Flock to Fedora report 2025
Flock to Fedora is my favorite conference and this year was no exception.
Too many good presentations and workshops to name them all. But I want to mention at least the most surprising (in a good way) ones. It takes some courage to be the first person to go for a lightning talk, especially when lightning talks aren’t even scheduled and organizers open the floor at the very moment. Smera, I tip my hat to you. Also, I was meaning to ask, how do graphic designers choose the FOSS project they want to work on? As an engineer, I typically get involved in sofware that I use but is broken somehow, or is missing some features. I am curious what is it like for you. Another pleasant surprise was Marta and her efforts to replace grub with nmbl. I will definitely try having no more boot loader. In a VM though, I’d still like to boot my workstation :D.
Random thoughts
We bunked with Pavel, which made me think of this office scene.
Something happened to me repeatedly during this conference and amused me every time. I introduced myself to a person, we talked for five minutes, and then the person asked “so what do you do in Fedora?”. I introduced myself once more, by my nickname. To which the immediate reaction was “Ahaaa, now I know exactly what you do!”. I am still laughing about this. Organizers, please bring back FAS usernames on badges.
It was nice to hear Copr casually mentioned in every other presentation. It makes the work that much more rewarding.
My favorite presentation was Bootable Containers: Moving From Concept to Implementation. I’ve spent all my free time over the last couple of months trying to create a bootc image for Copr builders, and seeing Sean falling into and crawling out of all the same traps as myself was just cathartic. We later talked in the hallway and I appreciated how quickly he matched my enthusiasm about the project. He gave me some valuable advice regarding CI/CD for the system images. Man, now I am even more hyped.
I learned about Fedora Ready, an amazing initiative to partner with laptop vendors and provide a list of devices that officially support Fedora. Slimbook loves Fedora so much that they even offer a laptop with Fedora engravings. How amazing would it be if my employer provided this option for a company laptop? What surprised me, was not seeing System76 on the list. I am a fan of theirs, so I am considering reaching out.
Feeling a tap on your shoulder 30 seconds after you push a commit is never a good sign. When you turn around, Karolina is looking into your eyes and saying that f’d up, you immediately know that push was a bad idea. For a petite lady, she can be quite terrifying :D. I am exaggerating for effect. We had a nice chat afterward and I pitched an idea for an RPM macro that would remove capped versions from Poetry dependencies. That should make our lives easier, no?
One of my favorite moments this year was chilling out with Zbigniew on a boat deck, cruising the Vltava River, and watching the sunset over the beautiful city of Prague. Kinda romatic if you ask me. Just joking, but indeed, it was my pleasure to get to know you Zbigniew.
The JefFPL exchange
The conference began with a bittersweet moment - the passing of the Fedora Project Leadership mantle from Matthew Miller to Jeff Spaleta.
I didn’t know Jeff before, probably because he was busy doing really effin cool stuff in Alaska, but we had an opportunity to chat in the hallway after the session. He is friendly, well-spoken, and not being afraid to state his opinions. Good qualities for a leader. That being said, Matthew left giant shoes to fill, so I think it is reasonable not to be overly enthusiastic about the change just yet.
Matthew, best wishes in your next position, but at the same time, we are sad to see you go.
FESCo and Fedora Council
The FESCo Q&A and the Fedora Council AMA were two different sessions on two different days, but I am lumping them together here. Both of them dealt with an unspecified Proven Packager incident, the lack of communication surrounding it, and the inevitable loss of trust as a consequence.
I respectfully disagree with this sentiment.
Let’s assume FESCo actions were wrong. So what? I mean, really. Everybody makes mistakes. I wrote bugfixes that introduced twice as many new bugs, I accidentally removed data in production, and I am regularly wrong in my PR comments. Yet I wasn’t fired, demoted, or lost any trust from the community. Everybody makes mistakes, it’s par for the course. Even if FESCo made a mistake (I am not in the position to judge whether they did or not), it would not overshadow the majority of decisions they made right. They didn’t lose any of my trust.
As for the policies governing Proven Packagers, one incident in a decade does not necessarily imply that new rules are needed. It’s possible to just make a gentlemen’s agreement, shake hands, and move on.
That being said, I wanted to propose the same thing as Alexandra Fedorova. Proven Packagers are valuable in emergencies, and I think, it is a bad idea to disband them. But requiring +1 from at least one other person before pushing changes, makes sense to me. Alexandra proposed +1 from at least one other Proven Packager, but I would broaden the eligible reviewers to also include Packager Sponsors and FESCo members. I would also suggest requiring the name of the reviewer to be clearly mentioned in the commit description.
Don’t be sad if you missed the conference. There are recordings.