FOSDEM 2026: The Kid Who Dreamed of Hackers Found Them in Brussels
Summary: A kid from a small Mexican town dreamed of finding real-life hackers. Two decades later, he flew his family to Brussels and spoke at one of the world’s largest open-source conferences. This is that story.
“We reject: kings, presidents and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code.” – David D. Clark
The Dream
When I was a young hacker—yeah, believe it or not—my dream was to find other hackers in real life and just hang out together. That’s it. That was the whole dream.
It sounds modest now, but you have to understand the context. I come from a very small town in Mexico, the kind of place where internet was a luxury, Linux was a word nobody recognized, and “Windows” was mostly what you opened to let the heat out. The idea of attending a tech conference was absurd. Attending one in English? In another country? That was pure science fiction—like telling my block friends about Dragon Ball Z spoilers I’d read online, except even less believable.
But with time, and a painfully slow DSL connection, I found my people. I stumbled into the local Linux user group—fewer than ten of us in a city of thousands—and we built something from nothing. A hackerspace. Community events. Workshops with maybe a dozen attendees if we were lucky. Eventually, I found my way to national conferences and even talked at a few of them. Each one felt like a small victory, a tiny crack in the wall between where I was and where I wanted to be.
![A duck seats in top of coffee]( "A duck seats in top of coffee")
The Shot
So when the opportunity to submit a talk to FOSDEM 2026 appeared, I just shot my shot.
I did it almost by instinct, without overthinking it. FOSDEM—the Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting—is one of the largest open-source conferences in the world. Thousands of developers, hundreds of talks, legendary project booths. It had always been a place that existed on the other side of a dream for me. But here’s the thing: I’m more financially stable now, I’ve traveled to Europe for both leisure and work, and I speak comfortable (but still heavily accented) English. I’ve made peace with my accent—it’s part of the package, take it or leave it.
So, why not? The real surprise was that I hadn’t applied before.
The Logistics of Madness
When my proposed talk was accepted, my first reaction wasn’t joy—it was panic. The kind of panic you feel when you push to main and then read the diff. The real problem was logistics.
I already had a trip to Mexico planned for personal reasons. Going to FOSDEM meant extending the family travel by a week, rerouting flights, and solving the kind of logistical puzzle that makes your brain hurt. Tepic, a small city in the mountains of western Mexico → Mexico City → London → Brussels. With a seven-year-old. And a month’s worth of luggage packed for both the scorching Mexican beach and a freezing European winter—flip-flops sharing suitcase space with thermal jackets, sunscreen next to wool scarves. And sanity (debatable).
After my wife—bless her patience—said “just go for it,” and after numerous conversations with both AI and non-AI advisors about how to make it less stressful, we committed. At the end of January, I found myself at the tiny airport of Tepic, eating the most amazing torta de pierna, beginning an absurd journey to Belgium.
![A duck explores cold Brussels streets]( "A duck explores cold Brussels streets")
We crossed through London, hopped on the Eurostar to Brussels, and somewhere between countries, we lost a pillow—a bear-shaped one my kid had shamelessly stolen from his grandma. Rest in peace, little bear pillow. You survived a Mexican grandmother’s house only to perish somewhere in the English Channel.
The Candy Store
And then, there I was. At FOSDEM. With my kid. In Brussels.
The place was electric. People from every imaginable background wandered through the halls of the Université libre de Bruxelles. I’ll be honest—there’s still a noticeable lack of diversity, especially in gender representation—but the energy was undeniable. It felt like a living, breathing monument to what open source can be.
Seeing the project booths was like being a kid in a candy store—except I literally had a kid with me in this candy store. Mozilla, Thunderbird, Let’s Encrypt, SUSE, and of course Mastodon, to name a few. I couldn’t help myself; I told my son that when I was young, one of my first dreams was to work for SUSE. He listened carefully, the way seven-year-olds do when they’re filing away information for later use (probably to embarrass me at dinner).
![SUSE booth at FOSDEM]( "SUSE booth at FOSDEM")
Keeping a seven-year-old entertained at a developer conference is its own extreme sport. Thankfully, a friend I hadn’t seen in over a decade was there—with his kid. He’s a no-gringo, a Dutchman who happens to have worked at Innox in Mexico. Our kids hit it off, and suddenly the conference had a parallel track: unsupervised children’s chaos edition.
