[Conferences] The 2026 Rencontre hivernales du libre (Winter Free Software Meetings, RHL): free software in front of the ski slopes

The Winter Free Software Meetings (RLH)

Walid: Hello everyone, welcome to the Projets Libres podcast. I’m delighted today because we’re going to continue a series on conferences dedicated to free software. Today, we’re going to talk about a conference being held in Switzerland called the Winter Free Software Meetings (Rencontres hivernales du libre, in French). It takes place in Saint-Cergue and the 2026 edition is held in January, from January 23 to 25. So today, we’re going to get to know this conference that I must admit that I didn’t know before one of tonight’s guests contacted me. So it’s going to be a great pleasure, we’ll be able to present to you, to the listeners, the winter meetings of Le Libre and so to do this, I have three people with me… in fact to be completely honest with you we made a first recording which totally messed up and so we do a V2 of the recording again and for this V2 one of the guests, Emmanuelle Germont is not there but so it will be there physically through the audio track of version 1 so it’s going to be quite nice and so tonight I have with me Sébastien Tauxe alias Oïnska and Sébastien Piguet alias SebSeb01 and so the three of us are going to talk about the winter meetings of the Libre.

Presentation of the guests

Walid : Enough words, I’m going to ask you both to introduce yourselves, explain to us a little bit your background, when did you fall into Free Software, how do you contribute to the winter meetings of Libre SebSeb01, to you the honor I give you the floor, if you want to introduce yourself please?

SebSeb01: So, SebSeb01, I’m the president of Swisslinux.org, the association that started organizing these winter free software meetings. I fell into free software a long time ago, in the early 2000s. during my initial training I always liked to understand and dissect one day a teacher gave me a CD of OpenSUSE at the time and he told me have fun with this I ended up finding a group of users from the region called Asusinux.org we exchanged, participated in events and little by little I became the president we organized stuff So there you go, always full of events to promote free software, for everything that a group of users does. And then, we have always kept an aspect where we meet between free software users. So we do events several times a year around users.

Walid: great, thank you very much. Oïnska, I’ll give you the floor, if you’ll introduce yourself too.

Oïnska: yes, my name is Sébastien Tauxe, I’m known online under the pseudonym Oïnska, as you already mentioned before. So I’m not into computer science at the base, I came to computer science in a self-taught way and especially thanks to free software. I got to know free software in the early 2000s and the first hard installation I did on my computer at the time was in 2013. It was a MacBook Pro that no longer had a system update and then rather than throw away an overpriced computer, I took the opportunity to switch to Linux and since then I use more than that. I’m kind of the latest kid in the organization. I arrived for this year. We will certainly come back to the reasons for this episode, why it will be a special edition. I joined the organizing committee and I mainly take care of communication and invitation to guests, which is why we have this episode today.

Walid: Emmanuel, if you would like to introduce yourself

Emmanuelle: Yes, it’s me. So, Emmanuelle Germont, my info is on egermont.ch. I call myself a human geek translator and a geek human translator. We try to get them to talk to each other. And as a result, what I have the great pleasure of doing this year at the RHL, I did a lot of things at the RHL. I even made a fish soup. That’s how much I’ve done a lot of different things. But this year, I’m mainly in charge of communication and trying to raise money, which is a very, very big tiring job. And I’m delighted to have a lot of help this year, because depending on the year, we’ve been more or less on our own. But now, I have plenty of helpers, including Oïnska and then, of course, Mr. SebSeb01, the big boss of the RHL.

Walid: When did you first encounter free software?

Emmanuelle: Well, free software is very old because I had a very, very bad habit when I was young. With my first computer, I was taught to read contracts. And my first computer was running Windows 95. So, in other words, I suffered a lot for a long time. And then, I realized that there were things, that there were licenses that were legible, that there were contracts that were readable, that were also correct. I thought it was cool, it made sense, it’s a bit like all the products you buy. It’s great. But it was still very difficult to install for someone who had no one in the IT field around them. So, I did some tests. I came back, I came, I left. And then, I managed to get computers to work that didn’t work, otherwise than I had literally burned with Microsoft. And then, I arrived on free software like that, in fact, by contract, by the fact that I was tired of clicking on approve, on things that I simply didn’t approve of at all.

