Open Source in 2025: Mature, European, and Ready for the Future

2024 may not have been an exciting year for open source, but the future certainly looks bright—and European.

Kangaroot, a Belgian company that supports open source organizations, kicked off its annual open source event OPEN’25 with a clear geopolitical message: in a world increasingly dependent on American tech giants, European infrastructure is essential.

In his keynote, Peter Dens, Managing Director of Kangaroot, not only reflects on years of experience but, more importantly, looks ahead. He believes companies should regain control.

We’re no longer a young start-up—I’ve lost my hair along the way,” he jokes, “but we bring 25 years of open source experience to the table.

That experience is reflected in a clear mission: to help companies maintain freedom at a time when vendors tend to opt for both lock-in and AI, while also facing growing security risks.

Think Local

“Why did we start with open source back then? Because we wanted to be independent. We wanted to be able to choose, and if something didn’t suit us, just say: we’re switching,” Dens continues. That still applies, but now in a different context: (cloud) infrastructure instead of software. “Don’t let yourself get locked into a single cloud provider. If you bet on one horse and it doesn’t perform the way you want, you’ve got a problem.”

Kangaroot advises clients to consider European cloud and AI providers—not out of an anti-American reflex, but out of common sense.

We’re not saying: run away from AWS or Google. But think it through. Build your systems in a way that you can move if needed.

KangaSec for Open Source Security

The biggest announcement of the day was the launch of KangaSec, a new division fully focused on open source security solutions for the Belgian and Dutch markets.

“Security has been important for years, but today it’s essential,” says Dens. “What bothers me is that once you step into the world of security, you almost always end up with American or Israeli companies. And they often just use open source under the hood, but act like it’s magic. Europe lacks sufficient homegrown security services and relies too heavily on foreign technology.” KangaSec wants to change that: transparent, local, and entirely built on open source tools with technology that clients can understand and manage themselves.

He also points to a practical reason: “In recent years, we’ve often had to clean up the mess after major hacks because the external firms hired knew little about Linux or open source environments. In the end, they call us anyway.”

The Common Thread: Freedom of Choice

The message of the event is clear: “Technological independence is more important than ever. You don’t have to build everything yourself, but you do need to stay in control.”

Peter Dens sums it up with a wink to the past: “It’s still about freedom. Only the challenges have changed. It used to be: do you go with Microsoft software or choose something else? Today it’s: do you hand over your data and AI to an American cloud provider, or do you want to be in the driver’s seat?”

Article written by Joachim Cruysberghs, journalist for ITdaily.