Today, we are celebrating International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia around the world , an event that has been observed every 17 May for over twenty years. While progress has been made in some parts of the world, others have experienced a visible regression of queer and especially trans rights, and transgender folks are still facing difficulties in their day-to-day lives.
In the Fedora project, we strive to be welcoming of people in all their diversity, even if we still have a long way to go. Some of us also feel that just saying “you’re welcome” is not enough, however, and that we need to be actively working to remove barriers and work on specific problems.
This is why the Fedora Pride group is launching a year-long project aiming to collaboratively solve an often reported issue: The difficulties around changing usernames in the distribution and within the project infrastructure.
While we are working on this from the perspective of someone transitioning and changing their given name, our work can not be limited to that case. There are several reasons to change one’s username. Some people—mostly women but not only women—change their name once they are married (or once they are separated). Some people change their name because they were adopted as adult, or because they want nothing to do with their biological family. Some people have a name that is causing problems, and people just regret being called darkwarlord69 because it looked cool when they were younger and had to create a Fedora account to report a bug. Or maybe they just want to exercise their right under the GDPR articles.
Right now, we do not yet have a firm plan. However, in the spirit of openness, we want to begin with a call for volunteers.
For the infrastructure part of the project, our idea is very basic and will require plenty of testers. Fedora Infrastructure has a set of staging services used for testing upgrades, new versions, etc. We can use these services to test what happens when Fedora users change their own usernames without breaking the regular production infrastructure. So the plan is to take one service, use it for a bit, rename a volunteer, and see what happens. If something breaks, we fix it with a patch or open a bug report. And then we do it again on a new service, and again, and again… until we can safely close this bug on Noggin.
As for the distribution part, the initial idea is more or less the same, except we plan to ask people to do that on their own systems. This could be in a test VM, on a test computer, or just a new user on their current system (or, for the more adventurous, with their own username). We have plenty of time to give feedback for Fedora 43, and plenty of software that needs to be tested.
We have no idea how long it will take, and we haven’t yet looked beyond the initial proposal. We haven’t even opened a bug or decided how we will coordinate. In the meantime, we want to invite all people interested in helping to join us on the #pride:fedoraproject.org Matrix channel. Depending on how things go, we will decide if we conduct regular meetings, use our ticketing system, or something else. We are open to any type of help, whether it be for coding, testing, coordinating, writing documentation or reports.
The SCaLE (The Southern California Linux Expo) community Linux event delivered an iconic experience with four days of open source training, exhibits, and general presentations. This year’s conference took place in Pasadena (Los Angeles) area.
This expo drew worldwide guests to discuss AI, Linux, security, embedded, IoT, and more. The Technical Committee (Online Services) Chairperson, Mr. Phil Dibowitz, and Technical Committee (Networking) Chairperson, Robert Hernandez paved the way for a smooth registration.
Tux greeted all guests into the Exhibit Hall.
Conference Highlights
Fedora @ SCaLE 22x Linux Conference – Ready, Set, Go!
Justin Wheeler coordinated and shipped hand-selected swag and marketing items to Perry Rivera. Items included: pens, stickers, commuter mugs, badge lanyards, and more.
Furthermore, the ambassadors gathered up supplies for the conference.
Day 1: Thursday 6 March
Red Hatter and Fedora Ambassador Perry Rivera delivered community marketing items and swag.
In addition, Perry brought the following:
Snacks for our crews
Dry-board markers
Dry-board flipchart easel
Opportunity drawing tickets
Scissors
Gaffers tape
Glue
An air steamer (to iron out banner wrinkles)
And more!
Some of our ambassadors arrived the previous day to avoid traffic, others in the morning, to catch earlier events and workshops.
We checked in at the Red Hat Booth, but things were quiet there. So, a small group of up lunch at Noodle St., which was perfect considering how cold and drizzly the day presented itself.
Our initial canvas before booth transformation.
We reunited in the lobby area and later in the expo hall to discuss next steps. We discovered just how close the Fedora/CentOS booth was next to the Red Hat booth, which facilitated comm and referrals to and from our teams.
The booth received a vibrant free-standing banners this year. We received a great looking table cover, and swag. We also used a flip chart easel to display a QR code for guests to easily scan to pick up a Fedora badge and to display presentation/workshop info.
After dropping things off, Perry helped steam iron the Fedora table cloth to give it the “less travelled less wrinkly look” and put up the flipchart easel. After doing some initial setup, Perry returned some boxes for booth items back to my car to reclaim booth space. Next, some of us reconvened at the KWAAI Summit, new for 2025. Their chair Reza Rassool and crew organized a lively charcuterie mixer.