The SwissLinux Association

Walid: SebSeb01, could you please introduce us to the SwissLinux association? You have started to talk about it a little bit, but will you be able to give us the purpose of the association and who makes it up?

SebSeb01: yes, so swissinux.org it’s basically a website, a forum to exchange tips around the problems that Swiss free software users encounter, so at the beginning it was really that, we really did it like that, then we collaborated to develop specific functions on the site and then yes, we did different events around promotion, we had created a collective called Free Software and Sustainable Development to make the link between these two movements. We did a few events with this collective, we participated in the organization of the Libre Free Software Meeting (LSM) in Geneva, we participated in the DebConf in Vaumarcus, we did a buyel. Then now we are a team of free software users and then we meet, we try to keep a somewhat local fabric of people who are interested in this theme.

Walid : Are you a lot involved in the association?

SebSeb01 : At the last count, there are more than 50 of us, which is not many, but which is not so bad, because the territory is not big. French-speaking Switzerland must be a million or so people, so to have people who are interested in promoting free software in so many people, I think it’s not bad. And then we try to support nice initiatives, like the Internet service provider called SwissNeutralNet, like FairSocialNet , which we’ll probably talk about again, which offers online services, or Itopie which offers to repair computers and reformat them. These are initiatives that we support and then we try to help as much as we can.

Walid: Wait, I don’t know if you said it, I haven’t heard in which year you set up SwissLinux?

SebSeb01: So, SwissLinux was founded in 2006. The forum is a little older. The person who created it and who moderated and maintained the system, in fact, at the end of 2005, said, “I can’t manage this on my own anymore.” And then, suddenly, there is an association that was founded in 2006 to maintain and manage the SwissLinux website.

Emmanuelle: We can perhaps give a little context too, which is that before there was SwissLinux, there was an association of users of French-speaking Linux, it is GULL, as there were a little everywhere in Europe, in the United States and elsewhere. But there was an activity that consisted of giving regular conferences, but apart from that, there wasn’t much. And what SwissLinux has really bridged is this link with ordinary users and not just system administrators. And that’s where SwissLinux offered a forum, offered the possibility to talk, chat, install parties, etc. And then that there was a beginning to organize events, to do things etc. from which the RHL comes, but we’re going to talk about that.

Presentation of the Winter Free Software Meetings (Rencontres Hivernales du Libre, RHL)

Walid: So it’s going to be 20 years in 2026. We’ll talk about this later when we talk about the winter meetings of Free Software and publishing in 2026. Let’s talk about the Winter Free Software Meetings. So I must admit that before Oïnska contacted me to ask me to come, I had never heard of the RHL. I was super happy to hear about it, to have the opportunity to come. So could you explain for listeners who, like me, are not necessarily familiar with this event, what are RHL?

SebSeb01: Historically, the Winter Free Software Meetings is our general assembly which always makes it the end of January. SwissLinux has always done this at the end of January. And we did that on Friday nights. And then we would finish our general assembly at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m., and we would discuss, then exchange tips and tricks. And then, once, there was a member who said that we never manage to stop our evenings because we want to exchange information, so it would be nice if we took the time to do it over a weekend. Then it started like that. So we found a place, there was food, drink, and we were there all weekend. It was already very nice.

And then, little by little, we said to ourselves that we were going to invite the associations with whom we exchange and we often do events here and there, who come to tell us what they have also done during the year. And then that’s how it started to get a little bigger. And then there you have it. So I think that just before Covid, we started inviting people to come and present conferences during our weekend. The first was Exodus Privacy. Then there you go, little by little. And this year, indeed, is the tenth edition. It’s the 20th anniversary of the association. So we said, we’re trying, we’re putting the means in place. We had a small war chest. We said to ourselves: “we’ll put it on, and then we’ll see what we can do nice, and then always in the spirit of allowing users to meet, to discover new aspects, to exchange”. This is not an introductory event to free software as we all did in our regions. So it’s not the point to have an install party, to explain free software. It’s for people, they can discover, but as a result, they’re going to discover more specific aspects of free software and implementation than just an introduction to values.

Walid: Oïnska, do you want to add something?

