FOSDEM: Green Beer, Open Advice and more Cool Stuff™

Last weekend was FOSDEM and it was a blast! Camila's first and I get that she didn't look forward to it that much - we had some trouble on the way there. As I'm now just on the way to the airport to pick her up (she had a meet-up with some KolabSys people) I dunno if she changed her mind but I bet she did. If only because she got some Brazilian beans from Izabel Valverde ;-)

For me it was the usual - there was little visiting of talks for me. Seriously, 200 hours of talks in 2 days? Attempting to visit the interesting ones just leads to frustration so I've given up on that. There are just too many people to talk to, too much beer to drink and sell and little catch-ups to have. FOSDEM needs to become a week-long event. Seriously.

A cool highlight of FOSDEM was of course the release of Lydia's awesome Open Advice project. It's a book for people who want to participate and make a difference in Free Software, explaining our culture and drawing upon some bright minds for real-world experiences. It is quite a read - I only got as far as the introduction by ex-FSFE Dude Georg Greve and some first paragraphs of a few chapters. But it's worth it if what I've read is any indication. Of course, in true Free fashion, it's open and even ready to edit and improve if you want!

There was a lot of fun around the openSUSE crowd as usual. The crew did a great job selling t-shirts, hats, beer and other stuff all for the benefit of FOSDEM (we donated the proceeds of the sales as usual). The awesome 'Old Toad' beer was as popular as ever - it is indeed a great beer and a good way to keep the fun alive. The Greek(o)s really drove this part as they must've drunk at least half our supply ;-)

Oh and after being pressed Frank promised that he'll ensure ownCloud has a good booth next year. So, ownCloudies (can't think of a better name atm) - you guys & girls really have to take that dive in 2013!!! Don't let Frank pull it alone. Not that His Baldiness can't do that, it's just that he'd look lonely. We can't have that.

And at night the usual great dinners - Thai food one night, Japanese Tepan Yaki or something (fiery, dang) another. Finishing it off properly with a few beers.

By the way, I've set up the LinuxTag wiki page for the openSUSE gang, sign up!

hugs,
Jos