The FUSS project marked a milestone in early November 2025, celebrating 20 years of championing Free Software in South Tyrol’s schools. From 7 to 8 November the initiative joined forces with the South Tyrol Free Software Conference (SFSCON), which was itself commemorating its 25th anniversary. Together they created a special “Skills and Training” track that placed Free Software at the heart of education — from primary classrooms to vocational training centres.
Speakers across the two‑day programme explored how Free Software tools can reshape teaching, learning and school administration. They shared concrete experiences, demonstrated platforms that support collaborative learning, and proved that Free Software keeps public education inclusive, transparent and under local control. In total the conference featured nine talks and six hands‑on workshops, all designed to show educators and technologists alike how ethical, sustainable digital tools can be woven into everyday school life.
The second day, Saturday 8 November, gave the event its most tangible expression: the EndOf10 workshop, held in the Crane Hall of NOI TECHPARK and jointly organized by the FUSS Project, PC-Doktor-Bozen - a local company specialized in hardware reuse and digital sustainablity, and the association Linux User Group Bozen-Bolzano-Bulsan (LUGBZ). As Windows 10 approached its official end‑of‑life, countless computers were destined for the landfill, feeding a growing e‑waste crisis. The workshop offered a different future for those machines.
PC-Doktor-Bozen collected, cleaned and carefully prepared twenty decommissioned PCs from local businesses that could no longer be upgraded to Windows 11. Volunteers from the FUSS Project and the LUGBZ) then demonstrated, live on a large screen, how to install the FUSS GNU/Linux Distribution on the hardware. The installation proceeded in two batches of ten, allowing every participant to follow each step and ask questions in real time, ensuring that everyone could understand each stage of the process.
Special guests of the workshop were three very active members of the EndOf10 international campaign: Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss, Bettina Louis and Carolina Silva Rodé who gave a talk on Friday about past, present, and future of the campaign.
What made the session especially lively were eight students from the Enrico Fermi Secondary School (Istituto Comprensivo Bolzano IV). These pupils, representing a group of 23 students in their school, already serve daily as class‑level technical support, helping teachers and classmates navigate digital tools. Under the guidance of their mentor, Prof. Nicola Lauria, they assisted the volunteers, explained the process to attendees and ensured the workshop ran smoothly. Their dedication was recognised publicly with an appreciation certificate from the FUSS Project and a small present for each one of them.
When the two‑hour window (10:00 – 12:00) closed, each refurbished computer was handed to a participant. In this way the workshop not only diverted twenty machines from the waste stream but also handed out functional, free‑software computers to people who might otherwise have struggled to obtain technology. Attendees left with a working PC, a new set of skills, and a concrete example of how circular‑economy thinking can be applied to education.
The EndOf10 event encapsulated the spirit of the “Skills and Training” track: it showed that Free Software is more than a philosophical ideal — it is a practical, inclusive solution that empowers communities, reduces waste and keeps learning tools under local control. By weaving together talks, workshops and the hands‑on refurbishment of old hardware, the FUSS‑SFSCON partnership demonstrated how two decades of open‑source advocacy can still generate fresh, impactful ideas for the future of education.