FrOSCon 2025
Free & Open Source Conference
The “Free and Open Source Conference” (#FrOSCon) took place for the 20th time at the Bonn–Rhein–Sieg University of Applied Sciences with around 2,000 participants. The topics covered at FrOSCon include free software, hardware, and open source.
Launching #FrOSCon 2025 in #SanktAugustin Vice President @h_bonnrheinsieg #Hochschule #Bonn #RheinSieg #Free #OpenSource #FOSS #OSS software #froscon20 pic.twitter.com/MUxfvBddpu
— Thomas Fabula (@TFConsult) August 16, 2025
Venue
Every year, the Computer Science Department at H–BRS and FrOSCon e.V. organize this conference, which is now very well established, even internationally.
Looking forward to Meeting you at #froscon in #SanktAugustin bei #Bonn #Free #OpenSource #FOSS #OSS #froscon20 pic.twitter.com/K8qXnlscT1
— Thomas Fabula (@TFConsult) August 16, 2025
Program
This year’s FrOSCon program was once again very extensive and offered something for everyone.
Keynotes
Keynote 1: AI slop attacks on the curl project, Daniel Stenberg
First day Keynote by Daniel (@bagder@mastodon.social) maintainer of curl project.
“In these days of ‘vibe coding’ and chatbots, users ask AIs for help with everything. Asked to find security problems in Open Source projects, AI bots tell users something that sounds right. Reporting these “findings” wastes everyone’s time and causes much frustration and fatigue. Daniel shows how this looks, how it creates a DDoS on projects and how totally beyond absurd this is. With examples and insights from the curl project.” ~ Daniel Stenberg
Keynote 2: Decentralization of freedom: Open source for sovereignty, Andy Piper.
“Open source is more than code: it’s a movement that empowers communities to build resilient, sovereign digital infrastructure. In an era of geopolitical realignment, centralised, corporate-controlled platforms threaten our social, political, and economic freedoms. This keynote examines how open source principles and the Fediverse (using Mastodon as an example from the European context) can enable us to build resilient, user-empowering networks founded on respect and community governance.” ~ Andy Piper
Video Impressions
AI slop attacks on the curl project
More videos clips from the FrOSCon event can be found here:
Decentralising Freedom
CMS garden
Content management systems (CMS) participating in CMS Garden with detailed descriptions of open source CMS, including their characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses. Further information is available at:
Here with Armin Stroß-Radschinski from evenios, who provided expert information about the CMS systems to interested visitors.
Organization
Lineup of the organizing team and volunteers for the 20th FrOSCon:
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire organizing team (35) and the 150 volunteers who contributed to this outstanding open source event.
Social event
Impressions from the social event ... that lasted until 4 a.m. in the morning.
Supporters & partners
Of course, we would also like to thank all our supporters and partners, without whom such a magnificent event would not have been possible.
Further information
GitHub repository
Retrospective
A retrospective look at previous FrOSCon events, which we enjoyed participating in and presenting various topics.
21st FrOSCon
The next FrOSCon will take place from August 15 to 16, 2026 😉 … we look forward to seeing you all again in the vibrant open source community.
