4 ms·

I for one found this event really sad. It's like the OSS community has rejected the past 5 years of software and technological changes and now choses to live in

I for one found this event really sad. It's like the OSS community has rejected the past 5 years of software and technological changes and now choses to live in a retro computing bubble. We're in 2026, hardware is made in dark factories in shenzhen in fully automated assembly lines by the million of units. Software is written using LLMs hosted in gigantic datacenters. Millions of people are now writing their own software with vibe coding platforms from their phones 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 ! These takes are completely out of touch with reality, no wonder that nobody younger than 40 was attending the conference. The next generation is doing something else and rightly so.

positron26 8mo ago
[flagged]
guerby 8mo ago
"nobody younger than 40 was attending" Hmmm, I was there and this is definitely not true.
throw567643u8 8mo ago
> What is the FOSDEM community's answer to the real concerns that these changes pose ? I only caught half a dozen talks, and two of them talked about this exact point.
- lmf4lol 8mo ago
  which ones ? would like to watch them. thanks in advance
  - throw567643u8 8mo ago
    - Open source security in spite of AI. - Formal verification in Rocq, an exhaustive testing.
anthk 8mo ago
LLM turds will degrade more and more over time. The newbies will become even dumber and people with actual knowledge will be several steps over anthing else trained to copy and paste from bullshitters.
- eMPee584 8mo ago
  Would you mind showing some compassion for the unintelligent, it's none of their fault.. It's incentives, sociodynamics and manifold other preconditions that bring about these symptoms.
  - direwolf20 8mo ago
    One of these is AI proliferation. GP is not merely virtue signalling — GP is directly contributing to raising average intelligence by discouraging reliance on AI.
    - eMPee584 8mo ago
      Even if well intended, isn't that a matter of reach? whom of the aforementioned vulnerable individuals will ever cross the HN comments section? How many of the HN regulars will not already be weary of any and all LLM outputs?
- protocolture 8mo ago
  Yeah man. Just like how novel reading, newspapers, music, rock music, the internet, computer games all made everyone super dumb and the world ended. I am definitely sure that this time you are right and the world will actually end this time, everyones going to end up way dumber than you, or if they dont, you will still pretend it happened and be smug about it on the internet.
  - direwolf20 8mo ago
    they kind of did
  - anthk 8mo ago
mixmastamyk 8mo ago
It’s not clear what you want them to do instead.
- fvdessen 8mo ago
  Have an AI track focused on how to use AI to improve OSS software instead of how to run LLama on RISC-V. Invite the open source developpers behind popular OSS AI frameworks such as opencode, etc. Invite talkers from large companies that produce open source software and models such as Mistral.AI Invite talkers from companies that run OSS LLMs at scale such as groq Invite the people who build drones in Ukraine, (probably the most succesful open hardware story to date). Have drone building workshops / drone piloting stands
  - benou 8mo ago
    Anyone can propose a devroom for FOSDEM, I hope you'll do it next year :)
    - fvdessen 8mo ago
      Yes, maybe I should.
  - mixmastamyk 8mo ago
    It's been ~three years now we've been hearing about "AI" non-stop. Am a bit tired of it to be honest.
    - fvdessen 8mo ago
      It is extremely exhausting, but it's also the biggest change in tech since the invention of the internet. It don't think it can be ignored.
      - bigstrat2003 8mo ago
        That's certainly what the companies who stand to profit want us to believe. But I don't think it is. I think it's yet another hype storm without any actual utility to back it up.
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.
direwolf20 8mo ago
Remember this is just one conference. This is not a top–down imposition of a new European world order. While the amount of policy discussion is quite high — out of necessity now — and EU representatives attend — this event is still a lot of developers coming together. This is also why the EU has a hard time. America prefers the capitalist model. EU is trying to find ways encourage individual developers each with their own interests to contribute to shared European goals (which the devs also share but might not find interesting), and they're trying to do this without directly saying "you there, go and do this", and that's harder than herding cats. For instance they do it through NLNET funding. Devs can propose projects and the ones the EU wants to fund will receive funding. It's a roundabout way to do things. Let's see if it pays off.
iso1631 8mo ago
> let's self host LLMS from 2 years ago on FreeBSD Sounds brilliant. 2024 LLMs were great, and hosted in gigantic datacenters. South Park did an episode on ChatGPT in 2023 to assist with the timescales. If we can run Free LLMs on a desktop PC that's competitive with 2024 a massive win. Unless of course you believe that AI will continue to increase exponentially, in which case we're heading for such a different world in 10-15 years that it's meaningless to worry about it and you might as well have fun before the AI decides to kill us all

positron26 8mo ago

[flagged]

guerby 8mo ago

"nobody younger than 40 was attending" Hmmm, I was there and this is definitely not true.

