Second Day at Flock

I woke up pretty late on June 6th, the second day of Flock 2025. I was so tired from walking 7 kilometers to my hotel the previous day that I was completely exhausted. Even my phone alarms didn’t help, I ended up waking up at around 10 AM CEST. By then, I had already missed two sessions at Flock, so I reached the venue late and joined the first session I could.

Bootable Containers

Sean is a really nice person… I had the chance to talk with him on the first day of Flock. He asked me about Fedora’s “Beefy” mascot , which is how we got to know each other. We chatted for a few minutes, introduced ourselves, and talked about our reasons for being at Flock.

On day two, “Bootable Containers” was the first session I attended, and it was genuinely insightful. I’ve always enjoyed exploring homelabs, servers, and hands-on te After a while, we all went to the top of the boat to take a group photo. It was a nice and great moment, with everyone enjoying the fresh air and the view.chnology projects, so the introduction to bootc really sparked my enthusiasm. The idea of testing it out when I get back home already has me looking forward to new experiments.

During the session, Sean discussed what bootc is, the contexts in which it’s used, the advantages it offers, and situations where it may not be the right fit. His explanations connected directly with my interests and learning style, I prefer picking things up by doing, so I’m especially keen to try out bootc in my own setup.

Catching Up, & Forgejo Disccussions

Shortly after the bootc session, I caught up with Tomas and Otto. We grabbed some snacks, cakes, and refreshments, and started discussing Forgejo and other related topics. I shared what I’ve been working on with both Fedora’s Forgejo instance and the upstream Forgejo project. We also planned the next steps and talked about how to coordinate more effectively going forward. By this time, one session was after and it’s refreshment break time.

Mentored Project Learnings & Demos

This session really stood out to me. The speakers talked about the problems open source programs are facing and how it affects others.

Many new contributors are now using AI tools to help with their work. Because of this, a lot of the “good-first-issues” are actually written by AI. This has raised questions about how to fairly judge and select people for open source programs. Many honest people who do the work themselves feel left out because others are using AI, and this sometimes makes them stop contributing.

They explained why this is happening, and it makes sense. When money is involved, people can get desperate and try anything to get a spot and the reward. We can’t blame them because they are really in need of the money.

I can relate to what they said because I had similar experiences early in my open source journey. I joined smaller programs like GirlScript Summer of Code and JWOC Winter of Code. I spent about a year as a mentee, mentor, and project admin. Even though I didn’t get any rewards like the top contributors, I learned a lot and didn’t expect anything else. Some people might say it was a waste of time to work hard without getting much in return.

I saw beginners using AI tools to create spam pull requests. By the end of the program, I wasn’t where I wanted to be. It was clear that some were submitting AI-written work and even AI-generated comments without cleaning it up. Yet, they ranked higher and got ahead of people who used their own knowledge and effort. I also saw some of these top contributors get job offers, which didn’t seem fair. But that’s how it is, those who use AI smartly get rewards, while those who work harder don’t always see the same success.

I think the best you can do is keep working honestly and learning as much as you can, hoping that someone will notice your hard work. If you want to earn money through open source programs, it can be really tough because people who don’t put in the effort sometimes get ahead. So, staying patient and focused on improving is important, even if success doesn’t come right away.

The Impact and Value of Open Source Mentorship

This was a really great session for me. I would say these two sessions were my favorites on day two. For someone like me who is in the early stages of open source, it was very interesting and gave me hope.

They talked about how they got into open source during college, the challenges they faced, and how they overcame them. Seeing how far they have come as open source contributors is truly inspiring. For example, Samyak started contributing to Debian and was selected as a Google Summer of Code intern, and Nikita was chosen as an Outreachy intern while still in college.

I truly loved this session, it was inspiring and gave me more hope to move forward with my open source journey and career growth.

Lunch With Justin

I had already talked with Justin Wheeler in the morning, and we planned to catch up during lunch. After the last session of the first half of the day, I met him a few minutes early, and we waited in the lunch queue while chatting. We had lunch together, and a few others joined us, including Adrian Edwards and Fabio Alessandro.

Justin told me earlier that Adrian has got a full-time job at Red Hat in the OSPO office, which is fantastic news. I remember asking Adrian for advice on open source and networking some time ago, and he was very supportive. Knowing that he has now joined Red Hat full-time makes me really happy.

Too bad, I was enjoying the time and forgot to take a photo.

Post-Lunch

Actually, Tomas Hrcka planned to meet up with Otto Richter to discuss Forgejo. So, I was waiting in the lobby of the venue. After some time, Otto joined me while I was sitting alone, and we started talking about other topics. Eventually, Tomas joined us, and we began discussing Forgejo matters.

