FOSDEM 2026 Report

This was our third year at FOSDEM as the Digilol team. We couldn't all be everywhere at once but here are some highlights according to me.

A new Linux handheld

Surprisingly, there was a demo stand of Mecha Comet. The Mecha team is based in India so they must have travelled a long way to Brussels.

We're not sure if it was just us but the device running KDE was sluggish and the applications were crashing. The build was solid however and I believe the software can be optimized later.

Archiving any software repository from anywhere

Software Heritage is the "Internet Archive" for software repositories. It can be used to save git, SVN and other types of repositories.

This reminds me of GitHub's Arctic Code Vault program but it's of a more epic scale as they archive any repository anywhere (even if you're self-hosting Forgejo, GitLab etc.)

Open Local First

The Open Local First devroom was especially interesting given the situation with the internet/cellular shutdowns of oppressive regimes. Mesh networks and local applications using BLE/Lora are hot right now.

The highlight for me was the talk by Nico which explored building peer-to-peer apps with js-libp2p, IPFS and OrbitDB. It was also informative from a security perspective that he described how to use WebAuthN/passkeys, DIDs, UCANs, decentralized storage and pinning networks.

In 2026 you can get a decent RISC-V laptop

We stopped to talk to Yuning Liang, who is a shareholder of Framework. Yuning's company DeepComputing develops and sells Framework laptops with RISC-V motherboards.

My personal opinion is that once you go OLED you can never go back. Could you fellas at Framework and DeepComputing please make OLED an option? Thanks.

AI slop vs open source security

The closing talk on the main track was by the curl maintainer Daniel. Curl's HackerOne bug bounty program was absolutely trashed by wannabe researchers relying on the hallucinations of their LLMs. Unfortunately the slopmeter was maxed out and curl had to close shop.

It certainly doesn't help that HackerOne is pushing for LLM use really hard, by replacing the submit report button with their own LLM which forces the researcher to prompt and obscuring ways to submit "legacy" hand written reports.

Military grade FOSS attack drones

A company called DeltaQuad is producing battlefield ready drones which run free software PX4 autopilot framework and Pixhawk flight controller. This is a great initiative given the security situation in Europe. Looking at you Lithuania, you need to shoot those smuggling balloons down!

Another cool thing to note, there is a foundation for the development of autonomous aerial robotics. Dronecode Foundation is a Linux Foundation project too.

You wouldn't download a microscope

As a 14 year old I used to be obsessed with the biohacking community. All the biohacking community did back then was implanting small SBCs, RFID chips and neodymium magnets. Well my adult self is grateful that I didn't go down that pipeline. Hence I avoided the surgical removal of those done at a doctor's office.

Anyway, the OpenFlexure project is a step in the right direction. It's an open source microscope. They're trying to get certified so it can be fit for use in official institutions.

Where does Digilol stand in FOSS?

Our company was born out of Free Software; we run and write FOSS. Additionally we offer free or discounted security audits/penetration tests for open source projects. Check out our full cybersecurity offering at RasterSec. Feel free to get in touch to discuss how we can help secure your project.

Somebody hooked up a thermal printer to a Matrix room. And this is how I made the og image for this post.