After the networking event, a small group of us re-convened at Cordova Cafe to reflect on our day.
Day 2: Friday 7 March
We returned to the conference and the Expo Hall this morning to continue unpacking swag, marketing systems, and more. Perry also checked in from to the Red Hat booth from time-to-time to render assistance as needed.
Perry set up a flip chart and glued on a handy QR that users could scan to pick up an e-badge.
Then, Alejandro later wrote in our Fedora scheduled talks, which was handy for guests to take pictures of as they stopped by. Concurrently, Brian and Scott strategically set up swag items. Ivan and Alex, meanwhile routed power cables within the booth.
Meanwhile, Carl and Shaun set up camp for CentOS.
Tada! Fedora and CentOS ready for visitors.
A Grand Exhibit at Fedora @ SCaLE 22x Linux Conference
At 2pm, the Exhibit Hall opened. Initially, we had high traffic coming in at the Red Hat and Fedora booths.
We greeted approximately 450+ this day, discussing key foundations such as Freedom, Friends, Features, First, and topics such as AI on Fedora, bootable containers, gitops for packaging, accessibility, git forge, RISC-V, and more.
While guests peruse the swag, Brian and Carl realize the paparazzi have arrived…
To accomodate the masses, we took turns around lunch to keep the booth up and running. Some of us departed to Yard House for lunch.
Upon returning, we resumed exhibiting and handing out swag.
Karen and Katherine [right] welcome customers and community.
Upon closure of the Exhibit Hall, we headed to UpScale to support Scott’s presentation.
After, we headed over to Cafe Santorini to a fine dinner with Red Hat, CentOS, and Fedora associates.
Next, some of us went to Karaoke night to listen to great music and hear each other sing.
Day 3: Saturday 8 March
We returned to exhibit hall to meet with more of our community and talk about Fedora and tech topics. Perry also time-shared with the Red Hat booth as well.
Scott [right] fields a question from a guest.
Later this evening, a few of us attended Game Night.
Day 4: Sunday 9 March
Perry packed up his hotel room early Sunday and then returned to the conference center and the exhibit hall to continue discussions with our Fedora and Red Hat community.
The final day brought in about 250 Fedora booth guests.
Around 2PM, all booths began closing down to pack things up for shipment. We returned the rolling luggage and a banner box over to Kate Mulder for FedEx return.
Afterward, Perry stopped by Leslie Lamport’s insightful closing Keynote, Coding isn’t Programming .
Perry meets Leslie Lamport
Suggestion Box / Feedback Items for Fedora @ SCaLE 22x Linux conference
Throughout the conference, our booth had a sign-in sheet where visitors could stop by and leave feedback and suggestions about Fedora and related efforts.
From the data reviewed, we collected key findings:
Interesting Topics
OpenShift: Interest in OpenShift on Fedora, tips on optimizing for kernel.
Bootable Containers
How to Get Started in Fedora Contributing
Aurora – 1 guest also said it has an occasional wake from sleep issue.
AI/ML
KDE integration with Fedora – 1 guest said “Thanks!!”
Guest uses BigLinux distro, but doesn’t run any Fedora (yet)
Documentation
Interest in documentation and videos for a 4th grade level on getting started with Fedora.
Interest in documentation and videos and local events for general Fedora development.
For each event, for the “Convo Count” sheet, it might be handy to send out to ambassadors a cheatsheet with a 4-5 sentence summary and resource links for strategic topics, or perhaps a QR code that guests can scan to find out the latest release’s highlights.
Interest and videos in how to contribute to Open Source and general Python/bash/github use as it pertains to Fedora.
Releases
We had two guests still using release 40 (latest version as of this writing is 41). For those that provided their version, no one appears to be using release 39 or below. We did however have one visitor mention they are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (latest version as of this writing is 9.x).
Requests for Fedora case badges, key cap covers (both standard and mini)
Requests for zip-pouches, similar to the Flock ones from previous years.
Stickers
General Kudos
Multiple guests said “Way to go!” and “Thanks Fedora Team!”
One guest said “Smooth upgrades [compared with] any [other] OS”
One guest wrote “I LOVE Kinoite!! Very cool with a lot [of] extensibility.”
One guest wrote ” <3 Bazzite“
One guest wrote “I love the hat distros”
Possible ideas for awesome hat-named spins, projects, etc.
One guest wrote “Keep up the awesome LXDE!!
Feedback
Modularity: One guest found it helpful when it was around, especially for dnf. Same guest also laments Modularity’s retirement (cross-reference: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/RetireModularity) and cited dnf5 has no Modularity support.
