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Tux Machines
Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Aug 06, 2023
> In the Linux ecosystems, there are many ways to build all the software used to put together a running system. Whether it’s building all the binary packages for a binary Linux distribution, using a source-based distribution, or building an embedded system from scratch, there are a lot of shared challenges which each system solves in its own way.
> I’m back from Rīga, Latvia where I attended GUADEC 2023—the annual GNOME conference. It was my first time attending since 2019 due to COVID-19 plus having had another child in 2022. It simultaneously felt like it had been ages since seeing everyone, and like we picked back up after no time at all.
> For me, attending GUADEC in person is exceptionally important: the face-to-face conversations, exploration of the host city, eating and drinking together, and spontaneous hacking all serve as powerful bonding experiences and help develop mutual understandings of the actual humans behind online usernames and avatars. We come away from GUADEC with fresh ideas, new perspectives, stronger friendships, and renewed energy to make GNOME and the open technologies we all care about better than before. You can get a small fraction of that from remote attendance—and remote participation is important to make the event as accessible and inclusive as possible—but I greatly prefer in-person participation if at all possible.
> While traveling from the US was as long and grueling as ever (and meant nearly two weeks away from my family), it was ultimately worth it to be in person. I just hope we can spread GUADEC out a bit more in coming years so it’s not this hard every year. 😅 More on that in a bit…
> This was my first time ever traveling outside of my country. I remember landing in Riga, and on my way to the hotel just being in awe looking at the various buildings and roads, everything was so different from what I’m used to and even though I have seen stuff in movies, seeing it in person is a very different experience. I video-called my parents that day, showing them around the city and I found it very surprising that it was around 9 pm at that time but there was broad daylight everywhere. I’m pretty sure I slept at around 3 am that night because of my excitement for the event.
> The next day, I got late for the opening remarks and ended up missing the first talk because my smart ass went to the wrong venue and I had to quickly go back to the hotel and get a taxi to the actual venue.
> I first attended the talk given by Regina Nkemchor, where she talked about introducing Africans to the GNOME community and the kinds of challenges she faces. It was a very informative talk, and the insights she shared can be very useful for other people as well who are trying to take on a similar task. After the talk, we had a 10-minute coffee break where I finally got a chance to meet my GSoC mentor Sonny Piers.
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