Free/Libre/Open (FLO) methods can apply well beyond software. This talk is the first big announcement of the FLO Conscious Living (CL) project.

FLO-CL collects and organizes mental models and practices for living in more healthy, intentional, and ethical ways. As a FLO project, everyone is invited to participate in its evolution.

In 2024, for the first time that we know of, the very social fabric of open source was exploited to create a security flaw in essential open source software. In this talk I won't be talking about the technical implications of xz; instead, I'll be talking about the history of the disconnect between what users expect of Open Source developers and how Open Source development actually takes place, and how that contributed to the context in which the xz exploit almost became widespread. I'm sure it will be fascinating.

J.Y.Amihud is made a movie called "Moria's Race" using GNU / Linux, Blender and avoiding proprietary software. The movie was even rendered on the CPU to avoid proprietary GPU drivers.

Many open source projects are grappling with a crucial issue: finding future contributors and maintainers. This talk explores the hurdles and solutions in bridging academia and open source. We discuss what mental barriers students face when it comes to coding and contributing to open source, how to craft mentorship resources, and what resources projects need to build lasting relationships with students.

Open source compliance used to focus on license obligations. Recent regulatory movements (e.g., EO-14028 and EU-CRA) along with an increasing awareness of the need for stronger security profiles in open source (e.g., XZ vulnerability) have created new obligations for consumers and distributors of open source software. This talk will focus on basic open source compliance and best practices in that space along with the newer SBOM requirements arising out of regulatory efforts in both the United States and Europe. This talk will also touch on the additional considerations such as open source health and how good hygiene is necessary for the sustainability of both individual open source projects as well as for the products which incorporate them

Temporal databases let you record history: either a history of the database (what the table used to say), a history of the thing itself (what it used to be), or both at once.

This talk will cover temporal primary keys, foreign keys, updates, deletes, and joins: what they are, how to perform them in SQL:2011 (and coming soon in Postgres!), and how to implement operations not yet covered by the standard, like outer joins, semijoins, and antijoins.

I'll discuss my work adding application-time to Postgres, which was briefly part of v17 and will hopefully be complete for v18.

Bash's parameter ( variable ) expansion has several mechanisms to change values as variables are used.

Some change the value assigned to the variable, some only change the value substituted when the variable is used.

Parameter expansion is an essential tool in shell scripting and one-liners.

This presentation uses examples to demonstrate basic parameter expansion and also 10+ builtin expansions.

Parameter expansions include:

• using a default value if the variable isn't set
• using an alternate value if the variable is set
• several ways of changing a substring
• counting the length of the value
• pattern substitution
• capitalizing or lowercasing strings

Timmy James Barnett plays FLO music using a GNU/Linux laptop. He plays various instruments including violin, microtonal guitars, and microtonal keyboards.

You know the tools you use to troubleshoot LANs, but you probably don't know when to use each tool. I will discuss the tools available and how they fit into the OSI model.

A comparison of two Free Software distributions that strive to be
trustworthy, Debian and GNU Guix.

This talk delves into how each project approaches fundamental security
features through Reproducible Builds, Bootstrappable Builds, code
auditability, etc. to improve trustworthiness, allowing independent
verification; trustworthy projects require little to no trust.

Exploring the challenges that each project faces due to very different
technical architectures, but also contextually relevent differences in
social structure, adoption patterns, and organizational history should
provide a good backdrop to understand how different approaches to
security might evolve, with real-world merits and downsides.

Mailing lists are like super neat. the offer a really cool decentralized, platform agnostic way of contributing to FLOSS.
Even with the advent of more GUI web based platforms, many large projects still use them for development; stuff like GCC and the linux kernel.
But using them can be a bit.. weird, or even scary to say the least.
Join me as I dive headfirst into this text based tributary of our shared cultural heritage to learn the ins,
the outs, the trailing whitespaces and the mime types of this battle tested dev system. We're gonna learn about some history, practice some etiquette, use some tools and talk pros and cons of using a mailing list for your project.

Before the pandemic, whiteboards were everywhere. Now that we are remote, where did they go? Let's talk about how they help us sync and why we still need them. Learn tips and tricks on how to use virtual whiteboards in virtual offices.

