FroSCon 2026 Retrospection 💻

This years FrOSCon was amazing, and in this blog post I am going to highlight some of my experiences. 💡

Having attended the conference for the first time last year, I eagerly looked forward for this years happening as well. And it turned out great, too!

If you're unfamiliar with it: The FrOSCon (Free and Open Source Software Conference) is an annual conference on free and open-source software with workshops, talks, events and various booths from organizations and companies promoting, or using, FLOSS projects. It is powered by the computer science department of the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, being supported by FrOSCon e.V.



Last year I was pretty much overwhelmed by so many people, and while this year it was very much crowded as well, I managed my overstimulation way better. So I could focus more on the actual things. And I had a chat here and there with cool people.

At first, me and my girlfriend wandered around to get an overview of all the booths. We didn't attend a workshop or talk this year, because we focused on having conversations with other people from the FOSS world.

A highlight for me was to actually meet Sebastian Bergmann, the founder and maintainer of PHPUnit! We had a nice chat on PHP, it's perception in the programming world, the TIOBE index and The PHP Foundation (which he is a member of the board). He's a very friendly guy and I enjoyed our conversation very much.

Next, we had a chat with someone from DW. They were in the area of companies using FOSS at the organisation, and looked for potential employees. It was a nice chat, altough the floor in that area was very crowded and I sometimes missed a word here and there, but overall it was very interesting. 

I also had a quick chat with someone from Datenburg, which appears to be a Hackspace associated with the CCC. The person was very friendly as well, and the Datenburg seems to be a nice opportunity to connect with other fellow programmers and hackers locally. They have an open-day once per week, where you can just go there and meet fellow computer enthusiasts. Definitely a cool idea if you want to connect with others beyond the scope of social media, or the internet in general.

Needless to say, after visiting a lot of more booths, I collected a lot of stickers as well. 



Overall I have to say that all people I encountered were really open, friendly, and welcoming. This is what I love about the FOSS people. And it represents the spirit of openness, inclusivity and freedom. 

By the way: the coffee is very delicious, so you should check out the coffee booth next time! ☕



Thank you for this year's FrOSCon, and I'm looking forward to next year! 💙



➡️ Relevant links:
https://froscon.org/
https://www.h-brs.de/de