Oïnska: maybe just give my opinion on that, because I had been living free software alone in my corner since the early 2000s, and then at the end of Covid, I heard about theWinter Free Software Meetings and I showed up a bit like that, I saw some light, I came back, I came to lend a hand. And for me, the RHL is a place where I met people and it’s a place of sharing. I learned a lot of things at RHL, I met a lot of people, I realized that I wasn’t alone in my corner to love this universe, and I liked it a lot, it gave me a little hope and energy to see that I wasn’t alone or in my corner.

Emmanuelle: It’s this desire to meet with free software professionals because when we do events like we did Celebrate Linux , which is intended for the general public, we don’t have time to see each other, we don’t have time to talk to each other. And so there are conferences, there are workshops, there are mostly lots of tables, there is one of the rooms that have sound and then something to record in case we have a super interesting discussion, we don’t have time to watch a conference. So there’s that, and the idea was really: we have a good time either with friends, or with people who could become friends. Basically, I think that’s it. And it gives something very friendly, very family-oriented. I said that I had made the fish soup, it was the first edition I think or the second. And I came with a big trolley on the train with fish soup on it, there was enough to make a rust, there was enough for 30 people. Well, that’s what RHL was all about, it’s really the desire to meet and then to have a fondue together, to have a good time. And then the conferences and workshops, it’s just a pretext to share our desires, our experiences that we have had during the year, etc. And so, there’s really this very family side, but there’s also this info-exchange side, for fun, for pleasure.

Walid: So, at the beginning, it was a bit informal, the RHL. Were there already conferences in Switzerland, or did you go, you travel to other conferences precisely to meet other free software artists?

SebSeb01: In French-speaking Switzerland, I don’t think there was an event for free software players. There was the Debconf, but apart from that, there are no events for free software in French-speaking Switzerland. We travel to the events of the French-speaking world, especially for French-speaking Switzerland. And then, one year, two years, we organize an event open to the public. But during these events, it’s not geared toward free software users. It’s really an introduction. Then, as a result, users, we don’t have time to discuss during these events, we don’t have time to exchange. So that’s why we’ve always organized what we called spring and fall barbecues or geekeries, but really with this idea of a user group. So we meet and exchange. And then, suddenly, the RHL, the winter meetings of free software, it has become a great moment where we can take the time and then exchange.

Walid: I still remember the LSM in Geneva, I still have a memory of having participated in it at the time.

SebSeb01: I took care of all the table and chair logistics.

Walid: So these first editions, from what I understand, there was perhaps not a huge need to have a very advanced organization, but still what I understand that you say SebSeb01 is that it met a need to talk to each other. So it was positive and it made you want to continue. In these first editions, there were a lot of people who organized or is it the same, was it a small number of people?

SebSeb01: I think at the beginning it was just me.

Walid: Oh yes, okay.

SebSeb01: I did this to myself, I made sure that everyone had a chair and then something to eat. And then there’s a room with a projector and then a screen, and then afterwards it was a little, we really organized ourselves on the spot, vaguely a program that used the beemer, but it was a little really simple, very simple. And then that’s the idea, on Friday we arrive, there are locals, we have to make food, and then we have to pull cables, put the chairs down so that we can lend a hand, we put the chairs down, then we have fun. And that’s how we really started.

The 2026 edition of the RHL

Walid: If we go back a little more to the present, an edition like the one that’s coming, we’ll explain right after what it’s going to consist of, etc. Here we are on an organization where there are already more people. How many of you are working on this edition? for example 2026?

SebSeb01: That’s a complicated question. No, so it’s true that there…

Walid: Why? What for?

SebSeb01: the previous editions, we were 5-6. For the organization, there was the signage, there were always the rooms, and then all the conferences, which are organized by different people. And then, this year, there are a lot of people. There are five people in communication. I always take care of the room. There is one person who takes care of everything that is ticketing, sales, everything that is going to be for sale. So no, I think that this year, we had to double the team. We’re going to be 13-14 people, I think.

Walid: It’s starting to be a big organization.

SebSeb01: That’s right. There are always a little bit of the same 3-4 at the base, but suddenly, they organize things in their corner, and then we trust each other enough. We have agreed on schedules and then we know that more or less on a defined date, it will happen, and it will be ready. And we know each other well enough to make it work.

Walid: And precisely, if we talk about this 2026 edition, so 10 years of the RHL, 20 years of the SwissLinux association, what do you have planned for this edition? What can the listeners of Projets Libres, if they come, expect? Oïnska, do you want to start?