In short, we talked about how Fedora can help Forgejo, the problems Forgejo is facing, how some people from other projects are causing issues, spam attacks via mail, current technical problems, and other interesting topics. I was taking notes in my notebook throughout their conversation. We had planned to write this post some time ago, but it took me a while due to personal commitments. Since this is my blog, I think it’s okay to publish anything I find useful.

It was a long discussion. I’m planning to write a blog post about it, and it will be published soon. I will update the link then.

Since this was a long conversation, almost all the sessions had ended, and I believe only the Closing Remarks were left. So, I spent some time roaming around and taking bites here and there. I also talked with other people to learn what they are doing and to gather insights. I always ended up having meaningful conversations, and I think it was worth it.

Flock Boat Party

So, this was unexpected, there was this boat party going to be held after the flock day 2. I was really excited for it. After the day 2 ended, I texted Tomas and he was already on the way to boat. So I told him to wait, and we could go together, because I was just ~8 minutes away from him as he was nearby Švandovo divadlo

I eventually joined him near by the fountain, and we started walking towards the boat. It was not far but it’s walkable. We had nice conversations going on, and I was telling about the one mission Call of Duty Modern Warface 3 game, and it’s crazy for someone like me from a village to travel internationally and seeing the place I used to see in a video when I was kid.

Eventually, we reached the port and waited for everyone to arrive. After some time, they started allowing people inside. We had to show the ID tag that was provided to us; otherwise, entry was not allowed.

I boarded the boat with Tomas, but he left me for a while to talk with other people. I joined Patrik Polakovic, Sean Thraikill and his brother. They were interesting to talk to. I asked them if they played any videos and how things were going in Miami since they are from there. Later, we went to get some food. The food provided was very good and new to me. In fact, everything I had eaten until that time was new, and it was all great! I really loved the food in the Czech Republic.

After dinner, we went up to get a nice view. Since it was my first time, I wanted to experience being on a boat; seeing the open view from the top, sitting, and relaxing. That’s exactly what I did. I found Tomas and Otto talking up there, but they left after a while because they hadn’t eaten yet. I relaxed there alone for some time.

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Honestly, it was a great and wonderful experience. The weather was chilly and windy in the evening. Although it was past 8 PM, the sun in the Czech Republic doesn’t set until after 10 PM during the summer, so it was a new and special experience to enjoy the evening view so late.

After a while, we all went to the top of the boat to take a group photo. It was a nice and great moment, with everyone enjoying the fresh air and the view.

Then everyone was called inside for the graduation ceremony held to honor Matthew Miller for his work as Fedora Project Leader. It was an emotional event filled with great moments. I saw some people getting emotional and even crying, which made me realize how important Matthew is and how much he has contributed to the Fedora Project to earn that respect.

Wrapping Up the Boat Party

After a while, we all decided to head back to our rooms. Although everyone was welcome to stay for another hour, some chose to leave, including myself, Tomas, and other CLE folks. Later, I joined Lenka Segura, who kindly praised my work on Forgejo theming for Fedora. It felt really nice to receive recognition for my efforts. We had a pleasant chat where she asked about my hometown, if I found anything interesting in Prague, and more.

End of Day 2

Well, I eventually got back to my hotel by tram because Tomas helped me buy a travel ticket from a nearby station. My card kept declining every time I tried to use it, so he kindly helped me buy a ticket. Otto and Tomas waited with me until the tram arrived and saw me off. Once I boarded, I honestly enjoyed traveling by tram. It was much smoother than the rough journeys I’ve experienced in Tamil Nadu.

The city looked stunning at night, and I really loved the vibe. I waited for my stop, and eventually, it came. At that point, I realized my stop was called “Krematorium Motol”. I messed up because I didn’t know how the doors worked, I thought they opened automatically, but I didn’t press the button to open them. So, I missed my stop and had to get off at the next one, then walk about 200 meters back. Walking alone was nice, though: a new city, neon lights, cool weather, and breeze.

I finally reached my room and tried to sleep, but I was bored and didn’t think I could use my phone. I was tired. Then I remembered my room had a TV, so I turned it on and watched some Czech movies(It’s actually Hollywood dubbed). It didn’t matter that I didn’t understand the language, I just wanted to watch and see what was happening. That’s how I learned to speak English, actually; nobody taught me. It was nice to watch movies in Czech on Czech TV, and I used Google Translate to help me with the language, so it wasn’t a problem.

And I eventually dozed off and slept well!