone! There's still the deep technical stuff, but also talks on politics, the CRA (Cyber Resilience Act), governance, marketing, and all sorts of other interesting open source topics.

I attended talks on Open Source Policy and how Open Source can benefit from the current unclear relationship between the USA and Europe. I also had meetings with people responsible for OSS lobbying in the EU, including the great people? from Open Forum Europe.

Sunday - FOSDEM day 2

On the second day of FOSDEM I went to meet the great people of the Geeko Foundation and openSUSE. I also attended a talk on ‘Why Europe needs the OSAID: Open washing and the AI act’.

Overall

What a week! What I did not even mention is that the Open Source Week was extra special thanks to the many old and new Open Source friends I have met.

From suits and ties to jeans and hoodies, the open source industry is truly unique. I'm proud to be a part of it and can't wait to see what the future holds.

Brussels, see you next year!