After the MiniDebConf Marseille 2019, COVID-19 made it impossible or difficult to organize new MiniDebConfs for a few years. With the gradual resumption of in-person events (like FOSDEM, DebConf, etc.), the idea emerged to host another MiniDebConf in France, but with a lighter organizational load. In 2023, we decided to reach out to the organizers of Capitole du Libre to repeat the experience of 2017: hosting a MiniDebConf alongside their annual event in Toulouse in November. However, our request came too late for 2023. After discussions with Capitole du Libre in November 2023 in Toulouse and again in February 2024 in Brussels, we confirmed that a MiniDebConf Toulouse would take place in November 2024!
We then assembled a small organizing team and got to work: a Call for Papers in May 2024, adding a two-day MiniDebCamp, coordinating with the DebConf video team, securing sponsors, creating a logo, ordering T-shirts and stickers, planning the schedule, and managing registrations. Even with lighter logistics (conference rooms, badges, and catering during the weekend were handled by Capitole du Libre), there was still quite a bit of preparation to do.
On Thursday, November 14, and Friday, November 15, 2024, about forty developers arrived from around the world (France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England, Brazil, Uruguay, India, Brest, Marseille…) to spend two days at the MiniDebCamp in the beautiful collaborative spaces of Artilect in Toulouse city center.
Then, on Saturday, November 16, and Sunday, November 17, 2024, the MiniDebConf took place at ENSEEIHT as part of the Capitole du Libre event. The conference kicked off on Saturday morning with an opening session by Jérémy Lecour, which included a tribute to Lunar (Nicolas Dandrimont). This was followed by Reproducible Builds – Rebuilding What is Distributed from ftp.debian.org (Holger Levsen) and Discussion on My Research Work on Sustainability of Debian OS (Eda). After lunch at the Capitole du Libre food trucks, the intense afternoon schedule began: What’s New in the Linux Kernel (and What’s Missing in Debian) (Ben Hutchings), Linux Live Patching in Debian (Santiago Ruano Rincón), Trixie on Mobile: Are We There Yet? (Arnaud Ferraris), PostgreSQL Container Groups, aka cgroups Down the Road (Cédric Villemain), Upgrading a Thousand Debian Hosts in Less Than an Hour (Jérémy Lecour and myself), and Using Debusine to Automate Your QA (Stefano Rivera & co).
Sunday marked the second day, starting with a presentation on DebConf 25 (Benjamin Somers), which will be held in Brest in July 2025. The morning continued with talks: How LTS Goes Beyond LTS (Santiago Ruano Rincón & Roberto C. Sánchez), Cross-Building (Helmut Grohne), and State of JavaScript (Bastien Roucariès). In the afternoon, there were Lightning Talks, PyPI Security: Past, Present & Future (Salvo “LtWorf” Tomaselli), and the classic Bits from DPL (Andreas Tille), before closing with the final session led by Pierre-Elliott Bécue.
All talks are available on video (a huge thanks to the amazing DebConf video team), and many thanks to our sponsors (Viridien, Freexian, Evolix, Collabora, and Data Bene). A big thank-you as well to the entire Capitole du Libre team for hosting and supporting us… see you in Brest in July 2025!
Articles about (or mentioning) MiniDebConf Toulouse:
- A Mini Adventure at MiniDebConf Toulouse
- Bits from MiniDebConf Toulouse 2024
- Reproducible Builds: November 2024 Updates
- Bits from the DPL: December 2024
- Chris Watson’s Blog: November 2024 Activity
- Freexian Blog: Debian Contributions November 2024
