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DebConf 2024 from 28. July to 4. Aug 2024 https://debconf24.debconf.org/

Last week the annual Debian Community Conference DebConf happend in Busan, South Korea. Four NetApp employees (Michael, Andrew, Christop and Noël) participated the whole week at the Pukyong National University. The camp takes place before the conference, where the infrastructure is set up and the first collaborations take place. The camp is described in a separate article: https://www.credativ.de/en/blog/credativ-inside/debcamp-bootstrap-for-debconf24/
There was a heat wave with high humidity in Korea at the time but the venue and accommodation at the University are air conditioned so collaboration work, talks and BoF were possible under the circumstances.

Around 400 Debian enthusiasts from all over the world were onsite and additional people attended remotly with the video streaming and the Matrix online chat #debconf:matrix.debian.social

The content team created a schedule with different aspects of Debian; technical, social, political,….
https://debconf24.debconf.org/schedule/

There were two bigger announcements during DebConf24:

  1. the new distribution eLxr https://elxr.org/ based on Debian initiated by Windriver
    https://debconf24.debconf.org/talks/138-a-unified-approach-for-intelligent-deployments-at-the-edge/
    Two takeaway points I understood from this talk is Windriver wants to exchange CentOS and preferes a binary distribution.
  2. The Debian package management system will get a new solver https://debconf24.debconf.org/talks/8-the-new-apt-solver/

The list of interesting talks is much longer from a full conference week. Most talks and BoF were streamed live and the recordings can be found in the video archive:
https://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2024/DebConf24/

It is a tradtion to have a Daytrip for socializing and get a more interesting view of the city and the country. https://wiki.debian.org/DebConf/24/DayTrip/ (sorry the details of the three Daytrip are on the website for participants).

For the annual conference group photo we have to go outsite into the heat with high humidity but I hope you will not see us sweeting.

The Debian Conference 2025 will be in July in Brest, France: https://wiki.debian.org/DebConf/25/ and we will be there.:) Maybe it will be a chance for you to join us.

See also Debian News: DebConf24 closes in Busan and DebConf25 dates announced

DebConf24 https://debconf24.debconf.org/ took place from 2024-07-28 to 2024-08–04 in Busan, Korea.

Four employees (three Debian developers) from NetApp had the opportunity to participate in the annual event, which is the most important conference in the Debian world: Christoph Senkel, Andrew Lee, Michael Meskes and Noël Köthe.

DebCamp

What is DebCamp? DebCamp usually takes place a week before DebConf begins. For participants, DebCamp is a hacking session that takes place just before DebConf. It’s a week dedicated to Debian contributors focusing on their Debian-related projects, tasks, or problems without interruptions.

DebCamps are largely self-organized since it’s a time for people to work. Some prefer to work individually, while others participate in or organize sprints. Both approaches are encouraged, although it’s recommended to plan your DebCamp week in advance.

During this DebCamp, there are the following public sprints:

Scheduled workshops include:

GPG Workshop for Newcomers:
Asymmetric cryptography is a daily tool in Debian operations, used to establish trust and secure communications through email encryption, package signing, and more. This workshop participants will learn to create a PGP key and perform essential tasks such as file encryption/decryption, content signing, and sending encrypted emails. Post-creation, the key will be uploaded to public keyservers, enabling attendees to participate in our Continuous Keysigning Party.

Creating Web Galleries with Geo-Tagged Photos:
Learn how to create a web gallery with integrated maps from a geo-tagged photo collection. The session will cover the use of fgallery, openlayers, and a custom Python script, all orchestrated by a Makefile. This method, used for a South Korea gallery in 2018, will be taught hands-on, empowering others to showcase their photo collections similarly.

Introduction to Creating .deb Files (Debian Packaging):
This session will delve into the basics of Debian packaging and the Debian release cycle, including stable, unstable, and testing branches. Attendees will set up a Debian unstable system, build existing packages from source, and learn to create a Debian package from scratch. Discussions will extend online at #debconf24-bootcamp on irc.oftc.net.

In addition to the organizational part, our colleague Andrew is part of the orga team this year. He suported to arrange Cheese and Wine party and proposed an idea to organize a “Coffee Lab” where people can bring their coffee equipments and beans from their country and share each other during the conference. Andrew successfully set up the Coffee Lab in the social space with support from the “Local Team” and contributors Kitt, Clement, and Steven. They provided a diverse selection of beans and teas from countries such as Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Peru, Taiwan, Thailand, and Guatemala. Additionally, they shared various coffee-making tools, including the “Mr. Clever Dripper,” AeroPress, and AerSpeed grinder.

It also allows the DebConf committee to work together with the local team to prepare additional details for the conference. During DebCamp, the organization team typically handles the following tasks:

Setting up the Frontdesk: This involves providing conference badges (with maps and additional information) and distributing SWAG such as food vouchers, conference t-shirts, conference cups, usb-powered fan, and sponsor gifts.
Setting up the network: This includes configuring the network in conference rooms, hack labs, and video team equipment for live streaming during the event.
Accommodation arrangements: Assigning rooms for participants to check in to on-site accommodations.
Food arrangements: Catering to various dietary requirements, including regular, vegetarian, vegan, and accommodating special religious and allergy-related needs.
Setting up a spcial space: Providing a relaxed environment for participants to socialize and get to know each other.
Writing daily announcements: Keeping participants informed about ongoing activities.
Arranging childcare service.
Organizing day trip options.
Arranging parties.

In addition to the organizational part, our colleague Andrew also attended and arranged private sprints during DebCamp and contiune through DebConf via his LXQt team BoF and LXQt team newcommer private workshop. Where the team received contribution from new commers. The youngest one is only 13 years old who created his first GPG key during the GPG key workshop and attended LXQt team workshop where he managed to fix a few bugs in Debian during the workshop session.

Young kids in DebCamp

At DebCamp, two young attendees, aged 13 and 10, participated in a GPG workshop for newcomers and created their own GPG keys. The older child hastily signed another new attendee’s key without proper verification, not fully grasping that Debian’s security relies on the trustworthiness of GPG keys. This prompted a lesson from his Debian Developer father, who explained the importance of trust by comparing it to entrusting someone with the keys to one’s home. Realizing his mistake, the child considered how to rectify the situation since he had already signed and uploaded the key. He concluded that he could revoke the old key and create a new one after DebConf, which he did, securing his new GPG and SSH keys with a Yubikey.

This article was initially written by Andrew Lee.