One guest asked: Will there be a COSMIC DE in Atomic? Possible cross-reference: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/cosmic-desktop-environment-on-fedora/102112
One guest requested personal AI compatibility and a possible KWAAI AI partnership.
One guest uses system for home lab stuff.
2 guests replied with cat face emojis.
In conclusion, we look forward to seeing you at next year’s SCaLE!
Snaps from Fedora @ SCaLE 22x Linux Conference
Ambassador Alex Acosta
Josh Berkus presents Develop, Test, and Deploy with Podman Desktop
Kate Mulder and Katherine Nnanwubar engaging community and customers at the Red Hat Booth
All hands on deck for the Red Hat Booth
Larry Cafiero stops by to say hello at the Fedora Booth
Scott Williams discusses fine details about qbsh
“SCaLE Game Night…Yeah!!!” – Iván Chavero and Perry Rivera
Rob McBryde enlivened the Beanery audience with his dulcet karaoke tones
Kyle Gospodnetich stopped by to chat about Bazzite
It’s Chris Welker…Yeah!
“Block”ing out photo booth time at Game Night.
Bala stopped by our booth to say hello
Carlos Meza and I discussed what’s new in DevOps/SRE.
It’s Jeff Carlson, Fedora enthusiast and San Fernando Linux User Group guest.
So excited to see our booth guests! – Kate Mulder
Go Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS!
Go Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS!
Leslie Lamport delivered his “Coding isn’t Programming” Closing Keynote
January 23, 2025 / ffmancera / Comments Off on Fedora Google Summer of Code projects and mentors CFP is open!
Google Summer of Code is a summer program aiming to bring more developers into open source software development. It enables interns to spend their summer working with open source organizations on projects proposed by participating organizations and supported by mentors.
Fedora used to participate in Google Summer of Code as a mentoring organization consistently in the past. We would love to bring that back! We are happy to announce that we are applying as an organization again.
Flock to Fedora 2024, held in Rochester, New York from August 7th to 10th, soared to new heights, bringing together Fedora contributors and enthusiasts for four days of immersive learning, dynamic collaboration, and vibrant community building. The event seamlessly blended in-person interactions with live stream and recorded sessions via YouTube for the first two days, ensuring accessibility for a wider audience. Using Matrix Chat for seamless communication and a well-structured online schedule, Flock 2024 successfully fulfilled its mission of uniting the Fedora community, fostering connections, and sparking a wave of innovation.
Target Audience
The primary target audience was Fedora contributors, encompassing developers, packagers, designers, documentation writers, and anyone actively involved in the Fedora Project. The event also welcomed newcomers and those curious about Fedora and open source.
Attendees
Rochester welcomed a diverse and passionate group of attendees, including, but not limited to:
The majority of the Fedora Council, FESCo, and Mindshare Committee members.
Fedora Project Leader Matthew Miller, Fedora Operations Architect Aoife Moloney, Fedora Community Architect Justin W. Flory
Representatives from sponsor communities, like Rocky Linux, Lenovo, Microsoft Azure, AlmaLinux, CentOS, openSUSE, ARM, Meta, and SureStep.
Numerous passionate Fedora community members. See badge scans for a full list.
Key Highlights From The Event
Engaging Keynotes: Matthew Miller’s “State of Fedora” keynote provided valuable insights into the project’s trajectory. Other impactful keynotes included Pat Riehecky’s “It is OK not to know things” and Anita Zhang’s “How (Not) To Get Into Tech,” offering diverse perspectives on the open source journey.
Dynamic Sessions and Workshops: The event featured many sessions catering to diverse interests, with popular choices including panel discussions from the Fedora Council and FESCo, “What does Red Hat want?”, and numerous talks on Bootc.
Diverse Tracks: Attendees explored three tracks, including the Flock general track, the CentOS track, and the Mentor Summit track. These tracks tool place across several rooms, like the Red Hat main stage, and the breakout rooms sponsored by Lenovo, Rocky Linux, and Microsoft Azure. Topics ranged from technical deep dives (OpenQA, Konflux, eBPF, AI/ML, RISC-V) to community-building initiatives and DEI efforts.
International Candy Swap: This unique tradition fostered cross-cultural connections as attendees shared sweets and stories from their home countries.
Fedora Community Engagement
The Fedora community was actively involved throughout the event.
Community members contributed as speakers, workshop leaders, and attendees, driving discussions and knowledge sharing.
Topics like Bootc and the future of Fedora sparked lively conversations and collaboration.
Community Participation and Recognition
Booth Staff/Volunteers: The dedicated volunteer team, including those listed on the Flock 2024 – Volunteers sign-up sheet, ensured a smooth and welcoming experience for all attendees. Their tireless efforts were critical to the event’s success.
