A new format shakes up this year’s All Things Open, but familiar faces and a strong sense of community keep us coming back.
If open source is your thing, tomorrow would be a good day to be in Raleigh, North Carolina.
That’s because tomorrow the Raleigh Convention Center — now the Atlantic Union Bank Convention Center — opens its doors for the 14th outing of All Things Open, which claims to be the largest open source conference on the East Coast, which it probably is. FOSS Force has been there since the beginning (although we weren’t there in person for a few years during the pandemic).
We’ll be there again this year, although due to a format change the event won’t be quite the territory we’ve grown used to.
And Now for Something Completely Different…
To paraphrase GM’s old Oldsmobile advertisement, this isn’t going to be your father’s ATO, and for me, it’s going to take some getting used to.
Since the conference’s beginning in 2013, ATO’s opening keynotes have not only been where the big surprise announcements drop, they’re also the scene-setter for the whole enchilada. This is where ATO’s creator Todd Lewis (and in recent years, also Jono Bacon) sets the scene and makes attendees feel like they’re not just attending another open source event, they’re part of a family of thousands.
I know it sounds corny, but I love getting that warm and cuddly feeling — as well as all the positive affirmation stuff from the keynote speakers — before setting off to the presentations on the event’s first day schedule.
The second day’s keynotes have also been important — for getting back in the groove and the additional newsworthy drops — but the first day’s keynotes are what get the conference going… at least for me.
This year’s ATO won’t have day-one keynotes, which is giving me something of an existentialist experience. That’s because Monday is no longer a traditional conference day with presentations that last about an hour each. Instead, the conference is adopting the format of All Things AI — another event that ATO helped launch last year in nearby downtown Durham.
This moves the co-located events like Inclusion & Diversity in Open Source, GitHub’s Open Source Accessibility Summit, and Jono Bacon’s Community Leadership Summit from Sunday to Monday, alongside the first day of ATO events. The ATO events will be all-day AI-specific workshops — AI for DevSecOps, AI Agents & Vibe Coding, and AI Agents in Production — as well as extended deep dives on a variety of open source topics.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m perfectly good with the changes, but I want my opening day keynotes about as bad as I wanted my MTV back in the ancient early ’80s.
The Cast of Characters & More…
The good news is that Tuesday’s “traditional conference day” is filled to the brim with tracks. Notably, this year Open Source Initiative has a track of its own — so if open source software licensing interests you, that’s something to keep an eye on (even if you’re not attending in person, since ATO usually starts posting videotaped presentations on YouTube within weeks after the conference).
Also, don’t worry if AI isn’t your thing. Although there’s an abundance of AI-focused talks — as with any conference these days — Todd Lewis and his team have done a good job of making sure the schedule is balanced, with something for everybody spread throughout the day.
Recognizable names on the agenda include Ruth Suehle, Brian Proffitt, Jim Hall, Brad Topol, Frank Karlitschek, Michael Hall and many, many others. Plus, you never know who you’re going to run across hanging out at some of the vendor booths, especially OSI’s booth which can sometimes be the “it” place to hang when taking a break from the presentations.
If you live in North Carolina’s Piedmont Triangle area and suddenly find yourself wanting to go, you can find more information at the All Things Open 2026 website. Be sure to look at the schedule while you’re there.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
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