It has been a little while since the doors closed at the Open Community Experience (OCX26) in Brussels this April. While we would have loved to share our reflections sooner, the Oniro team has had a hectic fortnight of travels and conferences in between. We felt it was important to wait until we could properly sit down as a team to revisit the energy of the event and give those experiences the thoughtful reflection they deserve.
Where Open Source Comes to Life
To understand OCX, you have to understand the atmosphere. More than just a series of technical talks, OCX26 was a sensory experience. From the first cup at the barista station and the DJ set welcoming everyone, to the packed rooms and lovely conversations around, OCX is designed to make people feel inspired and connected.
The Oniro team spent three days in a whirlwind of activity: full-house session rooms, hands-on workshops, and constant conversations everywhere. It reminded us that while we spend most of our year in digital collaboration, there is no substitute for the laughter, curiosity, and promising ideas that happen when the community meets in person.
Hardware in Hand
If there was one place where the heart of our project was most visible, it was at the Oniro booth. We believe that open source is at its best when it moves off the screen and into the palm of your hand, and OCX26 gave us the perfect stage to prove it.
Our booth was a constant hub of activity, with a steady stream of developers, architects, and curious newcomers stopping by to see the platform in action. We showcased a diverse range of devices running the latest version of the Oniro and OpenHarmony ecosystem: from our lovely dog robot and dev boards to commercial devices such as watches, smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
To add to the daily excitement, our lucky draw for a Lego set became a real focal point, attracting crowds at the end of every day. It was a wonderful excuse for us all to gather together, share a few laughs, and celebrate with the lucky winners, making the booth a place for fun.
The Foundation for Intelligence
A major highlight for the Working Group was the keynote by Yutao Liu from the Huawei Hilbert Research Centre. His session, "Eclipse Oniro together with OpenHarmony," outlined a fundamental shift in our industry.
Liu’s message was clear: the operating system is becoming the foundation for how intelligence is delivered. We are no longer looking at AI as a mere application layer; it is now shaping how devices think and interact in real time. We are heading toward environments where multiple devices behave as a single, seamless unit, sharing context and capabilities.
Oniro’s role is to bring this vision into a global, vendor-neutral ecosystem, ensuring that it becomes a collaborative platform to OpenHarmony, where industry and developers can innovate without boundaries.
Breaking the Duopoly and Reclaiming Sovereignty
The theme of digital sovereignty was further explored in a standout session by Dan Ghica and Jaroslaw Marek. They addressed the concentration of control in the current mobile platform duopoly and presented Eclipse Oniro and the Cangjie programming language as the necessary alternatives.
By focusing on memory safety, performance, and cross-platform compilation, Cangjie and Oniro offer a "full-stack" approach. This isn't just about technical preference; it’s about building a stack that organisations can actually control and evolve, a critical requirement for digital sovereignty in the modern age.
Strategy Behind the Scenes
While the barista station and networking were vital for the community’s "heart," our "brain" was at work in a series of intensive meetings. We leveraged OCX26 to hold a high-level executive meeting to refine Oniro’s roadmap, alongside our regular Steering Committee meeting.
Meeting in person allowed us to iterate quickly on our plans for the second half of 2026, defining clear action points to lower the barrier for app porting and platform integration.
The Takeaway
OCX26 was built with passion and intention. We left Brussels with a clear sense of purpose: the "dream" of Oniro is now a tangible reality, running on products and supported by a global community that values sovereignty and intelligence.
This busy period of travel, moving straight from the strategic discussions in Brussels to the technical deep-dives in Paris, has only reinforced how quickly our ecosystem is growing. It has provided the perfect momentum as we begin our countdown to more events and conferences in the next few months.
We'll bring that same energy, heart, and innovation to OCX27. See you there!
