Tag: Flock 2026 Commit History

Petr Boy came to Fedora documentation the way many contributors do, by seeing a gap and deciding to fill it. As a researcher, writing is his daily work. When he looked at how he could meaningfully contribute to Fedora, documentation was the obvious answer. He started with Fedora Core 1, stepped away, and returned in 2020 when both the Server Working Group and the Docs Team were being revitalised at the same time. Since then, his focus has been on the “bigger-picture” content structure, readability, consistency, and inspiring others to get involved.

His first Flock was in Cork, Ireland in 2023, and what struck him most was the collaborative approach combined with open, structured dialogue and the sheer range of personalities all genuinely trying to get to know each other.

For a team like Docs, where so much depends on shared standards and careful communication, Petr sees Flock as irreplaceable. New ideas emerge from spontaneous conversation, something the formal structure of video calls simply can’t replicate. His message to anyone thinking about contributing? Fedora needs far more than technical contributors. Documentation, communication, community building these are all vital, and Fedora needs to do a better job of making that visible. At Flock 2026, he is most looking forward to the working groups and the hallway conversations, the ones that are simply too nuanced to have any other way.

Flock to Fedora 2026 takes place June 14–16 in Prague. Registration is at capacity but you can join the waitlist. Can’t make it in person? Follow along live on the Fedora YouTube channel.We hope to see you there!

Note: AI (Google Gemini) was used in drafting this article. The content was reviewed and verified before publishing.

Flock to Fedora is more than a conference – it’s where the Fedora community comes alive. As part of the CommitHistory campaign, we sat down with confirmed Flock 2026 speakers to hear their stories: what brought them to Fedora, what Flock means to them personally, and what they’re hoping for in Prague this June. This is one of those conversations.

Jona Azizaj’s first Flock was ten years ago in Kraków, Poland. What struck her most was how approachable everyone was. In a community full of experienced contributors, people made space for new voices, listened to her experiences building the local community in Albania, and made her feel like her perspective genuinely mattered. Those small moments, she says, are what made her feel like she truly belonged.

A decade on, Jona sees Flock as one of the most powerful tools for growing the next generation of Fedora contributors. Online mentorship happens asynchronously and at a distance. Flock, however, creates something different: the chance to sit down with someone, share experiences, and build real trust. Flock is where contributors grow more confident, find their place, and realise that open source is about far more than technical work.

For Flock 2026, Jona and the Fedora Mentor Summit team are bringing three initiatives, now in their 5th edition.

• The Fedora Contributor Recognition Program celebrating the quiet, meaningful work that often goes unnoticed.
• A Lunch and Learn session creating a relaxed space for people to connect beyond their usual circles.
• A sticker matching icebreaker providing first-time attendees an easy, low-pressure way to start conversations.

A successful Flock, for Jona, is one where people leave feeling more confident than when they arrived. It is an event where the connections built there carry on long after the event ends.

Flock to Fedora 2026 takes place June 14–16 in Prague. Registration is at capacity but you can join the waitlist. Can’t make it in person? Follow along live on the Fedora YouTube channel.We hope to see you there!

Note: AI (Google Gemini) was used in drafting this article. The content was reviewed and verified before publishing.

Flock to Fedora is more than a conference – it’s where the Fedora community comes alive. As part of the In the Commit History campaign, we sat down with confirmed Flock 2026 speakers to hear their stories: what brought them to Fedora, what Flock means to them personally, and what they’re hoping for in Prague this June. This is one of those conversations.

Akashdeep’s history with Flock goes back around five years, and his perspective on it has evolved significantly. During his time on the Fedora Council, he participated in the grueling process of reviewing over 150 talk proposals in a single cycle. This task was made harder by the fact that acceptance is often tied to sponsored travel meaning funding rejection can mean a contributor simply can’t attend at all.

But beyond the sessions and schedules, Akashdeep is emphatic about what Flock is really for. Roughly 75% of the experience is about human connection; understanding the person behind the screen, building friendships, and embodying the “friends foundation” philosophy at the heart of Fedora. Technical work is the bonus, not the point.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the story of the Fedora Badges revamp. Interest in rebuilding the platform which, despite its 2003-era interface, plays a vital role in motivating new contributors, dates back to 2019. But it was Flock’s hallway conversations and dedicated workshops that finally built the consensus needed to move the project forward.

Akashdeep also wants people to know that contributing to Fedora infrastructure is more accessible than it looks. You don’t need to be on a specific team or work for a particular company. Just join a chat, introduce yourself, and find your corner. As one contributor discovered, starting with documentation led to a whole journey into diversity and inclusion work. Community bonding is what keeps people, and the technical work is the reward.

Flock to Fedora 2026 takes place June 14–16 in Prague. Registration is at capacity but you can join the waitlist. Can’t make it in person? Follow along live on the Fedora YouTube channel.We hope to see you there!

Note: AI (Google Gemini) was used in drafting this article. The content was reviewed and verified before publishing.

Flock to Fedora is more than a conference — it’s where the Fedora community comes alive. As part of the #In the CommitHistory campaign, we sat down with confirmed Flock 2026 speakers to hear their stories: what brought them to Fedora, what Flock means to them personally, and what they’re hoping for in Prague this June. This is one of those conversations.

