Our remarkable Fedora ambassador, CentOS, and associate crews delivered live face-to-face support and outreach via our Fedora and CentOS @ SCALE 23x Linux Conference.
TL; DR
- What: A community-run open-source and free software conference in Pasadena, California
- Where: Pasadena Convention Center
- When: 5 – 8 March 2026
Our Field Crew
This reports the activities of the following Ambassadors / CentOS / Red Hatters / associates at the SCALE 23x Linux event:
- Fedora Ambassadors
- CentOS
- Carl W George (FAS: Carlwgeorge)
- Shaun McCance (FAS: shaunm)
- Laura Santamaria (Community Architect) (FAS: Nimbinatus)
- Red Hat
- Rob McBryde (FAS: Rmcbryde)
- Jason Brooks (FAS: Jasonbrooks)
- Amy Marrich
- Associates
Our Remote Crew
- Fedora Contributor
- Chris Idoko (FAS: Chris)
What is SCALE 23x?
The SCALE (The Southern CAlifornia Linux Expo) 23x community Linux event encompasses the 23rd Linux and related technology event with four days of exhibits, tutorials, and demos. This year’s SCALE happened in Pasadena (Los Angeles) area.
SCALE attracted about 3,000 worldwide guests to discuss Linux, AI, DevOps, security, free and open-source software, and more. Technical Committee (Online Services) Chairperson, Mr. Phil Dibowitz, and Network & Wifi Chairperson, Robert Hernandez, among many other community volunteers paved the way for a smooth registration.
Expo Highlights
Our Fedora Community Architect @jflory7 curated and arranged delivery of key swag and marketing items to Perry Rivera. Items included: commuter mugs, buttons, pens, stickers, badge lanyards, and more.
Day 0: Wednesday 4 March
Ahead of our event, Fedora Contributor @chris furnished our attendees an amazing SCALE 23x Attendee badge. 58 attendees claimed the badge this year; cheers to @bcotton for being the first earner!
Fedora Ambassador @vwbusguy helped retrieve half of the items needed for the expo for next-day delivery.
Red Hatter and Fedora Ambassador @lajuggler later that evening delivered expo items.
- Dry-board markers and flipchart easel
- More swag
- Rolling case
@lajuggler finalized Fedora setup on 2 laptops.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew commuted and checked in.
Day 1: Thursday 5 March
@lajuggler attended an early morning Meshtastic workshop.
Ambassadors arrived to the expo floor to pre-setup booth tables and banners.
After @lajuggler ‘s workshop, he arrived later to the expo floor to join pre-setup and unpack swag, easel and markers, and a Fedora retromodem demo.
Day 2: Friday 6 March
The crew assembled to present Fedora Hatch Day.
Welcome to Fedora Hatch Day. – Photo by @carlwgeorge 
@jflory7 presents “The Fedora Docs Revamp: Building the Docs You Want to Read.” Photo by @carlwgeorge 
@nimbinatus presents “A Brief Tour of the Age of Atomic.” – Photo by @carlwgeorge 
@Dcavalca presents “Accelerating CentOS with Fedora.” – Photo by @carlwgeorge
A set of us departed for lunch so we could make ready for opening the Expo floor later that day. @lajuggler and @carlwgeorge set up live demos on both systems for guests to use.
Like to set this up? Get started with a presentation from @lajuggler here.
Retromodem demo by @lajuggler. Photo by @jflory7 
Retromodem demo by lajuggler. Photo by lajuggler 
Star Wars ASCIImation on retromodem demo by @lajuggler. Kudos to @spot for the find. Photo by @carlwgeorge 
Retromodem demo by lajuggler. Photo by @vwbusguy 
Retromodem telehack demo by lajuggler. Photo by @vwbusguy
Later that evening, we had dinner at El Portal. Moreover, Rob McBryde organized a stellar Karaoke night event at Barney’s Beanery.
Day 3: Saturday 7 March
Next, Our crew re-assembled in the expo hall to continue meeting and discussing with community. Later that evening, we had dinner and then converged on Game Night.
Day 4: Sunday 8 March
Once again, our crew gathered in the convention hall to continue our demos and greets with community. Later that afternoon, the crew packed up and closed the booth.
