It's been a hot minute since my last blog post, mostly because I was focusing on finally finishing my studies - while I'm not quite done yet (still missing one exam), I have a good reason to come out of hiding: KDE Akademy 2026 just happened and I was there!
While I was already at the Plasma Sprint in Graz last year, this is my first other KDE-related event I attended and oh boy was it ever an event. So many talks ranging from educational and thought provoking to simply silly fun and plenty of opportunities (for frequent and extended coffee breaks leading to even more education, thought provoking and simply silly fun conversations!
If it was just that I would have already called this amazing, but the "talks" part of Akademy was just the first two days (not counting the "arrival day" + evening welcome event which I could unfortunately not attend myself), but the following days were equally amazing, if not even more so. A bunch of lively discussions in plenty of BoF rooms (and, which I have learned there, the famous hallway BoFs) around so many topics I can't even hope to mention them all here. I attended some conversations around how to better get in touch with stakeholders to reduce the general society's reliance on big tech, the technical intricacies of theming systems in general and KDE Union in particular, implementation details for the new XDG Intents, ... I could go on forever, really, but I shall restrain myself.
In short: Tons conversations and planning that works best in-person was done as well as a lot of networking and putting-faces-to-names.
Now unfortunately not everything was sunshine and roses - Wednesday was a day of unspeakable, chocolate-based torture for all of us. We toured the Zotter factory near Graz which included the ability to taste-test their chocolates at various steps during production process (yes, this includes up to as early as whole dried cocoa beans!) as well as a wide selection of their final products. It was much more interesting than I thought it would be and such a great experience to do all this with so many kool (with a K!) people.
However... let's just say mistakes have been made and I misunderstood the Zotter employee's statement that there are "roughly 300 taste testing stations" as a promise and not a threat. I definitely purchased a number of chocolate bars in their shop at the end but I don't think I'll be eating any of them any time soon after my complete lack of self control during the tour and the ensuing (and entirely predictable!) consequences.
And the worst part: After that we went to a Buschenschank for a good old "Brettljausn" (not sure how to translate, but essentially a meat and cheese buffet) where I also ate way too much since it's been way too long since my last proper Brettljausn.
And with that I think I covered everything I wanted to talk about - Thanks so much to everyone organizing and attending to make this such an unforgettable week! If you'll excuse me, I'll now fall into bed and sleep what feels like for several days straight