From Virtual Meetings to Yogyakarta: My openSUSE.Asia Summit 2026 Experience

When I landed in Jakarta, my plan was to catch up with a few people from the community before the summit. For various reasons, that didn’t work out. Luckily, I ran into some of them later at the conference itself.

And the openSUSE.Asia Summit 2026, held in Yogyakarta on 3–4 October, completely surprised me. 🦎💚

It was surreal to finally meet so many people in person whom I had only known through the openSUSE community: online meetings, projects, and countless conversations. This post is a bit of a diary entry about what I shared, what I learned, and why I came back to Leh more motivated than ever.

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Faces Behind the Names

For a long time, my openSUSE community life has happened online, at the openSUSE Virtual Bar, in community meetings, and in chats and issue threads. Suddenly those avatars and voices became real people.

Getting to meet Douglas DeMaio, Luboš Kocman, Simon Lees, Michal Svec, Johannes Segitz, Edwin Zakaria, Estu Fardani, Shoba, James, Andi Sugandi, Siska Restu Anggraeny Iskandar, Restu Haqqi Muzakir, Harris, Hamna, Sendy and so many other speakers, contributors, and volunteers was one of the highlights of my whole trip.

Shaking hands with Doug and Luboš after seeing them for so long on video calls was something special. The community suddenly felt much less “virtual.”

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My Talk: Container Security & SBOMs

I had the opportunity to speak about container security, SBOMs (Software Bills of Materials), and my experience securing containers in production. I shared what worked, the challenges I ran into, and the lessons I learned along the way.

I’ll be honest: the talk didn’t go quite as smoothly as I had hoped. Some parts felt rushed, and a few points didn’t land the way I had rehearsed them. But every speaker I talked to afterwards had a story about a talk that didn’t go to plan. Public speaking is a skill like any other, and the only way to get better is to keep showing up. I already have a list of things I’ll do differently next time.

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Learning, Everywhere

I got to share my own stories, but honestly, I learned just as much from everyone else.

The hallway conversations, random brainstorming sessions, technical discussions, and hearing about everyone’s experiences were probably the most valuable part of the summit. I came back with a notebook full of new ideas and things to explore.

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What Indonesia Taught Me

What struck me most was the Indonesian openSUSE and open source culture. The community there is warm, energetic, and incredibly well organised. Volunteers were everywhere, students were deeply involved, and there was a real sense that open source isn’t just a hobby. It’s something people build friendships, identities, and careers around.

There was no gatekeeping. Newcomers were welcomed, questions were encouraged, and everyone seemed genuinely happy to help each other. That’s exactly the kind of culture I want to see grow back home.

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Thank You, openSUSE

A huge thank you to the openSUSE community for giving me the opportunity to be part of OSAS 2026, and for making my Indonesia trip possible, and much easier, through the Travel Support Program (TSP). Programs like this are what make it possible for contributors from places like Ladakh to be in the room.

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Bringing It Home

Perhaps my biggest takeaway is what I want to take back home.

Being part of such a strong open source community has motivated me even more to put energy into building and growing the FOSS community in Leh through FOSS LA. That means:

• Growing FOSS LA here in Leh: more meetups, more workshops, and more hands-on sessions where people actually install, break, and fix things together. Our openSUSE Install Fest is just the beginning.
• Helping build openSUSE India: connecting contributors across the country so India has the same kind of vibrant, visible community I saw in Indonesia.
• Becoming a better speaker and mentor, so the next talk, mine or yours, goes better than the last.

I hope the people I met, the experiences I had, and the things I learned will help me contribute more actively to the open source ecosystem back home in Ladakh.

From virtual openSUSE meetings to meeting the community in Yogyakarta, and hopefully bringing some of that energy back to Leh. 🏔️🐧

Open source is not just about code. It’s about people, communities, and sharing what we learn.

Thank you, openSUSE. 💚