Oïnska: So, maybe SebSeb, he’ll correct me if I say stupid things, since it’s the first time I’ve participated in the organization. For me, everything is new, so maybe I’ll push open doors for the organization. I think there is a particular point of the 2026 edition, which is that we have made invitations in a much broader way to have guests and speakers in a slightly more international way than before, even if it had already been the case in previous years. This year, we took the liberty of contacting a little more widely because we would like to mark the occasion of the 10th edition of the RHL and the 20th anniversary of the association. For me, that’s what differentiates this edition from previous years.

Walid: What do you mean by “seeing a little bit wider”? You invited people who come from which country, for example?

Oïnska: Rather in French-speaking countries, so France, Belgium and French-speaking Switzerland. There are 2-3 names that come to mind now because obviously I forgot to take note of all this. But you will be there, it will be a great pleasure. We have Ploum who comes from Belgium. We will have Bookynette who will be there

Walid : president of April

Oïnska: Exactly president of April, you are right to specify it. There will also be Benjamin Bellamy who will come as part of the podcast he hosts

Walid : RdGP

Oïnska: 2-3 others like that, names that are a bit well known in the free software communities.

SebSeb01: I want to say, but not only.

Oïnska: But not only, indeed.

Emmanuelle: We have, among other things, a round table around free art and the fact of making art with free software. And we already have a round table because we already have several people who have contacted us, who are interested or who are in these fields.

SebSeb01: In Switzerland, we have the EPFL GameLab (the University of Lausanne and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), which has a laboratory that deals with games, which has developed and develops from time to time free games, which will come and present the tools they use. It’s pretty cool, I think, too. We also have local uses of free software. That’s also the goal. So, we invite people from abroad, but we also highlight nice projects that are being done in the region.

Emmanuelle: We’re going to spend more time on Friday trying to demonstrate the ability to teach computers to children. So, for that, we’re going to dedicate Friday afternoon. That’s how Saturday afternoon will be for geeks and their families. So, it’s time not only to come, but to come with your family. Maybe spend a little time in the snow, if we have snow. Let’s keep our fingers crossed against global warming, but in the meantime, at least, to come and do workshops for children. To show a little bit the free tools that there are in these fields, and then the people who are involved in trying to make all this known.

Financing the RHL 2026

Walid: What I think is great is that in fact it’s to be able to discover the ecosystem in your area that we don’t necessarily know very well, to be able to discuss with other people, to discuss your problems around specific free software. We have ours, but you have yours and so that’s what’s interesting, it’s the exchange, it’s this exchange. I think that’s really great. I’m sure it’s going to give me a lot of podcast ideas so it’s perfect. So this edition, which is bigger than the previous ones, how do you plan to finance it? What actions are you taking to raise awareness and from whom you are trying to find funding?

Emmanuelle: Basically, we are counting on the investment of SwissLinux. So it’s SwissLinux and its members who advance the money and set things up for the RHL. We then count on sponsors. So we often have local companies that will also benefit from being able to recruit system administrators or people who know free software or Linux well. So for companies that specialize in this, it’s very cool. And otherwise we also have associations or independent actors who come to sponsor us. So that’s really the heart of the system. Now, as we would like to do a little more, we would like to put the dishes in the big ones, we would like to bring people a little further away, we are trying to make substantive requests. And it’s his mother, his grandmother’s breed, complicated to make. It’s really hell. But we do it because it’s also a way of making ourselves known, of understanding the issues and of making people understand the issues. But it’s a ton of paperwork, it’s tiring, it’s a lot of writing work. I’m very, very lucky to have Oïnska and SebSeb, among others, but also Lixet, but also Nicolas, Mauritio, and the others, to be able to write, to be able to do things and to be able to move forward on these issues. But we have to be clear that it’s a very, very, very big job to raise funds, which is very sad. But unfortunately, there is a lot to explain, there is a lot to dissect for people who often don’t even know what free software is.

Where are the RLH held?

Walid: So, the winter meetings of free software, first of all, the first thing that needs to be specified is where is it held? And has it always been held in the same place? Does anyone want to explain in what context it is held?

