First time at FOSDEM

This post is long overdue. FOSDEM 2025 is my first time at that event. Wow it's awesome. I've gone to local (to me) conferences before, but FOSDEM is truly on another level.

I you ever saw this cat hoodie at FOSDEM, it's likely me.

European public transport

My flight is a long one, from Hokkaido to Taipei, Dubai then finally Brussels (Live in Taipei, but was in JP for stuff). As this is the first time I've been to Europe, the only thing I knew was from Adam Something and that he loves trains - I know I had to train myself from Brussels airport to city center - wasn't expecting the train to be that good. Bought a ticket from the airport, hop on the next train and off I go. The short journey was smooth and absolutely quiet. They are much, much quieter than local trains or MRT in Taipei. After exiting Bruslles Central. Google Maps wanted me to take a tram to a station near by the hotel I am staying at. I was a bit scared at first, first time taking a tram at all. But with some guessing and trial and error, I managed to get to the hotel.

FOSDEM

Arrived at ULB via tram. For me, a conference is mostly a networking event so I just hangs around the booths. Took a short while to figure out which building is where (the map is great, just still needs some time to map it to the real world). I was mostly walking around and visting stands. LOTS of fun and new projects. There's even "Fuck off Google" stuck onto a trash bin. Not sure if it's a FOSDEM only thing or ULB has that 356 days of the year.

Saw a Amiga running Linux! This is too impressive to not share.

And just before FOSDEM, I was chatting online with friends about the new FuriLabs Linux phone. We were speculating if the hardware is vaporware. Or will it flop like Librem 5 and the Pine Phone (Pro) did. They seemed new and lacks real funding. I am very surprised that they had a stand at FOSDEM. Let alone the actual product is so good. That it is actually functional and have decent battery life. Even better, their founder said that "the phone is designed to last, we are not planning on making a second generation in the near future"! Absolutely lovely.

So much so The Furl Lab FLX1 is my work phone now. No distract, open source, actual FDE and good battery life!

One of the few talks I went to was towards the end of the 1st day about how DB integrates into the new paradigm of Large Language Models. Interested as I am working on the other end of the AI industry (computation). Honestly I am exhausted towards the end of the day. And jet lad was still affecting me greatly. Truly surviving on high dosages of coffee.

First time to FOSDEM, I also jointed the AI Plumbers conference, a fringe event by the organizer of the track I soke at. Honestly feels like fresh air that there's a focused discussion group for people in the same field, collaborating and trying to from new salience for issues in the industry.

Brussels

Didn't leave Brussels right after the fringe event. I had another conference in Austin the week after and it doesn't make sense to fly back to Taiwan with a 20 hour flight, just to leave 3 days later with another 19 hour flight. I sayed in the city and gone to places I wanted. Still working Taiwan working hours being absolutely sleepy.

The fringe event, AI Plumber's Conference is held in, Gent, a city next to Brussels. I have no clue how long distance traveling works in Brussels/Belgium. Google says to take the train so I did. Surprising that there is no gate at the station. Instead you simply go to the platform and hop on. A staff would come later and check that you have the ticket. The train is so clean and silent that it genuinely impressed me. Train in Taiwan is.. not event close. The newer ones are clean and bright. But still loud and that discomforts me.

Walked around the city during my extended stay. It is truly beautiful. The architecture screams history just looking at it. And clean. And the harmony of the color.

In the on the other direction. I bumped into the St. Giles Catholic Church. As an Asian, I have heard and seen images of churches on history textbook and in movies. But, this is the first time seeing one in real life. I know it's real yet still made me speechless actually seeing one.

Unlike in Asia. Where apartments and buildings are ugly and with every color imaginable. The ones in Brussels are consistent and shows a level of coordination. Any angle you look, it's beautiful and peaceful. Instead of them fighting to be the most obvious construction.

Leaving the city

My next hop is Amsterdam. To fly to the US from the Schiphol airport. I was going to just do the simple thing and not taking any risk - go to the Brussels Airport and fly to Schiphol. However, the layover was only an hour. Way too tight for my liking. I took Eurostar and trained myself to Amsterdam. Eurostar is truly, great. Fast, silent and the on board WiFi works across borders. The while my roaming plan asks me to reconfigure to avoid fees.