Arr, mateys! In 2014, I was lucky enough to move to Colombia. My initial plan was to stay for a few months, but in the end, I stayed until late 2019. It was an amazing experience, one of the experiences with more libre software in my life. When I came back to Europe, I was looking forward to attending FOSDEM, but Covid hit us, and there was no in-person event. The same thing happened in 2021.
A big thank you to the folks who make FOSDEM possible! This year we were able to see each other, and it was incredible to meet people I hadn’t seen in 10 years. I also know that there were people I haven’t seen in even longer, but it was too late. 😅
This year, I learned new things about topics like cloud sovereignty, real-time communication, Kubernetes, and Mastodon. I have much more to learn from this edition because all the recorded sessions are available here. The show must go on! I’ve met new social organizations like Hachyderm, spent some time with folks from OpenNebula, and had the opportunity to talk with people from the Perl, FSFE, Tor Project, XMPP, and Debian communities, among others.
It’s been an indescribably good experience to feel immersed in the free (as in freedom) technology world again. It’s something I missed a lot since I returned from Colombia, and I needed it. And as always, I didn’t miss my post-FOSDEM trip to Bruges, where the stroll and the food are delights of the gods.
This trip was even more fun because I was using a new toy, a Canon EOS 2000D camera. Like a good beginner, I did several mistakes with white balance and focus, but the worst was not having set the camera to take pictures in raw format. So, as a former king of Spain once said, “I’m very sorry, I’ve made a mistake, it won’t happen again”. Anyway, the free software Darktable has helped me a lot to improve the photos that I’m sharing with you below.
I’m back from FOSDEM with a lot of work to do. For now, I’ve prepared the photos and written this post, but I’m also collaborating on other things that I’ll talk about soon. Now I’m preparing sails, supplies, and moorings to set sail for our new destination. I haven’t consulted the course yet, but let’s trust in the goddess Fortune because the ways of root are inscrutable. Good winds!