SebSeb01: Well, it’s held in Saint-Cergue, which is the town where I live. That’s what they started for. It has another advantage, which is that it allows you to have activities around free software, but also, if people feel like it, to be able to enjoy the winter setting, because it’s still a mid-altitude resort. There are ski slopes in front of the building in which we have our conferences, you just have to cross a little bit of the road, we have an ice rink in more or less the same place. We have hiking trails that run around it. You can go ski touring. We can do lots of activities. It allows you to have this balance between discussing technical things and still being able to escape into nature and enjoy a moment that you don’t necessarily have the opportunity to have all the rest of the year.

Walid: Can you explain to listeners who are not Swiss, Saint-Cergue, how do you situate it?

SebSeb01: It depends on the landmarks. This is the resort that is… On the French side, it is Les Rousses, which is quite well known in France, which is practically in the same place. I locate it from Nyon, because in Switzerland, it’s one of the five cities in the canton of Vaud, so it’s a bit well known. But then, for a little further, it’s in Geneva, it’s 15 minutes from Geneva by car, by train it’s an hour, an hour and a quarter I think from Geneva. So it’s not very far from Geneva. And then it’s in the mountains, just above, on the Jura side, and not on the Alps side, so it’s a little lower in altitude.

Walid: If there are people who are interested in coming to the Winter Free Software meetings, how does it work? Do I have to register? Do you just have to come?

SebSeb01: So you have to register just so that you can plan the amount of food according to the number of people. In the DNA of SwissLinux, we have always said that people who want to participate in free software must be able to participate in free software without it being a problem of budget. So all our prices are what we call free and conscious. We display the price of what it costs us, the service, but we are well aware that we are in Switzerland and that it is expensive. We have people who sometimes come from France who say that it’s still very expensive and that they can’t necessarily pay the full amount of what it costs. But it is in the goals of the association to be able to participate in activities around free software. So that’s why we insist on this free and conscious price aspect. We have people who give a big ticket at the entrance and who won’t consume the whole thing, and then it allows us to finance a little for those who have less financial means. So that’s an important thing I think to say. And then, that’s it, you have to register so that you can plan the quantities of food, the different particularities in the diets, that kind of thing, so that you can book the right number of beds too. It would be annoying if someone slept on the floor. But apart from that, we’re not particularly restrictive at this level, it’s just to plan the right quantities.

Walid: Do you have accommodations around that can be booked by guests?

SebSeb01: We can recommend accommodation to book around it, but in the building we are in, there is an exercise that is well known to the Swiss, which is called civil protection shelters. We have dormitories on site. It’s a bit rudimentary, but in Switzerland, all municipalities must have housing in the event of a nuclear war for their population, which is normally empty. So most of them occupy them in one way or another. And as a result, in Saint-Cergue, they can be rented for different events. And so, we rent him. And that’s dormitories. It is a wooden board with a small foam mat on it. We make a snoring corner, a corner for people who can’t stand snoring. And then, it’s there. It’s a bit rudimentary, but it allows you to have a housing that is not too expensive. And we are directly on site.

Walid: I experienced this a few years ago in Zurich at a free software conference, we slept in a bunker. So for you it’s natural, but for us it’s not. And I have good memories, and indeed I remember the snoring area, absolutely.

SebSeb01: it is important.

Walid: On previous editions, what did you talk about, which are rather Swiss issues?

SebSeb01: There can be many aspects. We had a presentation by Société Numérique which presented the evolution of laws and debates, especially the discussions that take place around the values of free software. We have had several conferences on the theme of education, how free software is integrated into education, politics, education, after very specific projects, the deployment of radio technologies in our country: we have radio amateurs who come every year to present us with one of their projects. So it’s true that afterwards we had protocols like MeshStatic, things like that. These are global questions, but how do we deploy it here? And then we ask ourselves the question: a user of one of these networks, how in Switzerland he can collaborate with others for the radio, politics, education. I think there were others and…

Oïnska: Net neutrality with SwissNeutralNet in particular.

SebSeb01: which is also a problem that we have everywhere, but suddenly it’s the Swiss aspect, the problems of the legislation in our country, this kind of thing that he has just explained.

Walid: Do you have a common thread or major themes around the 2026 edition, for example? Or is it more according to the submissions of the conferences that you go? I wonder about it. There are conferences on which there are no imposed themes, but there are themes in which we try to include the conferences. How does it work there?