throw567643u8 8mo ago

> What is the FOSDEM community's answer to the real concerns that these changes pose ? I only caught half a dozen talks, and two of them talked about this exact point.

lmf4lol 8mo ago
which ones ? would like to watch them. thanks in advance
- throw567643u8 8mo ago
  - Open source security in spite of AI. - Formal verification in Rocq, an exhaustive testing.

anthk 8mo ago

LLM turds will degrade more and more over time. The newbies will become even dumber and people with actual knowledge will be several steps over anthing else trained to copy and paste from bullshitters.

eMPee584 8mo ago
Would you mind showing some compassion for the unintelligent, it's none of their fault.. It's incentives, sociodynamics and manifold other preconditions that bring about these symptoms.
- direwolf20 8mo ago
  One of these is AI proliferation. GP is not merely virtue signalling — GP is directly contributing to raising average intelligence by discouraging reliance on AI.
  - eMPee584 8mo ago
    Even if well intended, isn't that a matter of reach? whom of the aforementioned vulnerable individuals will ever cross the HN comments section? How many of the HN regulars will not already be weary of any and all LLM outputs?
protocolture 8mo ago
Yeah man. Just like how novel reading, newspapers, music, rock music, the internet, computer games all made everyone super dumb and the world ended. I am definitely sure that this time you are right and the world will actually end this time, everyones going to end up way dumber than you, or if they dont, you will still pretend it happened and be smug about it on the internet.
- direwolf20 8mo ago
  they kind of did
- anthk 8mo ago

mixmastamyk 8mo ago

It’s not clear what you want them to do instead.

fvdessen 8mo ago
Have an AI track focused on how to use AI to improve OSS software instead of how to run LLama on RISC-V. Invite the open source developpers behind popular OSS AI frameworks such as opencode, etc. Invite talkers from large companies that produce open source software and models such as Mistral.AI Invite talkers from companies that run OSS LLMs at scale such as groq Invite the people who build drones in Ukraine, (probably the most succesful open hardware story to date). Have drone building workshops / drone piloting stands
- benou 8mo ago
  Anyone can propose a devroom for FOSDEM, I hope you'll do it next year :)
  - fvdessen 8mo ago
    Yes, maybe I should.
- mixmastamyk 8mo ago
  It's been ~three years now we've been hearing about "AI" non-stop. Am a bit tired of it to be honest.
  - fvdessen 8mo ago
    It is extremely exhausting, but it's also the biggest change in tech since the invention of the internet. It don't think it can be ignored.
    - bigstrat2003 8mo ago
      That's certainly what the companies who stand to profit want us to believe. But I don't think it is. I think it's yet another hype storm without any actual utility to back it up.

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.

direwolf20 8mo ago

Remember this is just one conference. This is not a top–down imposition of a new European world order. While the amount of policy discussion is quite high — out of necessity now — and EU representatives attend — this event is still a lot of developers coming together. This is also why the EU has a hard time. America prefers the capitalist model. EU is trying to find ways encourage individual developers each with their own interests to contribute to shared European goals (which the devs also share but might not find interesting), and they're trying to do this without directly saying "you there, go and do this", and that's harder than herding cats. For instance they do it through NLNET funding. Devs can propose projects and the ones the EU wants to fund will receive funding. It's a roundabout way to do things. Let's see if it pays off.

iso1631 8mo ago

> let's self host LLMS from 2 years ago on FreeBSD Sounds brilliant. 2024 LLMs were great, and hosted in gigantic datacenters. South Park did an episode on ChatGPT in 2023 to assist with the timescales. If we can run Free LLMs on a desktop PC that's competitive with 2024 a massive win. Unless of course you believe that AI will continue to increase exponentially, in which case we're heading for such a different world in 10-15 years that it's meaningless to worry about it and you might as well have fun before the AI decides to kill us all