2026-09-26 –, 5053.1 (Großer B-IT Raum)
How hard is it to break your computer or phone? That is the question we'll try to answer here, and not with a bench press but just by tinkering with the software. Most mainstream OSes advertise themselves as being "immutable", with the claim that it should require a lot of determination for a user to break the stability of their, e.g., Android or macOS devices.
I've been using NixOS personally and commercially for more than a decade now, and it's really often a question that audiences ask: How does it compare to RPM-OSTree? to pinned Alpine Docker images? etc. and with the release of PostmarketOS Duranium earlier this year, I think there is a good opportunity to look at the diversity of strategies employed to make systems more robust and to answer questions like "what are the escape hatches we can use to still break those devices?"
This talk is meant to be accessible to people with little to no knowledge of NixOS/Guix systems and their convoluted internals, but some previous exposure to Unix-based OSes and their package managers and update mechanisms might still be required to fully appreciate the presentation.
I hold a master’s degree in mathematics and computer science applied to biology from Sorbonne University in Paris. I discovered C++ programming as a child and have been actively involved in open-source communities ever since. My professional experience includes work in 3D graphics, developer tooling, compilers, and runtime design using Rust and Haskell. I’ve taught systems programming, computer architecture, and DevOps to master’s students, and I’ve also designed algorithm competitions and coding workshops for kids and teens, helping them build small video games. I’m currently based in Belgium, working as a NixOS consultant. In my free time, I enjoy biking, hiking, climbing, and vegan cooking.