Vincent Untz

Still curious · Still figuring things out · CTO

Hello.

I'm generally rather low-key, both online and in the real world, but if you've landed in this corner of the web, here's an opportunity to learn a bit more about me.

Looking for old posts from my blog?

After more than ten years of inactivity, it was time to retire my old blog, which had a good run between 2003 and 2015. While the most popular post remained "Devenir plombier ?" (translating to "Becoming a plumber?"; it was even a top search engine hit on the topic for a few years), I mostly wrote about my journey in the open source community, particularly around GNOME, openSUSE, and OpenStack.

Some posts worth remembering: transitioning a community from svn to git back when git was far from the obvious choice, the famous "GNOME 2.30 = GNOME 3.0" live from GUADEC 2008, all the records set by our SUSE OpenStack Cloud team for ease of use, speed, and functional coverage during the Rule The Stack contests at OpenStack Summits (to the point that the contest was discontinued).

But who am I?

  • Deeply curious: I've always loved understanding how things work and have had a desire to learn. This led me to an engineering degree from Ensimag, a PhD in computer science from Grenoble INP focusing on wireless network routing, and later an Executive MBA at emlyon. I love digging in, taking things apart, and figuring out how to rebuild them better. That's true in my professional life, but it shows in my private life too (have you ever attempted a puzzle from Clementoni's Impossible collection? I loved the Nemo one, ref. CLE-39359).
  • A lifelong geek with a soft spot for pop culture: Yep, that's me, with a passion for Doctor Who, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and many more. I love '80s music, I'm always up for reading Dragon Ball one more time, I'm proud of my Day of the Tentacle keyring, and I treasure my collection of Nintendo consoles. By the way, I still haven't found an opponent who can match my skills in Street Fighter II.
  • A Canadian in my youth: I spent four years of my childhood in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. Living there has influenced who I am and how I see the world. I came back with a widely misunderstood love for that fantastic dish known as poutine.
  • A bit over-enthusiastic about some holidays: It's impossible for me not to take a full day off to prepare for Halloween (another souvenir from my years in Canada); and unthinkable to go through Christmas without a big Christmas tree and a Christmas playlist.
  • And finally, someone famous! Hard to believe, isn't it? Arguably, it's a very relative fame, but has anyone ever told you they saw you in a commercial? It happened to me, thanks to the Tout est sous CTRL podcast I host for Centreon, where I welcome guests to discuss observability, open source, IT culture, strategy, and more. I've also been an active speaker at community events. And I even had a two-page interview in Libération, a French national newspaper, discussing IPv6 (if anyone happens to have an archive, I'd love a copy)!

What about professional life?

I am the CTO at Centreon, following great years at SUSE and a deeply formative journey at Berger-Levrault and CARL Software. In parallel, I remain involved in the open source world as a board member of OW2, continuing a long track record across various projects (GNOME, openSUSE, Ubuntu, OpenStack, ...) both technically (maintainer, release manager, and numerous other roles) and organizationally (former Board Chair of the GNOME Foundation and Board President of the openSUSE project, among others).

I have always aimed to create value, whether by changing the world through open source (perhaps a little naive, yet the impact is real!) or by elevating the teams and organizations I've worked with along the way. It's my way of bringing together three passions I've discovered over time: technology, people, and strategy.

Let's connect!

If you'd like to chat about open source governance and tech, explore professional opportunities, look for guidance or advice, or simply want to find out more: LinkedIn, GitHub.

You could also try my ICQ number (7551805), though I doubt that'll work ;-)