AlmaLinux chair Benny Vasquez to speak at All Things Open 2026

The AlmaLinux OS Foundation said chair Benny Vasquez will speak at All Things Open 2026 in Raleigh on Oct. 19, focusing on the often invisible labor required to sustain open source projects. The foundation will also showcase a new Certification Station at its booth as it expands its hardware and software certification program.

Why it matters: - AlmaLinux is highlighting the work that keeps open source infrastructure stable after projects are created. - The talk is aimed at showing why support, governance and maintenance matter for systems used by more than 2 million machines. - The Certification Station gives conference attendees a live look at AlmaLinux’s growing certification program.

What happened: - The AlmaLinux OS Foundation said chair Benny Vasquez will speak at All Things Open 2026. - The conference runs Oct. 19-20, 2026, at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. - Vasquez will speak during the Day 1 Lightning Talks session from 1:15 to 2:15 p.m. in Ballroom B on Monday, Oct. 19. - Her session is titled “This Sh*t Don’t Just Happen: The Invisible Work of Open Source Stewardship.” - Attendees can visit AlmaLinux at booth #79 during the event.

The details: - Vasquez’s talk will draw on five years of building AlmaLinux from a community response to crisis into a foundation trusted by more than 2 million systems, CERN and companies including Meta and AMD. - The session will focus on what open source stewardship requires beyond writing code. - Vasquez will also address why many people want to contribute to open source but do not know how to get involved. - The talk will cover ways individuals and organizations can support the projects they depend on. - The session will use examples of critical projects that lacked sustained support, including OpenSSL before Heartbleed, XZ Utils and the CentOS end-of-life. - AlmaLinux’s booth will feature a new Certification Station. - Visitors will be able to boot AlmaLinux from provided thumb drives and run the certification suite without installing anything on their systems. - Most certification runs finish in under 10 minutes. - The demonstration showcases the expanded AlmaLinux Certification Program, which now includes both hardware and software certification. - AlmaLinux says Vasquez has managed commercial and open source communities, developers and high-performance teams at LiquidWeb, cPanel, Progress and Microsoft. - The foundation describes Vasquez as a leading voice in community-driven software. - To request a meeting with Vasquez, email hello@almalinux.org. - More information on the session is available here. - Full event information is available here.

Between the lines: - The message positions AlmaLinux as more than a distribution vendor. - The foundation is framing stewardship, certification and ecosystem support as core parts of open source durability. - The examples cited suggest AlmaLinux wants attendees to connect project maintenance with security, continuity and operational risk.

What's next: - Vasquez will deliver the session on Oct. 19 at All Things Open 2026. - AlmaLinux will continue hosting booth demonstrations and taking meeting requests during the conference. - The foundation’s expanded certification program appears likely to remain a key part of its outreach to hardware and software partners.

The bottom line: - AlmaLinux is using All Things Open 2026 to make a broader case for open source stewardship, not just open source code.