FOSDEM - History

History

FOSDEM was started under the name OSDEM (Open Source Developers of Europe Meeting) by Raphael Bauduin. Bauduin has said that since he felt he lacked the brains to properly contribute to the open source community, he wanted to contribute by launching a European event in Brussels. It was an immediate success, with speakers coming from all over the world.

This encouraged the team to repeat the event. The F (of FOSDEM) was added at the request by Richard Stallman.

The event has been annually in February since then, with growing numbers of visitors, talks and tracks.

At present, the meeting hosts about 4,000 visitors every year.

• 2001 - Event named OSDEM, started by a team of five people. Organized in two months.
• 2002 - Event renamed to FOSDEM, at the request of Richard Stallman. Attendance grew to a few thousand.
• 2003
  • Keynotes: The History of Free Software (Jon 'Maddog' Hall), FSF (Richard Stallman)
  • Tracks: databases, desktop, education, multimedia, security, toolkit, tutorials
  • Developer rooms: embedded software, gnome developers, GNUstep, KDE, Mozilla, PostgreSQL
• 2004
  • Keynotes: The open source paradigm shift (Tim O'Reilly), FSF (Richard Stallman)
  • Tracks: accessibility, Java, Linux kernel, Scripting languages, security, X&Co
  • Developer rooms: Debian, Java, OpenMosix, MySQL, Embedded software, KDE, Mozilla, Tcl
  • Tutorials, unofficial talks served as a platform for ad hoc talks.
• 2005
  • Keynotes: Wikipedia (Jimbo Wales), FSF (Richard Stallman)
  • Tracks: Desktop, Development tools, GRID/Clusters, Linux kernel, Packaging tools, security
  • Developer rooms: Calibre, Clustering, Dokeos, Embedded software, Gnome, GNU Hurd, KDE, Opengroupware, PHP/Pear, GNU Classpath, Debian, Drupal, Gentoo, GNUstep, Jabber, Mozilla, Perl, Tcl
  • Unofficial talks were again present.
• 2006
  • Keynotes: Richard Stallman, GPLv3 discussion
  • Tracks: Desktop, Development, Security, Systems, Voice over IP, Web 2.0
  • Developer rooms: Ada, GNU Classpath, Embedded software, Gnome, Jabber, Linux on Laptops, Opengroupware, Tcl/Tk, Calibre, Debian, Gentoo, GNUstep, KDE, Mozilla, openSUSE, X.org
• 2007
  • Keynotes: OLPC (Jim Gettys), Liberating Java (Simon Phipps)
  • Tracks:*
    • main tracks: Opening/closing talks, Security, Desktop applications, Development and languages, Kernel, Web, Internet Services
    • side tracks: Lightning Talks, Key Signing
  • Developer rooms: CrossDesktop, KDE, Gnome, openSUSE, Mozilla, GNU Classpath+OpenJDK DevJam, CentOS+Fedora, Jabber, OpenGroupware+GNUstep, Python, Research Room, X.org, Gentoo, Debian, Embedded
• 2008
  • Keynotes: "Tux with Shades, Linux in Hollywood" (Robin Rowe), How a large scale opensource project works (Robert Watson), Status update of Software Patents (Pieter Hintjens)
  • Tracks: Opening/Closing talks, Languages, Build Systems, Games, Packaging, Virtualization, Web
  • Developer rooms: BSD+PostgreSQL, CentOS+Fedora, CrossDesktop, Debian, Drupal, Embedded, Free Java, GNOME, JBoss, Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, openSUSE, Research Room, Ruby on Rails, X.org
  • There were lightning talks about miscellaneous subjects.
• 2009
  • Keynotes: "Free. Open. Future?" (Mark Surman), Debian (Bdale Garbee), Google Summer of Code: A behind the scenes look at a large scale community (Leslie Hawthorn)
  • Tracks: Distributions, Languages, Security, Systems, Collaboration, Kernel
  • Developer rooms: Ada, BSD+PostgreSQL, CentOS+Fedora, CrossDesktop, Debian, Drupal, Embedded, Free Java, GNOME, GNUStep+Groupware, Jabber+XMPP, KDE, Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, openSUSE, Ruby on Rails, X.org
  • There were lightning talks about miscellaneous subjects.
  • Various activities: Key Signing Party, Open Source Initiative special session, etc.
• 2011
  • Keynotes: "Why Political Liberty Depends on Software Freedom More Than Ever" (Eben Moglen), "LLVM and Clang" (Chris Lattner), "How kernel development goes wrong and why you should be a part of it anyway" (Jonathan Corbet)
  • Tracks: Systems, Web browsing, Cloud, Languages, Office, Web frameworks
  • Developer rooms: Crossdesktop, Data analytics, Cross distro, Embedded, Free Java, GNU, Jabber & XMPP, Mono, Mozilla, MySQL & friends, Security & hardware crypto, World of GNUstep, Accessibility, Configuration & Systems management, LibreOffice, New challenges in virtualization, Open source telephony, Perl, PostgreSQL
  • There were lightning talks about miscellaneous subjects.
  • Various activities: PGP key signing, certifications, beer drinking, etc.