The Talk
When the time came for my talk, I walked in, set up, and delivered something far from perfect—but unmistakably mine. I stumbled on a couple of words, my accent was thick, and I’m sure I made at least one joke that only landed for me. But that’s the style. That’s always been the style.
Just before stepping up, Elena handed me the most fabulous FOSDEM sweater in existence. People noticed. People asked where to get one. But no—only I could have it. Exclusive distribution, zero units available. (Okay fine, I was just lucky, but let me have this moment.)
![Friends in Sweaters]( "Friends in Sweaters")
If I have one regret, it’s not spending more time in other talks. It’s not that I didn’t try—I did—but balancing a seven-year-old’s attention span with a conference schedule is a negotiation no diplomacy course prepares you for. I caught fragments, glimpses, enough to know I was missing incredible stuff. But that’s the thing about FOSDEM: it’s not a one-time event. I’ll be back. And next time, I want to do more than speak—I want to listen, linger, and actually have those hallway conversations that everyone says are the best part of any conference.
![Friends enjoying FOSDEM]( "Friends enjoying FOSDEM")
The Kid and the Dream
Here’s what got me, though. The part I didn’t expect.
My kid watched me speak at FOSDEM. He didn’t fully understand the content—he’s seven, and ActivityPub isn’t exactly bedtime story material—but he saw his dad on a stage, in front of a room full of people, in another continent, talking about something he built. When the Q&A started, he wanted to raise his hand. He got shy, though, and didn’t. Later, visibly upset about his missed opportunity, he told me what he wanted to ask: “Do you play Minecraft?” In front of an auditorium full of open-source developers discussing federation protocols, my kid’s burning question was about Minecraft. I love this human being more than I can express.
![Maho speaking at FOSDEM]( "Maho speaking at FOSDEM")
He asked questions the entire trip back: “What does SUSE do?” “Will you talk at another one?” “Can I have my own desk computer?”
He saw the booths, the projects, the people. He kept posing for photos with each open-source mascot like a tiny celebrity on a press tour. His favorite was the PostgreSQL elephant, though we were genuinely concerned about its health. Based on the state of that costume, I think he might be right—PostgreSQL could use your donations, folks. That elephant has seen better days.
![The PostgreSQL elephant mascot at FOSDEM]( "The PostgreSQL elephant mascot at FOSDEM")
And the trip back was no less insane than the trip there. Brussels → Iceland → Seattle. Because apparently, when you’re already doing something absurd, you might as well add a layover near the Arctic Circle. We landed in Reykjavík with our beach-and-winter Frankenstein luggage, stepped outside into wind that felt personally offended by our existence, and my kid asked if the land was actually made of ice. Close enough, kid. Close enough.
![Reykjavik, Iceland landscape]( "Reykjavik, Iceland landscape")
A week later, during a conversation with his teacher, my son was asked about the most memorable thing from the trip. He didn’t say the beach in Mexico, or the train through Europe, or the wind in Iceland, or even the lost bear pillow. He said the most memorable thing was seeing his dad talk at a university. That it made him proud (I’m not going to pretend I didn’t need a moment after hearing that).
I thought about my own childhood. About the kid who couldn’t find a single hacker in his town. About the dusty streets and half-built houses. About how representation works in mysterious ways—how seeing someone like you doing something impossible makes it feel possible. My son doesn’t know what it’s like to not see a path. For him, this is just what dad does. And maybe that’s the whole point.
Full Circle
![Maho at FOSDEM]( "Maho at FOSDEM")
Twenty years ago, I was a teenager in a small Mexican town, writing code in paper notebooks and dreaming of a world I could barely imagine. Today, I stood in Brussels and spoke to a room full of open-source developers about a project I created.
The path from there to here wasn’t straight. It was messy, full of detours, broken English, lost pillows, and more coffee than any doctor would recommend. But every step—every hackerspace meetup with eight people, every local conference talk, every late night wrestling with code—was a brick in the road that led to that stage.
