Redpill Linpro and FOSDEM are basically a yearly tradition at this point. Every year, a crew of Redpill Linproers heads to Brussels for Europe’s biggest open source conference. This year was no exception: eighteen of us from Norway and Sweden packed our bags and set off for a weekend powered by tech talks, community, and open source energy.

I’m Ole Mathias Heggem, working as a Consultant at Redpill Linpro DevOps, where I’ve been for almost five years. Before joining Redpill Linpro, I worked with similar tech-heavy environments and infrastructure projects, focusing on automation, platforms, and cloud tooling. Open source has always been close to what I work with day to day.

What is FOSDEM?

For those unfamiliar, FOSDEM is a large, free conference focused on free and open source software and technology. It brings together developers and contributors from all over the world for two full days of talks, workshops, and meetups. It’s intense, inspiring, and very community-driven. There are dozens of parallel tracks (“devrooms”), each focused on a specific topic, which means you’re always missing 30 other great talks while attending one.

First time at FOSDEM

This was actually my first time attending FOSDEM, and it definitely lived up to the hype. I’ve heard colleagues talk about it for years, the scale, the hallway track, the deep technical sessions. So it was great to finally experience it firsthand.

Why FOSDEM this year?

I’ve wanted to attend for a long time because FOSDEM has a strong reputation for being deeply technical and community-driven, not a sales expo with marketing slides, but real engineers sharing real solutions and real problems. This year the timing worked out perfectly, and once my talk was accepted, the decision was pretty much made for me 🙂

Brussels beyond the conference

Even though the conference schedule is packed, we made sure to experience some of Brussels too. On Saturday evening we had a big Redpill Linpro team dinner, which was a highlight on its own, lots of good conversations and plenty of laughs. Outside the conference halls I walked the city, and of course did proper research on Belgian waffles and chocolate.

Giving a talk at FOSDEM

One of my biggest personal highlights this year was giving my own talk in the Network devroom:“Going full IPv6 in Kubernetes: No limits, just 128 bits!”

The talk focused on practical experiences from running Kubernetes with IPv6-first networking, what works well, what to watch out for, and why it’s less scary than many assume. I shared real-world lessons, design choices, and operational takeaways.

The room had a great turnout, and the questions afterward led to some really good discussions. Presenting to a packed room definitely raises your pulse a bit, but it was genuinely fun and went according to plan. The feedback afterward was very encouraging, with several people continuing the discussion in the hallway afterward, which I think is a great sign.

Don't miss Ole Mathias's talk! Click THIS link to be directed to the talk on FOSDEM's website. 

Other talks and sessions

With more than a thousand talks and sessions, it’s impossible to see everything, you have to prioritize. On the first day I stayed mostly in the Network devroom, where my own talk was scheduled. There were several strong sessions, including deep dives into what’s next for networking in the Firefox QUIC stack and performance work in VPP. On the second day I spent most of my time at the lightning talks, which covered an impressively wide range of topics, everything from “Securing Time with NTS” to “Self-hosting a Student Radio Station.”

Best part of FOSDEM 2026

Since it was my first time, the best part was honestly the full experience: the scale, the community, and successfully delivering my own talk. Walking between buildings packed with open source developers from all over the world, and being one of the speakers felt both motivating and a bit surreal in the best possible way.

Safe to say: this won’t be my last trip to Brussels.