Aleksandra Fedorova’s journey into Fedora started with a sticker. At LinuxTag in Berlin, her first properly organised Linux community event she approached the Fedora booth simply wanting a sticker. What happened next changed everything. The people behind the booth invited her to join them on their side of the table. That single gesture dismantled the wall between user and contributor, and she never looked back.

For Aleksandra, Flock isn’t the place for deep technical work. Instead, it’s where the Fedora Council reads the room, sensing priorities, spotting coordination gaps, and picking up on tensions before they become real problems. She’s also refreshingly honest about Flock’s limitations: the costs of attending mean it’s not always a fully representative cross-section of the community, and understanding the broader Fedora ecosystem requires deliberate effort beyond the event itself.

But what Flock offers that nothing else can? The human element. No mailing list or Matrix channel lets you simply walk up to someone and start a conversation without a formal introduction. At Flock, the hallway is as valuable as the schedule. For Flock 2026, Aleksandra hopes the event helps ease current tensions; the reminder that everyone is working toward the same goal, even when they disagree on how to get there, is something only being in the same room together can provide.

Flock to Fedora 2026 takes place June 14–16 in Prague. Registration is at capacity but you can join the waitlist. Can’t make it in person? Follow along live on the Fedora YouTube channel.We hope to see you there!

Note: AI (Google Gemini) was used in drafting this article. The content was reviewed and verified before publishing.

Valentin Rothberg’s journey into container-native Linux didn’t start with a grand plan – it started with the work. After over 8 years at Red Hat contributing to projects like Podman and bootable containers, Fedora felt like the natural home for his next chapter. In Summer 2025 he began working on Project Hummingbird, which builds directly on top of Fedora. Flock 2026 is where he wants to share what he’s learned.

His first Flock was in Budapest in 2019 – and he remembers it vividly. Stepping in at the last minute for Dan Walsh, he ended up presenting for over three hours straight on container technologies. Not a bad way to make an entrance.

For Valentin, Flock’s value isn’t primarily technical. Technical decisions tend to be made comparatively fast once a group of people rally around a cause. What matters is finding that cause together, and in-person time is what makes that possible. The implementation details, he says, are just details.

He’s also refreshingly honest about where Fedora stands in the container ecosystem. Despite being the birthplace of tools like Podman, Fedora containers don’t see wide use outside the community. Valentin has ideas about why, and how to change that. He’s coming to Flock not to present answers, but to hear other perspectives and build something together.

Flock to Fedora is more than a conference – it’s where the Fedora community comes alive. As part of the “CommitHistory” campaign, we sat down with confirmed Flock 2026 speakers to hear their stories: what brought them to Fedora, what Flock means to them personally, and what they’re hoping for in Prague this June. This is one of those conversations.

Jef Spaleta came back to Fedora at exactly the right moment. After years away, working across software startups and following his spouse’s move back to the east coast, the timing aligned perfectly with the previous project leader stepping down. With a sharpened skill set and fresh perspective, Jef felt ready to lead.

But leading Fedora in 2026 isn’t just about keeping the lights on. Jef sees the project at a critical crossroads. There is a generational transition where original founders are stepping away and institutional knowledge risks disappearing with them. His focus? Mentoring the next wave of contributors to keep Fedora sustainable for the next five to ten years.

On the state of the project, Jef is honest: Fedora continues to ship high-quality releases on schedule, a streak held for five or six years. But stability isn’t enough. He is developing a new Fedora innovation lifecycle, a dedicated space for experimental work where things can be tried, broken, and learned from without disrupting the mature processes the project depends on.

For Jef, Flock’s value is simple but profound. Digital tools work well when everyone agrees, but they fall apart when things get hard. Flock is where relationship repair happens, where tone and intent can finally be communicated in ways text never can. Looking ahead to Flock 2026, he is focusing on two priorities. First, migrating Forge infrastructure to meet the expectations of the next generation of developers, and second, shaping Fedora’s approach to AI-assisted development before the conversation shapes itself.

Flock to Fedora 2026 takes place June 14–16 in Prague. Registration is at capacity but you can join the waitlist. Can’t make it in person? Follow along live on the Fedora YouTube channel. We hope to see you there!

Note: AI (Google Gemini) was used in drafting this article. The content was reviewed and verified before publishing.

Maybe it was a one-line typo fix in the docs. Perhaps it was a package you’d been maintaining in secret for months before you finally submitted it. Maybe it was completely terrifying, or maybe it just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Whatever it was we want to hear about it.

Ahead of Flock to Fedora 2026 (June 14–16, Prague), We the Fedora CommOps team are launching #Commit History: a community campaign to collect the origin stories of Fedora contributors – the moments that brought people into this project and kept them here.

The best stories will be featured in a Fedora Magazine article published before Flock 2026, celebrating the people who make this project what it is.

Here are the questions used to get started-

• What was your first contribution to Fedora – and what made you take that first step?

• What did it feel like? What went wrong (or right)?

• Looking back, what did that moment mean for your open source journey?

There are no wrong answers. First commits come in all shapes code, documentation, translations, design, bug reports, community work. If you’ve ever contributed to Fedora, your story belongs here.

How to share: Drop your story in the comments below, or share it on Mastodon with the hashtag #Commit History.

Whether you’ve been contributing for a decade or made your first commit last week – we want to hear from you.