Mastodawn

Romeu Moura 7h ago

Christian Hergert

I’m no longer employed by Red Hat.

As a result, any projects I maintained there as part of that employment should no longer be considered maintained by me, whether in that former capacity or otherwise.

Because those projects were solely maintained by me, they may now fall into an unmaintained state unless other community members step in. I am not available to maintain, review, or support them in any capacity for the foreseeable future.

For context read https://blogs.gnome.org/chergert/2026/02/06/mid-life-transitions/

Mid-life transitions

The past few months have been heavy for many people in the United States, especially families navigating uncertainty about safety, stability, and belonging. My own mixed family has been working through some of those questions, and it has led us to make a significant change. Over the course of last year, my request to relocate...

Happenings in GNOME

@chergert That was a read; thank you for sharing this so transparently. Searching "Portland", "CBP", and "shooting" yielded so many different results that appeared to point to different incidents – as in, wow, the federal government has gone really rogue!

@chergert Don't tell me: corporate really had an issue with your move due to the gloomy monicker of "location strategy."

Dr. Sobek 9h ago

@matt @chergert What's that ?

@Sobex @chergert Corporate euphemism to cover offshoring, RTO, location inflexibility, and everything in between.

Rasmus Lindegaard 9h ago

@chergert as a Dane watching the madness currently unfolding across the pond, i completely understand your decision. If it were me, with my family I suspect I'd have done the same or at least something similar.

Welcome to Europe. I wish you the best in your efforts, thanks for all your hard work.

God bless you and yours.

Corentin Noël 9h ago

@chergert hey there! I'm living near Paris if you need anything!

bublboblz 6h ago

@chergert the same, nearby Poitiers :) welcome to you and your family

Dr. Sobek 9h ago

@chergert I read your visa include no work provisions ?
Do you have any long term plans after that long term stay is up ? Is this more a regroup to a safe place while we figure it out ?

Mike Spencer 9h ago

@chergert
Thank you for all your effort over the years! Enjoy a well earned break.

Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)8h ago

@chergert Deep respect for your decision and the way you're handling everything. It won't be easy, but I hope your path forward is as smooth as possible, and safe and fulfilling.

@chergert all the best travel safe and remember you are cared for ♡

@chergert Bienvenue en France.

The easiest way to learn a language is simply to leave the radio on. It works better than TV because:
1: you can leave it on while doing other things
2: radio is designed to be understood without images.

In France, just leave France Info on. It is a continuous news program, so it repeats every 15 minutes and it is a talk program.

At first you will not understand much. That is normal. Keep it on and you will in 6 months.

Hylke Bons 🥜3h ago

@dl2jml @chergert I did this when I moved to the UK and can vouch for this. :)

Agnès H.8h ago

@chergert hello. Where are you in France? How can we help? (Welcome 🤗)

Christian Hergert 8h ago

@tut_tuuut I'm sure I'll have questions once we get landed on our feet!

Cyril Brulebois 8h ago

@chergert Soyez les bienvenus et bon courage pour l'immersion !

Christian Hergert 8h ago

@CyrilBrulebois Nous sommes très enthousiastes!

@chergert that sucks, wish you the best to you and family, no doubt you will find safety and joy in France. Mad respect to you and your legacy, your contributions are an invaluable part of gnome.

FurryBeta 7h ago

@chergert Hope you can get that visitor visa changed into a hardship, asylum or working one (if you want to go that route.

Def scary times here in the US, if you’re not a white man’s man cis dude. Best of luck

@chergert *hugs*

@chergert Take take of yourself and family! I'm glad you got out of the US. Good luck out there!!

waffles 🇨🇦7h ago

@chergert neat. Congrats on the move and good luck with the French language challenge ☺️☺️☺️

Jimmy Sjölund 🇸🇪 🇫🇮 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🇬🇱7h ago

@chergert France will be great! I can't understand why it could not just be a transition of your employment to France as we have many colleagues there.. 🫤

@chergert for no reason in particular may i ask if youve seen the “compress the kill cycle” thing

Troed Sångberg 6h ago

@chergert Hope all goes well - especially the learning french part! That's a language the rest of us Europeans try to forget exists :D

cat::<kleinesFilmröllchen>6h ago

@chergert @darkphoenix relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/2347/

Dependency

xkcd

Myrtlears 6h ago

@chergert Welcome in France! I hope that you can feel comfortable and safe in our country.