And yeah, I get it, talking for half an hour at a conference with hundreds of talks may seem like a small feat. One slot among many. But it wasn’t small to me. For the kid who couldn’t find a single hacker in his hometown, standing in front of that room was enormous.
FOSDEM wasn’t just a conference for me. It was proof that the kid from Tepic who dreamed of finding hackers in real life finally did. They were in Brussels all along, waiting for him to show up.
And he brought his kid.
Also readable in: maho.dev/2026/02/fosdem-2026-t… by @mapache:
#fosdem #open-source #conferences #community #travel #personal-growth #europe #public-speaking
Six years ago, I embarked on a journey to the United States, five years ago, I made a conscious decision to stop worrying about my English accent.
maho.dev
Nicoco
in reply to josefin • • •Disclaimer: I'm biased towards XMPP and have not tried to host a Matrix server or convert friends.
XMPP is generally lighter, as a consequence of both a simpler (saner :P) protocol and mature server implementations.
Usability for "non techie" is very fine on mobile with Conversations (Android) and Monal (iOS). My mother uses it, and I'm 41.
Generally people say that Element (Matrix client) has more features and is more polished than what we have. It's all a matter of taste IMHO.
(1/2)
Nicoco
in reply to Nicoco • • •Encryption is similar, double ratchet thing like Signal.
Text/VoIP/Sending files: no big difference between Matrix or XMPP I think?
Drama: if you look for it, you'll find it anywhere human beings are in the loop.
Shameless self-plug: you can run codeberg.org/slidge/matridge/ on your server and talk to your friends on Matrix, they generally won't be able to tell the difference compared to when you were using <standard-matrix-client>. The reciprocal is sadly not true.
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matridge
Codeberg.orgLionelB
in reply to josefin • • •JustBob
in reply to josefin • • •As far as I'm concered, Matrix is just reinventing the wheel just like BlueSky is claiming to be like the fediverse.
I've been running an xmpp since it was called Jabber. Signal requires a phone number. I think Matrix requires an email. MPAQ doesnt. xmpp:bob@mpaq.org
Oh, and ours is encripted.
haise
in reply to JustBob • • •uɐıʇsɐqǝs
in reply to josefin • • •Xmpp has a long history. As matrix it is federated and you can choose Server and client and mix as you want. For self hosting there is @prosodyim - might take a good Sunday afternoon to setup. (AFAIK) the same guys work on @snikket_im which you can run in 10minutes if you have used docker compose. Resource wise Prosody runs fine on the oldest raspberry pi in your drawer. Or the cheapest 3€/month VPS.
Can't compare encryption, OMEMO works fine for me though.
uɐıʇsɐqǝs
in reply to uɐıʇsɐqǝs • • •There is paid hosting if you like
E.g.
account.conversations.im/domai…
snikket.org/hosting/
Can't say much more about these offers, been hosting myself ever since.
Snikket Hosting
Snikket ChatElena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to josefin • • •@josefin I don't have direct experience with matrix
I self-host xmpp and I'd call it one of the easiest things to self-host: I did the original installation (years ago) using debian packages on a cheap vps and now I have to take care about it for a few minutes every now and then for general system security updates, plus once every two years for a distribution upgrade (half a day? when things go *badly*) and maybe a few hours another once per year when compliance.conversations.im tells me that I need to enable some other feature.
I know that conversations.im offers managed hosting, and I believe that there are other places, but I've never really looked into them
I'm not qualified to talk about the quality of the encryption, but with modern clients it's usually active (e2e, of course) by default
For my non-techie family members I've created an account on my server, which probably solved what I suspect could be the major hurdle, and since then they have been able to use it without significant problems. The main support I have to give them is reset their password when they change devices and have lost / forgotten it.
I'm not aware of significant drama (it may be there, but not very visible?)
It supports text and sending files. video calls is available between users of some clients, but it's not something I need, so I don't know which clients they are.
one caveat is that xmpp is *old* and there are a lot of old clients that aren't kept updated, and using those will result in a significantly worse experience. For non-techie users I solved the issue by telling them which client to use (conversations, on android), and there is a word-of-mouth list of clients that are guaranteed to be a safe choice: said conversations, gajim and dino-im on pc, and I believe monal on iThings; there are other clients that are good, if somebody wants to experiment a bit, but those are a good first choice.
