Bastien Guerry
<p>Here are the slides that framed the one-hour discussion that I moderated during the <a href="https://www.sovereign.tech/news/maintain-a-thon-2026">Soverein Tech Agency Maintain-a-thon</a> at the <a href="https://www.unopensource.org/">UN Open Source</a> week.</p> <iframe src="https://bzg.fr/viewerjs/#../uploads/swh-sta-maintainathon-2026.pdf" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"…
<p><a href="https://codeberg.org/bzg/orgy">Orgy</a> is a static website generator for <a href="https://orgmode.org">Org</a> files.</p> <p>It turns a directory of <code>.org</code> files into a website with navigation, section indexes, tag pages, RSS feeds, multilingual layouts and themes, without requiring any configuration or templates. You write Org files, run a single <code>orgy</code> command,…
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bzg/hop/main/hop.png" alt="Image"> <p>Let's discover <a href="https://github.com/bzg/hop">Hop</a>, a command-line tool that converts Org files to Markdown, HTML, JSON and other formats. The tutorial assumes you have already installed it.</p> <p>Now create a sample file called <code>notes.org</code>:</p> <pre><code class="language-org">#+TITLE: My Project…
<h2>"I'd love to see that more unified." -- Linus Torvalds</h2> <p>In <a href="https://youtu.be/sCr_gb8rdEI?si=5LGSXa7EQxW999tS&t=1533">this interview</a> about Git, Linus Torvalds is asked what areas of the tool still need to evolve. He answers as follows:</p> <blockquote><p>I'd love to see more bug tracking stuff. [...] I'd love to see that more unified. -- Linus Torvalds</p></blockquote>…
<p>Here is my entry for the December 2025 <a href="https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Carnival">Emacs Carnival</a>. Using the quote I've found <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@eludom">George Jones'</a> <a href="https://curious.port111.com/2025/11/01/emacs-carnival-december-the-people.html">blog post</a>:</p> <blockquote><p>A blog carnival is a fun way to tie together a community with shared writing…
<p><em><a href="https://bzg.fr/fr/huit-ans-de-reflexion/">Lire la version française.</a></em></p> <p>After eight years in the public sector, I'm leaving the position of Free Software officer at the French Interministerial Directorate of Digital Affairs. Groucho says, "In every old man, there's a young man who wonders what happened", and that's what I'm wondering now... so this seems like the…
<p>I use Org Mode not to be more productive, but to reduce my stress so I can focus on my work and still pay my bills on time.</p> <p>After more than 15 years of refining my Org configuration, I can't say it's perfect, but it's stable and comfortable enough that I think it might be useful to others.</p> <h2>Projects</h2> <p>Projects are lists of tasks and notes <em>with a purpose</em>.</p>…
<p><a href="https://hillenius.net/post/challenge/">Gijs</a> challenged me to accept the "Blogging Challenge 2025". Here is my take.</p> <h3>Why did you start blogging in the first place?</h3> <p>To publish a <a href="https://bzg.fr/fr/tim_wu_pourquoi_neutralite_reseau/">French translation</a> of Tim Wu's article "<a…
<h3>Ihor Radchenko is the new Org Mode maintainer</h3> <p>Ihor Radchenko is the new Org Mode maintainer. He's been acting as such for a couple of years now, and I'm really glad he's finally agreed to take on the role officially.</p> <p>As a maintainer, I have probably done a few things right and certainly made many mistakes. Here are four lessons I have learned in 14 years.</p> <h3>Maintaining Org…
<p>See <a href="https://libreplanet.org/2022/speakers/#5774">the LibrePlanet 2022 page</a>.</p> <h2>Who am I?</h2> <p>Bastien Guerry, 44yo, Free Software developer and hacktivist (bzg).</p> <p>I am a GNU Emacs user since 1998 and a contributor since ~2006.</p> <p>My day job is "head of the Free Software unit" within the French Inter-Ministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs.</p> <p>Our mission…
<video style="width:100%;margin:auto;" controls preload="metadata"> <source src="https://bzg.fr/uploads/bzg-how-to-help-emacs-maintainers-emacsconf2021.webm" type="video/webm"> <track label="English" kind="subtitles" srclang="fr" src="https://bzg.fr/uploads/bzg-how-to-help-emacs-maintainers-emacsconf2021.EN.vtt" default> Your browser does not support the video tag or the video formats provided. <a…
<p>I believe that happiness comes from maintaining a healthy balance between achievement and what Jim Carrey calls "freedom from worry"<sup><a href="#fn-1" id="fnref-1">1</a></sup>. I like to work and I like to daydream. As much as daydreaming is about wandering, work and personal achievement are about focus, which in turn requires motivation, clarity of purpose and control, all underpinned by a…
<p>(You can Discuss this post <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24470336">on Hacker News</a> or <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/ispqm8/org_94_is_out_can_you_help/">on reddit.com</a>.)</p> <p>Org 9.4 is out. <a href="https://orgmode.org/Changes.html">Enjoy</a>!</p> <p>Most of the time, when you hear that a free software project is struggling, it is too late. E.g. both…
<h3>Thanks!</h3> <p>The comparative work by the European <a href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor">Open Source Observatory</a> is really important - not just the data but the way it brings us together.</p> <h3>The french public sector context regarding FLOSS</h3> <ul><li>The 2016 law for a digital republic encourages the administration to use free…
<p>When I meet fellow orgers, I occasionally use some of the features below and quite often, my interlocutor does not know some of them. Do you know them all?</p> <p>If you think of a secret Org weapon that is not listed here, please send me <a href="mailto:bzg@bzg.fr">an email</a>, I will consider adding it to the list.</p> <p>The features listed below are all available with Org 9.3 and later.…
<p><em>These are my personal opinions and do not represent the official position of the French Ministry of Digital Affairs on this issue.</em></p> <p>You can <a href="https://bzg.fr/files/open-source-2020-public-sector.pdf">download the article as PDF</a>.</p> <h2>Open Source and the French Public Sector in 2019</h2> <p>In 2019, as the Free Software Officer at the French Ministry of Digital…
<p>Perhaps many free software maintainers and contributors find it hard to ask for donations.</p> <p>Free software supporters can help by being more vocal about their donations, thus encouraging others to follow their example.</p> <p>So I encourage you to be more vocal about your donations. This is not about boasting on how nice you are, this is about convincing others to provide more support!</p>…
<iframe src="https://bzg.fr/viewerjs/#../uploads/documentation-emacs-orgmode.pdf" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen></iframe> <h2>Emacs ancestor: TECO (1962)</h2> <ul><li>TECO : Tape/text Editor and COrrector</li><li>An editor and a language to write text editing macros</li><li>The language was interpreted and imperative</li><li>Bad reputation as a…
<blockquote><p>Repeat after me: "I won't break your user experience."</p></blockquote> <h3><strong>I won't break your user experience.</strong></h3> <ul><li>I won't remove features.</li><li>I won't remove features by pretending to "upgrade" them.</li><li>I won't break anything that lives in your muscle memory.</li><li>I won't force you to update your configuration.</li></ul> <h3><strong>I won't…
<blockquote><p>"The usefulness of a notion pleads not for its clarity, but rather for the need to clarify it." -- Nelson Goodman</p></blockquote> <h2>Be bold</h2> <figure class="align-center"><img src="https://www.wga.hu/art/a/alenza/satire.jpg" alt="Be bold"><figcaption>... just don't kill yourself.</figcaption></figure> <h2>If it works, don't fix it</h2> <figure class="align-center"><img…