Farce Majeure 6h ago

@chergert Really saddens me that it's come to this, but of course you have to do what's right for you, and this country is pretty FUBAR at the moment. Best of luck to you and your family.

@chergert good luck and welcome to France!

Jeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo)5h ago

@chergert On one hand, for a long time I have dreaded this day would come. On the other hand, I can't stop thinking that you are much like Henry Dorsett Case, who managed to escape the system and retired to the eerie timeless mediterranean beach construct at the end of Neuromancer. That thought is simultaneously comforting and sad to me 😔

always tired 5h ago

Wishing all the best to you.

You gave more transparency about the reason than you'd owe to people on the internet in my eyes.

The current situation is scary and I really hope for you to find a good (enough) place and situation soon.

Scott Lowe 5h ago

@chergert Kudos for undertaking what is likely to be a difficult transition, and doing so for the benefit of your family. I wish you all the best.

Sylvain Miermont 4h ago

@chergert Soyez les bienvenus en France, j'espère que vous vous y plairez.

Victoria 🏳️‍⚧️4h ago

@chergert good luck!!

@chergert bonne chance, et merci pour tout.

Best wishes for your move to a safer country.

@chergert Thanks for your contributions and welcome to France!

Christine Lemmer-Webber 4h ago

@chergert Best of luck in life and everything and thanks for all your contributions to FOSS and Gnome 💜

coldclimate 4h ago

@chergert damn, I'm so sorry

@chergert good luck with your new life and thank you so much for all your contributions. I use a lot of your software every day.

Xavier B.3h ago

@chergert Sorry to read that you had to change everything in order to be safe. Shitty times.

Bienvenue parmi nous !

DeeAnn Little 3h ago

@chergert welcome to Europe, I'm so glad you made it! Right now @mfeilner and I are on the road and we should be in France over the weekend so please ping us if you are up to hanging out for a bit (though it might be too soon for you with getting settled in and all that).

I moved from Sacramento, CA to Southern Germany almost 10 years ago and there is an adjustment/orientation/culture shock at first but it's totally worth it.

Markus Feilner 3h ago

@chillicampari @chergert
Actually we can come anywhere in France, since we are passing from around Geneva to Brittony and then to the channel islands - at least that is the plan...

Markus Feilner 3h ago

@chillicampari @chergert "over the weekend" should be "starting this weekend", i guess for a week or so

@chergert well done, safety is a basic need. Thx for your hard work all that time. I might help with the terminal, how can I start learning about what is already done and what is needed?

@chergert good luck and thank you for the work you’ve done.

Nix Inch Nails 2h ago

@chergert I hope for everyone's sake maintainers show up - hell, maybe I can try help with Builder or Text Editor, since I'm a little familiar with both their codebases.
More importantly, good luck and I wish the best to your family.
And fuck red hat.

Janeishly 2h ago

@chergert How ludicrous of your employers not to let you keep doing your job from France.

You can absolutely learn the language later in life, just find what works for you. I found that reading kids' books (aimed at 6 year olds!) really helped. There's enough vocabulary that you don't get bored but it's not too complicated (provided you have the basics down and keep a dictionary handy).

James Just James 1h ago

@chergert J'adore la France, it's a great move!

I know you're mostly a C hacker but I know you're great at performance engineering. If you are needing some work and want to do some golang perf stuff or similar for https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/ feel free to reach out.

Good luck! Enjoy the butter.

GitHub - purpleidea/mgmt: Next generation distributed, event-driven, parallel config management!

Next generation distributed, event-driven, parallel config management! - purpleidea/mgmt

GitHub

gkrnours 1h ago

@chergert bonne chance pour les cours de français