Debacle
in reply to josefin • • •Both are free and federated, but #XMPP is much older (born as #Jabber in 1999) than Matrix (2014).
XMPP is an IETF standard, all extensions used nowadays are maintained by the independent @xmpp. Not sure about Matrix.
Both have multiple servers and clients. Both can be self-hosted, for both hosting services do exist. Both use very similar encryption schemes, derived from Signal.
Can't comment on Matrix, but I forced my non-tech friends and family to use Jabber.
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Debacle
in reply to Debacle • • •Community is (IMHO) very friendly and pretty diverse. Not sure about drama, though, I must have missed it.
Text chat, A/V calls, audio messages, sending files generally just work nowadays.
I use Jabber/XMPP since ≈ 2014 (first as team chat at work, than private, now also in public channels) and have no reason to migrate. But that doesn't mean Matrix were worse.
I probably forgot many aspects. I leave that to others.
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uɐıʇsɐqǝs
in reply to Debacle • • •AV calla work fine with Conversations.
Never worked on matrix for me 🤔
genofire
in reply to uɐıʇsɐqǝs • • •for me the opposide
E2E- Encryption with OMEMO and
Video-Calls has a lot of problem in XMPP
There it is nice, that Matrix has develop a rust-library which is many clients integrated and let that everywhere work. They clients for matrix works everywhere well and most close all MCS (the XEP of Matrix).
Most XMPP-Clients use TLS-TCP connection on "special"-ports. So firewalls and technical hosting makes it unnecessary complicated. If you compare it with HTTP/Quic2.
Another technical different is, that for Groups/Chatroom always just one server could host it. During Matrix, this rooms are sync to all participated servers, so a outage has less impact.
Kevin Karhan
in reply to josefin • • •basically #XMPP+#OMEMO is older, more decentralized and has actually a working ecosystem of clients fir anything.
poetaster
in reply to josefin • • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to poetaster • • •@poetaster @josefin I am (running coturn), and I believe at least one of the users on my server is using it successfully.
Personally I don't do a lot of video calls :)
Kobold
in reply to josefin • • •Having used both, at the end of the day it comes down to your personal experience and what you are able to migrate your family to.
At some point I stayed on #matrix, but there is no specific reason why I would not use #xmpp again
Why don't you just try running it in parallel to you current matrix server and give it a try.
From what I read here, experience varies wildly.
Debacle
in reply to Kobold • • •That's the case for me. I started with #Jabber/#XMPP ≈ 2014 . Then I pestered all friends and family to use it. For my own health, I will not tell them to migrate again. But if Matrix, Briar, Delta, Jami or whatever else works for you, fine! At least it's not a walled garden like WA or Signal!
Michael Richardson
in reply to Kobold • • •Ulrich Popp
in reply to josefin • • •Matrix has, afaik only element as useful client.
XMPP hat more, for example conversations (Android), monal (iOS) and gajim (Linux, MacOS, Windows). Maybe there is also a client for a C64 ;)
FediVerseExplorer
in reply to josefin • • •I've used XMPP for several years and have some sympathy for it. In the meantime, I'm using Matrix also several years.
The switch to Matrix had for example this reasons:
XMPP was good, if all contacts using it on Android. For this is the app conversations very good. XMPP on iOS or Mac was too buggy. Maybe Monal is now better.
A showstopper for me was the lack of usability even on my own systems (mobile and Desktop).
While Conversations has a backup function, so it's possible to transfer to another Phone. But synchronizing with a Desktop is not possible or unsatisfactory especially when it comes to old encrypted messages.
Thats an imported point for me: With Matrix I can synchronize lots of various Apps on mobile, Desktop or another devices. It's not limited like it's the case with Signal and not dependent from a single Phone like it is with Signal. Every App can be the master to connect a new device or app. Yes, this can also be a security flaw, if I don't monitor all connected devices or Apps....
So I've always a backup on desktop or another device, if my Phone was trowing in the ...
Other good points on Matrix are, editing of messages after send, threads, pinned messages, simple Markdown, user verification and Desktop Apps with a smoother interface.