In this talk, we will show techniques to quickly sketch out visualizations of coding problems and complex system architectures using online platforms such as Miro, Mural, and more. These tools aid in understanding problems, solving problems, and most importantly, explaining problems to the rest of your company. Discover the extraordinary power of visualizing your code, a transformative element in tech discussions, presentations, and beyond.

This is talk detailing how I came to the free software movement, what
it means to me, and why discussing freedom is more important than
ever. It is a personal story, but with historical details of the free
software movement, and an overview of free software licenses which my
experience lets me speak to in an informative way. The latter two of
which would be of interest to new people in this space.

How can we work together to build more awesome communities to sustain open source projects?

What can academia can tell us about solving our real-world problems in FLOSS?

In this beginner-friendly talk, I will describe recent research findings about successfully sustaining an open source project and the lifecycles of these projects. I'll sprinkle in a few FLOSS-friendly observations from the information systems, empirical software engineering, and organizational leadership fields, too.

You'll walk away with:
* new ideas for taking action personally and inside organizations
* specific data-driven insights into how projects evolve over time

I use NixOS btw, the hot new distro that all the Arch Linux users have been hopping to. It's a complete overhaul of how linux filesystems are usually laid out. It boasts easy rollbacks of software & config by default, the biggest software repository, and being able to configure everything about your system from one file.

NixOS is also a frustrating experience sometimes. You have to learn a new programming language. The documentation is messy and incomplete. The community is split on many things. There's two ways to do everything.

In this talk, I hope to give you an asterisks-included overview of NixOS and why you should use it.

Dual-booting is a useful method to run two operating systems on the same machine. Different OSes might help you harness the full potential of your hardware, or it may be necessary because of software limitations. It lets you tailor your computing experience to your own unique needs. Yet few people run different operating systems from the same disk partition, where both OSes coexist in the same place in the same file system. This talk will outline the steps to combine Linux with another open source OS known as TempleOS in a very small amount of disk space, and how blending them together can create a unique and fun programming experience.

We’ll explore how Apache SeaTunnel revolutionizes data integration with its robust capabilities. It excels in cross-cloud data integration, breaking down silos for a unified data environment, and supports over 160 data sources, allowing seamless connection and analysis of diverse data. SeaTunnel's high-performance capabilities in both batch and stream processing make it stand out, providing superior speed and efficiency. To illustrate its real-world impact, I’ll share a case study from JP Morgan & Chase, demonstrating how they used SeaTunnel to streamline data integration processes and achieve significant performance improvements.

Mosh is a secure ssh-like mobile shell that works over UDP and is resilient to roaming and machine sleep, works on many restricted Wifi networks, and works on horrible connections. Coupled with tmux you can keep that shell running for days or weeks even as you crisscross the country. Don't leave home without it.

All modern software is the composition of independently developed projects. As a programmer you have some duty to record the relationship your project has to other projects in order to build and run correctly.

It is tempting to think that you, the software author, or you the package maintainer, are in full control over what those requirements are, but you are not. This misunderstanding is the source of many errors. And when authors do discover this but instead of accept it they make a power grab, all they really do is contribute to "dependency hell".

Don't add to dependency hell, add to the users' success and learn to live with less control.

Due to an ongoing trade war between the west and China, the Chinese desired to create their own sovereign CPU design and ISA -- enter LoongArch to fill that niche. Accordingly, Loongson have ported several Linux distributions to the 64-bit variant of loongarch, known as loongarch64.

As both an Alpine developer who wants to have hardware for every port that Alpine runs on, and somewhat of a historian of computing, I was naturally intrigued in both the Alpine loongarch64 port as well as the hardware, which can be best described as MIPS64r6 but with some RISC-V characteristics.

Join us for an engaging and humorous journey into the world of mob programming and Terraform mastery. In this talk, we'll explore how a seemingly simple task turned into a four-month odyssey for Homero, a software developer looking for a simple ticket. Discover how his solo struggle with a two-line code change blossomed into a team-wide learning experience.

Through the power of mob programming, our team transformed individual expertise into collective knowledge, tackling complex Terraform tasks together. We'll share the highs and lows, the laughs and lessons, and how we condensed months of learning into just one week. If you are looking to enhance your team's collaboration, this talk will provide valuable insights and practical tips.

In this session we'll discuss the 6 principles of tensegrity structures and explore them by building simple models. All materials will be provided!

