Farewell To X@FOSDEM. 2010 Is The Last.

X@FOSDEM 2011? Forget about it. It is to much disappointment that we have to report this evening that the X@FOSDEM DevRoom will be ending this year, after the X.Org project has consistently held a development room at Europe's largest free software event for years. Two days ago we reported on the sad state of this year's X@FOSDEM schedule. Only half the schedule is filled and there is just two weeks left until the Free Open-Source Developers' European Meeting.

This half-filled schedule is even taking into account that the X.Org development room is now just a one-day event compared to two days in past years. X.Org developers are just not stepping up to speak. As of right now there are just four talks planned. Last year's X@FOSDEM schedule wasn't completely booked either, but at least there were enough sessions to cover most of the weekend.

Hopefully three more X.Org sessions end up coming about so at least this final X@FOSDEM will go out with a full day worth of content. FOSDEM organizers do not intend to grant X.Org another development room in forthcoming years due to this lackluster showing and there being many other free software projects that would like to host their own development rooms, but end up getting declined for the lack of space. This was confirmed in a blog post by Luc Verhaegen who has long organized X@FOSDEM. This is especially sad considering that there is no longer X Developers' Summit (XDS) and X Developers' Conference (XDC) each year but only one of the events, which now will be the sole X.Org event each year to discuss various X.Org projects, road-maps, state of various components, and a general gathering amongst most of the core X.Org development community.

Phoronix will be providing live notes from X@FOSDEM 2010 and also will be producing audio/video recordings from the talks as well. If the one-day schedule does not end up getting filled, I have proposed to Luc a possible Q&A of a few X.Org developers on stage and then any end-users in the audience wishing to ask general (non-tech support) questions about popular X.Org/graphics topics, their thoughts on different matters, the future of different drivers, etc. If this goes through, questions could possibly come in remotely with the session being made live via IRC or on Phoronix. If a Q&A like this would be of interest to you, please comment on this via clicking the "Comments & Discussion" link below.