Ericsson Software Technology (EST) took part in Open Source Summit Europe 2026 in Prague. EST was one of the event sponsors, hosting a booth alongside the talks and panels accepted into the program. The main event ran from 7–9 October, preceded on 6 October by co-located events focused on specific areas of the open source ecosystem.

Topics that defined the conversation

Several themes dominated the discussions across the summit:

• AI-assisted vulnerability hunting
• CRA (Cyber Resilience Act) reporting obligations
• The health and sustainability of open source communities
• Trust in AI, and what a sovereign approach to deploying it looks like
• A reality check on the true costs of using AI for software development

Keynote highlight: a fireside chat with Linus Torvalds

The standout moment among the keynotes was the fireside conversation between Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux and Git, and Dirk Hohndel, Head of Ericsson Software Technology. The two reflected on the history of Linux and Git and how the open source community has evolved over the years. Their discussion turned to what it takes to build successful communities — and why doing so requires someone with a strong, clear vision of the goals. (watch the keynote)

Meeting the community at the EST booth

Ericsson Software Technology's sponsor booth gave the team a place to connect with attendees in the hallway track and to link EST's presenters with the conference audience. The recurring theme at the booth was security, and particularly the impact of the CRA on European vendors. Many attendees also recognized Ericsson's presence across a range of open source communities — a reflection of EST's longer-term goal of engaging deeply in the projects that are critical to our industry.

Ericsson and EST talks and panels

Ericsson and Ericsson Software Technology contributed to a broad set of talks and panels. Recordings are available on the Linux Foundation YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@LinuxfoundationOrg

Panel: The Latest From TODO Group: Advocacy, Community, and Our AI Initiatives — Ashley Wolf, Georg Kunz, Ana Jiménez Santamaría & Natali Vlatko — recording

Derivative Work and Modification(s): Where Copyright and Open Source Software Collide — Yet Again — Eleftheria Stefanaki, Nokia Technologies & Jimmy Ahlberg, Ericsson — recording

A Day in the Life of a CVE Remediator — Shubham Kalloli & Cameron Scholes, Ericsson Software Technology — recording

Own Your Stack: Sovereign Kubernetes From Bare Metal To Fleet — Bharath N R, Mirantis Inc. & Sunnatillo Samadov, Ericsson — recording

How To Talk To Your Lawyer About Open Source — Jimmy Ahlberg & Georg Kunz, Ericsson — recording

Make YAML Dumb Again: The Config as Data Approach — Gergely Csatari, Nokia & Liam Fallon, Ericsson Software Technology — recording

Sponsored Session: LLM-Assisted Vulnerability Research in Yocto — Anders Heimer, Ericsson Software Technology — recording

Verifying ABI Compatibility Across Releases and CPU Architectures — Daniel Turull & Adarsh Jagadish Kamini, Ericsson Software Technology — recording

Panel Discussion: Are Open Source Licenses for AI Models a Hallucination? — Andrew Katz, Orcro Limited; Jimmy Ahlberg, Ericsson; Eleftheria Stefanaki, Nokia Technologies — recording

Lightning Talk: Beyond Immutable Machines: Introducing Cluster API In-Place Updates — Lennart Jern, Ericsson Software Technology — recording

Why We Fixed It Upstream: A Telco Perspective — Jan Melen, Ericsson Software Technology — recording