FOSDEM 2026 will take place on January 31-February 1, with thousands of developers meeting in Brussels to discuss open-source software & hardware projects. The free-to-attend “Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting” gets more traction every year, and in 2026, there will be at least 1,113 speakers, 1,016 events, 70 tracks, and potentially close to 10,000 attendees.
As usual, I’ll create a virtual schedule with sessions most relevant to the topics covered on CNX Software from the “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “Open Hardware and CAD/CAM” devrooms, but also other devrooms, including “RISC-V”, “Robotics and simulation”, and “FOSS on Mobile”, among others. I’m aware some of the talks overlap by a couple of minutes or so…
FOSDEM 2026 Day 1 – Saturday, January 31
- 10:40 – 11:15 – RISC-V Vector optimisations in FFmpeg by Rémi Denis-Courmont
FFmpeg is the most versatile multimedia codec and format support library, and was one of the first open-source projects to include some RISC-V-specific optimisations, though there is still a long way to go. The RISC-V Vector extension was also the first scalable vector extension to be supported. We will cover the background, challenges, and outcomes of this effort.
- 11:30- 11:45 – Akkudoktor-EOS – Build optimized energy management plans for your home automation by Bobby Nölte
Akkudoktor-EOS (Energy Optimization System) is an open-source platform designed to generate highly optimized energy management plans for home energy management systems. Initially developed by Dr. Andreas Schmitz (“Akkudoktor”), EOS has been publicly available for just over a year and has already built a community of users who integrate it into their home automation environments.
At its core, EOS is a self-hosted server that calculates optimal schedules for batteries, electric vehicles, and household devices. These plans are derived from user configuration, real measurement data, and automatically retrieved or self-generated forecasts. EOS focuses on long-term optimization over a day or longer. The home automation system manages short-term control. Together, they combine strategic planning with real-time execution, delivering the best of both worlds in home energy management.
Common applications include optimizing consumption under dynamic electricity tariffs, ensuring cost-efficient EV charging, shifting flexible loads to cheaper periods, and connecting seamlessly with systems such as Home Assistant or NodeRED.