We are witnessing a resurgence of decentralized systems whose nodes communicate through open, symmetric protocols. For example, the Fediverse, the open social media network built around the ActivityPub standard, has been growing substantially in recent years.

However, quality control of such systems using complex protocols like ActivityPub is difficult. How do you test your own application against others, each of which might take a couple of hours simply to install?

Enter FediTest, an open-source project building a test framework for testing these kinds of systems, and a test suite for the Fediverse. We will describe the problem as we see it, explain our approach, and demo live tests.

With so many new projects arriving on the scene every year, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that it's about more than code. A successful FOSS project and community needs a solid governance structure to ensure the safety and productivity of its members and users.

Governance is a tricky thing, but thankfully we can do what all good FOSS Folks do: we can learn from and build upon the work of those who came before us.

In this talk I'll talk about some of the most commonly applied governance elements for FOSS projects, why you might want to use them for your FOSS project, show you many different examples of governance structures, and provide you with a resource for finding more examples that you can build upon for your project's needs.

Observability is a critical aspect of any infrastructure as it enables teams to identify and address issues promptly. Nevertheless, achieving system observability comes with its own set of challenges. It is a time- and resource-intensive process as it necessitates the incorporation of instrumentation into every application.
In this talk, we will delve into the gathering of telemetry data, including metrics, logs, and traces, using eBPF. We will explore tracking various container activities, such as network calls and filesystem operations. Additionally, we will discuss the effective utilization of this telemetry data for troubleshooting.

Last summer, driven by a compelling desire to address the public health issue of accidental addiction, I embarked on a personal project: DrugScan, a website designed to identify addictive drugs. As a middle school student with no prior experience in software development, I used open-source frameworks and free tools, such as an AI assistant, to help me build DrugScan. Within a year, I launched it. In this presentation, I will share my experiences and learning journey, highlighting how open-source technologies and AI assistants can serve as crucial resources for teenagers eager to make a difference. My goal is to inspire and empower other young individuals to make a social impact, regardless of technical barriers.

We have embarked on an ambitious goal of creating a flexible Linux-based distribution that can run many user interfaces on a wide range of quirky hardware such as phones, watches, TVs, laptops. We aim to replace proprietary,privacy invading, and attention seeking operating systems these devices include with free software. This talk will introduce the distro, our innovative tooling,and discuss the future of Linux on mobile devices.

Explores the compelling reasons why organizations should embrace open source software. We will delve into the financial benefits, highlighting significant cost savings from reduced licensing fees and total cost of ownership. It emphasizes the flexibility and customization potential of open source solutions, enabling businesses to tailor software to their unique requirements. Justis dispels myths around security, demonstrating how the collaborative scrutiny of the open source community leads to robust and reliable systems. Justis also discusses the advantages of avoiding vendor lock-in, fostering innovation, and attracting top talent, making a strong case for open source as a strategic asset for IT.

Coreboot has been around for a number of years by now, but with each new year it becomes a more viable and robust way to really own the hardware you're supposed to own. This talk is meant as a catalyzer for people to go forth with the process and finally bootstrap a reasonably more secure computer for themselves, all while spreading FLOSS

With the wide availability of inexpensive and easy to use DIY fabrication machines, manufacturing your own physical items is in reach of more people than ever before. We'll look at the landscape of software available to design and fabricate your own designs from Linux and FOSS software stack.

New problems can be very daunting and oftentimes you find yourself struggling to decide where to start. We'll talk about how to form a personal checklist of some of the easier resources to look for and how to create strategies for solving harder problems.

Animism (or panpsychism) understands the Universe to be inherently sentient and conscious. If even a rock has an internal experience, then it follows that a computer system also has some form of internal experience. Counter to the academic views of previous generations of Western academics, the animist worldview does not anthropomorphize animals, plants, mountains, or celestial bodies, but rather sees them as their own types of entities with very different experiences and very different ways of being. In this talk, I will discuss the advantages of taking an animist or panpsychist approach to AI systems and then consider some of the ethical problems along with proposed resolutions to those challenges.

