FrOScon the twentieth - a personal report

This weekend, it was time once again for FrOScon 2025. With perfect summer weather – not too hot, not too cold – the event took place at the university in Sankt Augustin, as it does every year. But this year was different: FrOScon celebrated its 20th anniversary. I have a special connection to the conference. Not only is it the largest local open source conference, but I have also been a part of it for many years. I have given countless presentations, organised Debian stands, and run and organised developer tracks. In 2007, I even had the pleasure of being part of the organising team. In a way, FrOScon is like coming home. Everywhere you look, you see familiar faces you've known for many years, former and current colleagues, good friends from the open source scene. The only comparable event is Fosdem in Brussels – which is not surprising, as Fosdem is the great role model for FrOScon.

A journey through time – 20 years of FrOScon

I was already involved in the first FrOScon as an exhibitor for the Debian project, speaker and organiser of the Debian track (together with my colleague Martin Zobel-Helas, who is still involved). I could probably still give the presentation on techniques for combating spam today without changing a word, as the topic has lost none of its relevance. The first FrOScon closed its doors with a very respectable attendance of around 300 visitors. I was so enthusiastic that I got directly involved in the organisation the following year – this was also the year we introduced the famous bouncy castle ;). Over the course of 20 years, FrOScon has developed into one of the largest German OSS community events and now attracts around 1,500 visitors every year. Over the years, the conference has also attracted various prominent keynote speakers, including Andrew Tanenbaum and Richard Stallman, to name but a few. Then as now, I can say that FrOScon is the best conference in the West.

FrOScon 2025

Let's get to the actual content of this blog post – FrOScon 2025. We were represented this year with two presentations and several colleagues as visitors. My colleague Patrick Lauer dedicated one of the rooms to the topic of "Postgres with many data". Thanks to c3voc, the presentation is also available as a stream for anyone who was unable to attend, so everyone can fill this knowledge gap at a later date.

I also gave a presentation again this year. The topic was Proxmox VE and external block devices. I talked about the different types of block devices, such as ISCSI, Fibre Channel and NVMEoF, and how to use them. This presentation is also available in the c3voc video archive.

Conclusion

This FrOScon was once again a successful event for community members and interested professionals. It's a bit like a class reunion: you see lots of familiar faces and are excited to find out what everyone has been up to since you last met. Even if I'm hopefully retired by then, I would be delighted to give a presentation at FrOScon #40 ;).