As an organizer of the Distributions Track, I saw a full room all Sunday. Here are the sessions I’d highlight:

Commoditizing the Build

This was a provocative talk about our “demographic crisis” of aging maintainers. The argument is that we need to stop treating packaging as a dark art (OBS/Koji) and start using OCI-based workflows (Docker/Podman) to let the millions of devs who know Dockerfiles contribute directly to the distro.

Distributing Rust in RPMs

This validated the work we are planning with the Rust-SIG. They made a strong case for why cargo install isn’t enough. We need RPM packaging for system-wide security updates, proper man pages, and auditing dependencies once rather than per-application.

The Road Ahead to Post-Quantum Cryptography

A very sober look at PQC readiness. Instead of hype, it focused on the practical steps Fedora is taking to meet upcoming EU regulations and how maintainers of signed infrastructure need to prepare their keys now, not later.