Key Sessions and Takeaways
Session 1: Workshop: Long range, cheap comms through Meshtastic
| Takeaway | Relevance to Our Work |
| Encourages communication with others | Encourages community |
| Relatively low cost to get started. Does not require a license | Minimal barrier to entry |
| Open-source | Encourages open-source activities |
| Physical component and light building assembly | Fairly easy to get started to communicate right away |
Demo 1: WiFi Retromodem on Fedora 43 Highlights
| Takeaway | Relevance to Our Work |
| Guests drawn by retro and novelty aspects of the retromodem and coolretroterm | Guests not normally interested in Fedora were happy to download a free PDF to learn how to build a similar setup at home with Fedora. |
| There was the concern that 9600 bps max would be too slow for guests, but people seemed perfectly fine with text whizzing by onscreen relatively quickly | Conversations would dovetail discussions in the CentOS side of the booth and vice-versa. This synergy brought in various guests and their associates for various reasons, encouraging the community aspect. |
Keynote 1: Mark Russinovich
| Takeaway | Relevance to Our Work |
| Learned that there are Sysinternals tools available for Linux | These tools which are handy on the Windows side could potentially be useful on the Linux side for Red Hat and Fedora usage. |
| Discussed the growing risk of LLM | Brought attention to Anthropic article and encouraged review of code base for 0-days. |
Keynote 2: Doug Comer
| Takeaway | Relevance to Our Work |
| Realization that code was sometime transferred on small or large reels | Appreciation for mass storage media and streamlined Internet delivery |
| Open source movement fought for eliminating charging of data transfer from site to site | The world might be vastly different if charged for each data transfer |
| Programmers had to punch their own punchcards | Dispel myth that someone else punched programmer card |
Feedback Items for SCALE 23x
Throughout the expo, our booth had a sign-in sheet where visitors could optionally leave feedback about Fedora and related efforts.
From the data reviewed, we collected key findings:
Interesting Topics
Releases
| Most Recent Version of Fedora Used | Current Version (At the Time of this Blog’s Publication) | How many? |
| 43 | 43 | 4 |
| 41 | 43 | 1 |
| 44 beta | 43 | 5 |
| RHEL9 + Fed 45 (?) | RHEL10, 43 | 1 |
- One guest was still down revision two versions at release 41 (at the time of this writing, 43 is current).
- We have at least 5 guests running 44 beta.
- One guest mentioned they were apparently running Fedora 45 (?).
Kudos
- “Asahi is great!”
- “Love the battery (scribble) from last year!”
- “Zephyrus laptops great with Fedora!”
- “Fedora (scribble) is amazing! Love (scribble)!”
- “Go EPEL!”
- Respondent switched from a distro that rhymes with avenue to Fedora and says it works great.
- “Liked the booth!”
Concerns
Swag
- “Where are the podman stickers?”
- “Social stuff and coloring books for kids please!” “Coloring books would be great to have again!”
- We had some guests request shirts. It might be nice if we had a few to raffle off for next year’s event.
- “How about shirts!” x 5
- Requests for Fedora case badges, metakey cap stickers (both standard and mini), hats, and bandannas
Missing Red Hat in Expo Room
- Where’s the Red Hat booth?
- [editor’s note: Red Hat booth was not in the main expo hall, but in a completely different area this year…]
- Where’s the Red Hat swag?
- [editor’s note: reports suggest Red Hat swag was finished around the end of day 1 or day 2!]
- “RHEL FTW! 😊”
- “More RHEL! Good, other than that…”
Final Thoughts
- Fedora is alive and well!
- From start to finish, Fedora booth visitation highly visited
- Fedora Hatch Day sessions were well attended. Most of the morning sessions appeared full or near full. Definitely must have for SCALE 24x.
- Standing banners could be revised to include an easy to get to website and clear QR code
- Fedora Account creation and badge claiming could be an easier process. It takes about 15-20 minutes just to set one up. Could this process be reviewed and possibly streamlined?
- Do users running Fedora 2 revs below current get regularly reminded to update to prevent adverse security issues?
Our Fedora and CentOS Booths 
@lajuggler and Kyle 
@lajuggler, Bala, and Ilan 
The awesome crew at Valkey 
@lajuggler and @bcotton 
@paradoxguitarist and @jflory 
@lajuggler 
@carlwgeorge 
@lajuggler and Siggy 
Our Fedora Booth 
@spot and @lajuggler 
Kubernetes in a backpage project 
@lajuggler and Thomas 
Dessert at game night had a strong Tux vibe 
@lajuggler and Arthur 
Lanyards and pens 
@lajuggler and Jerry 
Carlos Meza 
Ilan 
Mark Russinovich 
@carlwgeorge 
@davdunc and @lajuggler 
@lajuggler and Phillip Banks 
@lajuggler and Arian 
@lajuggler and Jeff 
Doug Comer 
@lajuggler and Doug Comer
We had a fantastic turnout of about 3,000 Linux guests and a stellar Fedora Hatch Day.
A huge thank you to:
- All Speakers: For sharing your expertise and time with the community.
- All Volunteers: This event wouldn’t have been possible without the folks who managed the booths, and logistics.
- All Sponsors: Thank you to Fedora and Red Hat, LLC.
- Our Community: Thank you to everyone who attended and asked great questions.
See you at the next one!
Now THAT was a great event report!
Fantastic @lajuggler
We’re glad you enjoyed…Thank you @theprogram !