Open Source Summit North America 2025

As a former FAANG engineering leader who's interviewed 100s of candidates, I've seen brilliant engineers crumble under the pressure of system design interviews. In this hands-on workshop, we'll build tools I wish every candidate (including myself) had before walking into interview rooms.

Together, we'll create:

* A system design scenario generator based on real FAANG questions
* Interactive simulators showing how architectures perform under load
* Visual tools demonstrating distributed systems concepts (CAP theorem, consistency models)
* Performance comparison tools for evaluating architectural trade-offs
* Failure scenario simulators revealing resilience thinking

Candidates often fail not from lack of knowledge, but inability to visualize and communicate complex systems under pressure. The market is competitive & rife with layoffs. These tools aren't just about getting hired - they're about ensuring talented engineers find positions where they'll thrive.

We'll use OSS (ONLY) to make abstract concepts concrete, giving you both valuable tools and insider perspective on what FAANG interviewers are really seeking when they ask you to design a system from scratch.

Open source software is the basis for the tools used to create almost all visual effects and animation used in the motion picture industry today, providing the backbone for creating blockbuster films like The Wild Robot, Moana 2, Dune, Oppenheimer, the Star Wars movies and all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

The most important open source projects that are used on almost every film production today are housed at the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF), which provides a neutral forum for open source software developers in the motion picture and broader media industries to share resources and collaborate on technologies for image creation, visual effects, animation and sound.

The Foundation has flourished since its launch in 2018, hosting 14 projects and supporting a growing ecosystem of open source engineers. During this session, David Morin, Executive Director of the Academy Software Foundation, will share more about the Foundation’s growth over the last six years, including new open source projects, engineering events such as Dev Days, and D&I initiatives including the Summer Learning Program.

Open source contribution is often portrayed as a straightforward journey starting with "good first issues," but the reality is far more nuanced and personal. In this heartfelt talk, I'll share my transformative journey from an overwhelmed beginner to a purposeful contributor, highlighting how I discovered sustainable joy in open source development. Through personal stories and lessons learned, I'll discuss navigating common pitfalls like contributor fatigue, the "what's in it for me" mindset, and the good-first-issue trap. I'll share how local meet-ups, in-person conferences, and finding my passion in accessibility—particularly through my work with the Deaf and hard-of-hearing working group—helped me carve a meaningful path. This talk will provide practical insights for contributors seeking to build a fulfilling, long-term relationship with open source while maintaining their well-being and making a genuine impact on the community.

Note: I'm deaf and this talk reflects my own journey in open source. I'm okay to present this as lightning talk as well.

The Linux Foundation has hundreds of projects under its auspices all working to gain adoption — especially in the case of forks like OpenBao and Valkey. In this struggle for adoption, projects could be doing more in support of our common goal. This talk proposes a system by which projects can work together, integrate each other, and increase cohesion between projects under a common foundation. This talk will serve as the opening of a discussion meant to engage both the participants and maintainers of projects and Linux Foundation community members.

In this session, we will examine critical moments in Open Source history, from the early days of the kernel and birth of the Linux Foundation, to Software defined networking, to Containerization and Cloud Native, to Web, to AI; examine what can be distilled as transcendent truths, and what that tells us about our future? How should it inform the ways we build our software strategies? Attendees will leave inspired, curious and wanting to learn more.