Speakers: A diverse group of speakers shared their expertise and insights, fostering learning and inspiring attendees. Myself and two of my fellow interns, Adrian Edwards and Roseline Bassey, presented a hybrid presentation of pre-recorded and live sessions as part of the Mentored Projects Showcase. You can see the full speaker list on the conference schedule.
Virtual Events
Livestream & Recordings: The event’s first two days were live-streamed and recorded, allowing virtual participants to engage with the content.
Viewership Data:
Day 1:
Red Hat Room: Over 1,000 views
Lenovo Room: 888 views
Rocky Linux Room: 427 views
Microsoft Azure Room: 324 views
Day 2:
Red Hat Room: 674 views
Lenovo Room: 288 views
Rocky Linux Room: 286 views
Azure Room: 213 views
Online Engagement: Social media platforms buzzed with activity, with attendees and virtual participants sharing their experiences and insights using the official hashtags #FlockToFedora, and #FlockRochester.
Challenges, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations
Streaming Capabilities: Available resources constrained our ability to live stream the entire event, while the impact of this for virtual attendees was minimized with creative scheduling, the hope is to explore improvements to the event streaming setup in the future.
Weather Disruption: The scavenger hunt was unfortunately affected by a storm, highlighting the importance of contingency plans for outdoor or weather-dependent activities.
Survey Feedback: We conducted a post-event attendee survey to collect feedback from attendees and speakers. This valuable input has guided us and will continue to guide us in implementing improvements and addressing areas of concern for future Flock events.
Conclusion
Flock to Fedora 2024 was a success, showcasing the strength and vibrancy of the Fedora community. We are already looking forward to Flock to Fedora 2025! To stay informed about future events and opportunities to get involved, visit the Fedora Project website, join the Fedora Matrix room, and follow us on social media!
Special Thanks to Our Sponsors
We extend our deepest gratitude to all our sponsors, whose generous support made Flock to Fedora 2024 possible. Your commitment to open source and the Fedora community is invaluable.
Calling all Fedora fans! Flock to Fedora 2024 is almost here, and it’s going to be epic. We’re heading to Rochester, New York from August 7th to 10th for four days packed with everything you love about open source.
July 16, 2024 / rwright / Comments Off on Introducing the Fedora Community Operations Initiative
We’re excited to unveil the Fedora Community Operations initiative, an endeavor to boost community engagement, support everyone with more events and contribution points, and build on our amazing culture.
What is the Fedora Community Operations Initiative?
At its heart, the Community Operations Initiative is all about making Fedora an even better place to collaborate and connect. We’re focusing on two main contribution areas: Contributor Experience and Community Social Analytics. Contributor Experience means working on unified documentation, improving onboarding processes, and organizing fantastic virtual events like the Fedora Linux 40 and 41 Release Parties. Community Social Analytics will explore data from our infrastructure tools, applications, and services to help Fedora leadership and the community make smarter decisions, ultimately making Fedora an even more welcoming and efficient community for everyone.
August 1st 2024 edit: On Tuesday, July 30th, Mel Chua passed away in the company of close family and friends. We are heartbroken by this news. You can find more information on their CaringBridge page or LWN coverage by Joe Brockmeier. Mel, we miss you. <3
The Fedora Council recently received the news that Mel Chua, a Fedora contributor in the early and formative days of the Project, was placed in hospice care after a long battle against cancer. On behalf of the Fedora community, we extend our condolences and love for Mel and their loved ones. In May, we asked the community to share stories and memories of Mel at the F40 Release Party opening remarks. To honor their memory for the next generation of Fedora contributors, we compiled the stories and a reflection on Mel’s impact on Fedora, its trajectory as a Free Software community, and most importantly, their impact on the people of our community.
Today marks Day 6 and the last day of Fedora Week of Diversity (FWD) 2024! This exciting week-long celebration has been dedicated to honoring the diverse voices, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives that enrich our vibrant Fedora community. Throughout Fedora Week of Diversity 2024, the DEI Team showcased the incredible stories and journeys of our members through engaging interviews and captivating social media spotlights.
Contributor Stories
Today’s Contributor Story comes from: Tosin Doreen
Today marks Day 6 and the last day of Fedora Week of Diversity (FWD) 2024! This exciting week-long celebration has been dedicated to honoring the diverse voices, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives that enrich our vibrant Fedora community. Throughout Fedora Week of Diversity 2024, the DEI Team showcased the incredible stories and journeys of our members through engaging interviews and captivating social media spotlights.
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