SebSeb01: For me, this year, we have a theme that we had been working on since the end of the previous year’s edition: we noticed that we had more and more families coming. We had cobbled together 2-3 workshops around free software for the children who were there, but we thought that it was a real power issue for people to be able to come with their families. And so, this year, on Friday, we have the school that has to come, the school around the corner, which has to come with a certain number of teenagers. So, we’re going to set up workshops. Saturday afternoon will be open to the public. So, the goal is for there to be families as well and for us to present this aspect of making free software with children. But apart from that, we remain on all the themes that interest all people who practice free software. It’s not just the theme that is imposed, we remain open. There are already many submissions that go a little beyond that theme. That’s maybe more the other scene that will be there. We’ll give you more information.

Oïnska: So no, indeed, we don’t have an imposed theme. Indeed, this year, we are organizing a special education day on Friday with, as SebSeb explained, students from 10 to 16 years old, if I am not mistaken, who will come. So we really have a day, an afternoon really that is dedicated to education. Otherwise, no, people are free to propose the themes they want. We are in the process of organizing two round tables. The first on free art, in which Ploum and its publisher PVH Éditions, which is Swiss, which is also in the Swiss Jura mountains, will participate. And then another round table on the theme “Not being a man in technology”. These are the two big issues I can put forward. Otherwise, for conferences, there is nothing imposed. All topics are welcome as long as they have some connection with free software. All the subjects that go with it. (First of all, I don’t think we said the dates.) It’s the last weekend of January, so on Friday 23rd, it will be dedicated to children, to students, January 24–25th.

Submit a topic to HR

Walid: Since it’s open, how and who can make a submission, can say “I want to come to talk about a subject”? How does it work?

Oïnska: It’s quite simple, there’s a form on our site rencontreshivernalesdulibre.ch everything in a nutshell. There is a “Propose a conference” tab, you just have to fill in the form and then a priori you are registered to give the conference, so anyone can come.

After RLH 2026

Walid: What I would also like us to discuss is whether you have a vision for the future, that is to say what do you see for the future years? I don’t know if you’re already looking ahead to the post-RHL 2026 period, but do you have any wishes, challenges, or particular things that you’d like to bring to your attention?

Emmanuelle: We need more volunteers. There is a subject that often comes up in associations, and that is the renewal of volunteers, the renewal of teams, etc. I’m delighted to do it, and I do it willingly. But this year, there are more of us, it’s cool, because there are RHLs, we made them for 70 people to 3. And that’s getting a little hot.

SebSeb01: I’m not particularly looking ahead for the moment. We are in the middle of the 2026 organization. I want us to keep this spirit where people who want to contribute, to change something, to develop a new aspect in the winter meetings of Free Software, come and do it. So I’m going to let the 2026 edition go by before asking myself what we do in 2027. After that, I always have lots of ideas.

Oinska: I agree. It’s true that we currently have our nose in the handlebars for this 2026 edition. What I hope is that the meetings continue from year to year, that it goes as well as possible, that we can continue to meet, because that’s the most important thing, it’s to meet in real life.

Emmanuelle: There is a real need now to allow families to be able to participate together. There are a few brave people who do it, but it’s not always easy. The idea is really to promote RHL for that, to allow education to young people. It is also not only to allow people to participate as a family, but also to add education and to give young people the means to understand computer science through a different means than that of the GAFAMs.

Conclusion

Walid: Before we leave, by way of conclusion, I would like to give you the floor for two very simple questions, before giving you a final word, even if we have already touched on that a little. The first question would be: what would you say to a Swiss free software enthusiast to make him want to come to the winter free software meetings?

SebSeb01: For me, that’s right, it’s this spirit of meeting, of exchange. I think that one of the most intense moments I experienced at the winter meetings was actually at the beginning of one of the editions where I developed a visual impairment. And in fact, I found myself with a smartphone that I couldn’t use anymore, a computer that I couldn’t use anymore, and then I organized this edition of the winter meetings as best I could. And then, when I got there, there were some free software players who sat next to me, who took the time, and then we found free software solutions so that I could use a phone again. The computer took a little longer but we got there too. And for me, it’s this spirit: it’s we come, we discuss, you have a problem, maybe I have a solution. And that’s what I find nice.

Walid: Do you want to add anything Oïnska?

Oïnska: What I would say to a free software enthusiast in Switzerland is that there is no excuse not to come. There is a big event being organised in French-speaking Switzerland, you have to come. And then, on a misunderstanding, we ended up on the organizing committee for the previous edition. For the next edition, I mean.

