We kicked things off after a big break of ~5 months. We started with Deveesh Shetty and Mohit Tahiliani going over the mission of FOSS United and the Mangalore Chapter, and it was a houseful (or shall I say containerful)
The entire event actually took place inside a container. Since we had a talk that involved Docker containers, the vibe was one of the best parts. We talked about containers inside a container.
We covered a wide range of topics: 3D Game Development, Self-hosting using Proxmox, and developing a quick Admin panel using Laravel Filament.
At the end, after eating Mangalore Buns, we saw an Autonomous Car Project “Reva” built by Prof. Prithviraj and his students at SEARCH, completely using Open Source Hardware and Software, which will be used to autonomously drive across NITK campus.
Not only cars, there were EV dirt bikes, EV boats for fishermen built by SEARCH completely using Open Source.
We had three talks:
OpenUSD: An open source bridge for 3D by Koushik Shanbag
Here, Koushik demonstrated how to use the same file format to work across various 3D software like Unity, Maya, Houdini, and others. For starters, it was a great session. We went beyond normal development (towards game development). It broadened everyone’s idea of 3D development.
Intro to Self-Hosting with FOSS by Abdul Wasey
This one was pure fun, especially when we got into the security side of things. Lots of laughs but also serious learning about how we can take control using open-source tools. He also mentioned various open source alternatives for Office suite products, like Google and Microsoft, using NextCloud. He also demonstrated his own personal self hosting setup with all the services he is running
Using Laravel Filament to Build a Quick, Scalable Professional Admin Panel by Darshan Bhandary
Here we saw a live demo of how to spin up a quick, scalable professional admin panel. It’s very useful for freelancers, where a single person is expected to do the work of a whole team to bring a production grade application. Darshan wrote and modified PHP code right in front of us. He even took up a challenge to finish a task in 20 minutes — only missed it by 5 minutes, but still super impressive. Everyone got to know something other than NextJS.
THE BAD
We went a little above time, but we had enough buffer to keep things intact.
THE UGLY
There was nothing ugly except for my puns on containers, some might say xD
There will be a brief volunteer meet after every meetup/activity.
Our next meetup will be happening in October, maintaining our 2 months 1 meetup consistency. Expected venues are either of
Karmic Designs, Udupi
Kalinga Foundation, Agumbe
Unicourt Mangalore Infotech, Mangalore
Volunteers need to step up and take initiative for organizing meetups, as Mohit, Deveesh, and Nirav will be focusing on MangaloreFOSS
Planning MangaloreFOSS on 17 and 18 January 2026, to be held at National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore. Venue is finalized. Expecting a footfall of over 1000 students.
Themes that are tentatively decided for the tracks at
Game Dev,
Autonomous Systems,
FinTech,
MedTech,
SemiConductors
Each theme will be supported by an industry who have roots in that domain. The theme emphasizes the Financial and Medical background of the Mangalore region
Possibility of organizing an evening Kite festival at NITK beach since the dates are near Uttarayana
Very cool. Have you guys had any folks from the FOSSClubs at Kasargod visiting any of the events btw (or vice versa) ? It’s about an hour’s ride in a KSRTC bus, so I can’t help wonder what the local collaboration opportunities are.
