FOSDEM 2024

I had a great weekend in Brussels. It was my 3rd FOSDEM, but the first as a speaker and an exhibitor. I attended three regular talks and spent most of my time in the hallway track. After all, I also had some time for sightseeing.

PineTime Talk

My main focus for the event was my talk on the PineTime. I aimed to introduce the capabilities of this smartwatch from a programmer’s perspective. I decided to share the story of how I got started with InfiniTime and Amazfish. Initially unsure if I could make it to the conference, I had Jean-Francois, the author of InfiniTime, as my backup, though ultimately I didn’t need to rely on him. The talk itself was in the evening, and I was quite tired. I felt that my English wasn’t as smooth as it should have been, I was nervous, and my timing wasn’t optimal, so I didn’t manage to cover everything I had intended to. Nonetheless, I received very positive feedback, not only about the talk but also about the Amazfish port in general.

https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-3319-pinetime-a-programmer-s-toy-and-beyond/

Ultimately, you can judge for yourself whether it was successful. I have also attached my slide notes if you are interested in what I didn’t manage to say.

Before the talk itself, I had the opportunity to engage in discussions with Jean Francois, TL, and Gamiee. I can only hint that many exciting developments are on the horizon. JF plans to split the repository into operating systems and applications, a move that should expedite the merging of pull requests. I wanted to gain a clear understanding of how I could contribute effectively and find out which features are priorities for JF. While we discussed some ideas they have, they will share all the details when they’re ready. I still hold hope that they will resurrect the monthly blogs with updates.

Linux on Mobile stand

I spent most of the conference at the stand called Linux on Mobile Devices, which showcased a wide variety of current mobile Linux projects. One of the stand’s key messages, and something I explicitly aimed to convey, was that open source collaboration benefits projects through the success of others. I offered to Flypig that I could present NemoMobile and AsteroidOS there, and he agreed, so I attended. Thanks, by the way.

NemoMobile is my passion project, and I showcased its current state, which is admittedly dismal. We currently have a basic user interface built on top of Qt6 and Manjaro Linux. I provided details in a previous blog post along with a video. The feedback was rather lukewarm, but I’m glad I had the chance to showcase its capabilities, and I hope someone will be motivated to help with its development.

AsteroidOS is my new fascination since Christmas, and I thought it would be interesting to showcase it as well. I recently updated Amazfish to work with Asteroid. There is still an open pull request for the screenshot feature. In the end, other members of the community brought about 30 different devices, and the OS itself received a great response.

Site seeing

Conferences aren’t just about professional interests or work; they also provide opportunities to meet new people and experience different cultures. Unfortunately, I was too tired to attend any big parties, so it ended up being a very calm dinner with old friends.

In previous years, I’ve visited all the peeing statues and Atomium. This year, I visited the European Parliament and the Museum of Chocolate (although Google says it’s closed). Someone recommended visiting René Magritte museum, who is famous for a couple of paintings, the most well-known being the one with a man holding a green apple in front of his face. I’ll keep that tip in mind for future conferences.