SebSeb01: There, it smells a bit like experience.

Walid: And what would you say to a French-speaking free software player to make him want to come to the winter free software meetings?

SebSeb01: that the problems are the same. Borders do not change the problems faced by free software professionals. And that there are meetings to be made and good times to be had, even if we do not necessarily share the legislative framework. A small detail.

Walid: I think that for us, it’s good to share another legislative framework, because the one we have at the moment, it’s not great, you see…

Oïnska: If I can just add something, I encourage French-speaking non-Swiss, and not even necessarily French-speaking Swiss for that matter, to come, because in Switzerland too we have a small free software community that is welcoming and benevolent. I am living proof of that. I joined this community, so come, don’t be afraid, we are very welcoming.

Walid: Do you have people who are non-French-speaking, for whom French is not their mother tongue?

SebSeb01: We have a few Swiss Germans who dare to cross the Rösti barrier. We even have a few Germans who come to present projects and things, it’s nice. Debian CH often organizes bug-squashing parties, things like that, as part of the RHL, which brings people from a little further away, Debian contributors, who travel a little more miles to come and participate. And in other contexts, we’ve had conferences in English, it’s not a problem.

Walid: I was going to ask the question, precisely, if there were people who could give conferences in English in this context.

SebSeb01: it’s possible. It has been done, yes.

Walid: OK, super interesting. Listen, I would like to leave you with a final word. What would you like to give as a final word to the listeners of the podcast Projets Libres? Emmanuelle?

Emmanuelle: Free software is above all a human experience. And to quote the famous Lawrence Lessig, at least, it is attributed to him: “If free software were only to open code, it would be a missed opportunity.” So, it would be a shame to miss the RHL.
The other thing is also: “the road is long, but the way is clear” [ Framasoft’s first slogan]. So, to go to Saint-Cergue, it is rather winding. And then, if you take the train, well, there’s… I wonder if there isn’t even a little housewarming. So that will make you vary a little bit as well. Switzerland is a beautiful place to come by train. There is everything you need on site. We’re happy. And if the only thing stopping you from coming is money, give us a call, send us an email. I am sure that we will be able to find a solution.

Oïnska: As I explained before, I met people at the Winter Free Software Meetings with whom I have a lot to share. I have common values. These are people who welcomed me and of whom I am now part of the community. These are people with whom I have sympathized, some of whom have become friends. So come on, it’s really a great event. It’s on a human scale, it’s great.

SebSeb01: I want to say, we want you to come. Come. That’s what the goal is, it’s to be welcoming, it’s to have a good time, to listen to everyone, even if there are people who know a little less about free software or things like that, where there are things to do, people to meet. So you have to come to have a good time of exchange and meeting. And that’s the values, I think, of free software, and that’s what we want to see in our event. So come on.

Walid: yes come on, that seems like a very good conclusion. I would say to the listeners of the Free Projects podcast that, of course, I will put all the information in the transcript, and that you can go to rencontreshivernalesdulibre.ch, and that there is all the necessary information. We’ll be there, in any case we’re going to have a great time, and certainly we’ll talk until the end of the night with people as passionate as us, so it’s going to be really great.
Don’t hesitate to talk about it around you, to also tell us if you come, so we can meet, chat, it’s going to be very nice. I’ll talk about the podcast and other things, but I won’t say more because I haven’t made my submission yet. And as usual, talk about it around you, circulate on social networks: the podcast social networks, they are accessible either from your podcast application directly in the description, or from the website at the bottom of the page, you have all the information. Share and publicize this event, and we will certainly give you a debrief afterwards, so it will be with great pleasure. Thank you very much, thank you for your time, and then we’ll see you in January in person in Saint-Cergue to meet and talk about free software.

Emmanuelle: thank you, bye bye.

To go further

• Videos of previous editions
• The road is long but the way is clear (Alexis Kaufmann, TedX Geneva)
• SwissLinux on Mastodon
• Instance Peertube SwissLinux
• RHL on Mastodon

Episode production

• Remote check-in on October 14 and November 5, 2025
• Plot: Walid Nouh
• Editing: Walid Nouh
• Transcript: Walid Nouh

This article has been automatically translated from the original language into English.

License

This podcast is released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license or later