How do you share your OSHW projects? Does your process help keep things like the BoM and assembly instructions in sync? Is it easy to re-use parts from other projects (yours or someone else’s)? Can you easily fork your projects? How difficult is it for you to certify (or re-certify) your projects as OSHW? If you have a process that addresses all these needs, we want to hear about it. And if not, we want to hear how a new process could best support your needs. Join our live discussion on what works in sharing OSHW projects and what still needs improvement. Your input will be included in a public report on how the community shares projects and will guide development of formal processes and tools for sharing OSHW.

Join in a hands-on workshop all about self-hosting! Bring your experiences and curiosity, leave with inspiration and ideas to try out. Together we'll help each other get unblocked wherever we're at, from thinking about self-hosting to improving smooth-running servers and services. This workshop will focus on fundamental concepts, tools, and techniques from the FOSS book Steadfast Self-Hosting, although having and having read the book is not required.

In this presentation, we will explore the transformative potential of large language models (LLMs) in reshaping the landscape of open-source software. As LLMs continue to advance, the traditional paradigm of software development is undergoing a significant shift; many software features are now being replaced by conversational interactions with LLMs. Central to this evolution is the realization that software essentially combines personal data with unique workflows—elements that can be efficiently “coded” through natural language prompts. Looking ahead, the future of open-source may resemble a collection of “dinner recipes” rather than rigid scripts, effectively lowering technical barriers and democratizing access to technology.

I am a reviewer for eBird, one of the largest community scientist platforms in the world, where people submit checklists of birds they saw. Reviewers go over these records, looking for aberrant observations, incorrectly tagged media, and records which need just a little bit more detail. With around 100 million checklists to review, this task can take a lot of time! In this talk, I'll go over this process, and talk about how I and a few other reviewers use open source tooling written in R to make this process a bit easier.

You probably developed your open source project for a single, "default" architecture like x86, but today there is considerable growth in other architectures, from ARM to mainframes to RISC-V. The talk will present some of the tools available to open source software developers to port their projects to other architectures.

Volunteers mirroring Linux Distros and Free Software projects is the only way that projects are able to scale without being crushed by the bandwidth bills necessary to make their software available at large. The old guard of mirrors are greying, so new providers of bandwidth and server admins need to step up to fill their shoes. The MicroMirror project is one approach to this by finding the most popular projects consuming the most bandwidth on mirrors and spreading that load across dozens of new, smaller, cheaper, mirror servers across the globe.

Did you know you can run MySQL on a Raspberry Pi and replicate the data to the cloud?

In this session, we will cover how to install MySQL on a Raspberry Pi, give a brief overview of how to store data on this MySQL instance, demonstrate an application that can visualize that data, and finally, how you can replicate that data to a MySQL instance running in the cloud.

Enterprise GIS (geographic information system) deployments have long been considered notoriously difficult and expensive, particularly for non-profits, hobbyists, and other small organizations. Barriers to entry such as these, as well as the domination of proprietary GIS software in North America and Europe, has made wide-scale open source GIS adoption difficult to achieve. In this presentation, you will learn about the geoCML Project and how it aims to alleviate these issues by bringing full-scale enterprise GIS deployments to the masses with its FOSS geoCML Deployment Pattern.

Hey! You're special! And so are the people you love. AND SO IS THEIR DATA. If we all had a dollar for every time someone said "Well, Facebook has all my data, so what's the difference if they've got just a little more?", we could finally buy that SeaGL Conference Yacht we've all been dreaming of. And you know all this! So come for a discussion of how to positively and lovingly suggest ways to be a little safer while not losing your mind or your community.

As we continue on our journey of ensuring the sustainability of free and open source software, we talk about so many things. Funding. Health Metrics. Criticality. Foundations. Corporations. Sponsorship. "Doing The Right Thing."

Today, I want to talk about You, Me, and Us. Because this is what Sustainability is really all about. Humans. Because how we show up for each other matters, and it is the key to sustainably developed free and open source software.

I will cast my observations about the free and open source funding ecosystem against this backdrop as I look at current trends and speculate about our future.

Come give a SeaGL talk with no preparation required - or available! SeaGL 2023 had a talk where the slides were available but the presenter was not, so we crowdsourced the talk and it was a huge hit. This year we're doing it intentionally. This slot will have 10 five minute talks on a variety of Linux, Open Source, techie topics. We'll pass the presenter mic around liberally and see if we can keep ourselves on our toes and learn a thing or two from each other!