ros.org

ROSCon is the annual conference for the Robot Operating System (ROS) community, and the ROSCon 2025 recordings are now available on the ROS Vimeo account, the ROSCon 2025 website, and in the ROS Documentation. According to the ros.org update dated 12/01/2025, talk slides were still pending at the time of publication, so expect video first and slides later.

What ROSCon Is

ROSCon is where ROS maintainers, researchers, and robotics developers present talks and share updates on ROS 2 and the wider ecosystem. The ros.org homepage lists ROSCon alongside Documentation, Robotics Stack Exchange, Forums, and Zulip Chat as one of the main community resources, and it links to a dedicated ROSCon website for event details.

Where the 2025 Recordings Live

The ros.org update names three places to watch or find the ROSCon 2025 talks:

The same update notes that recordings are also collected in a list on the announcement page itself. If you prefer reading over watching, check back for slides — the post says they were still being gathered.

Access Steps and What to Expect

1. Start at ros.org and open the ROSCon 2025 announcement ("ROSCon 2025 Recordings Now Available").
2. Follow the link to the ROSCon 2025 website for the event hub, or go straight to the ROS Vimeo account for the video library.
3. If you want recordings in the context of learning materials, look in the ROS Documentation.
4. Expect video to be available before slides; the announcement explicitly says slides were still pending.

A practical example: if you need a talk on a specific ROS 2 topic for a team study session, search the Vimeo account first, then cross-check the ROSCon website listing for the session title.

Who Makes It Possible

AMD was the 2025 ROSCon video sponsor, and ros.org credits that support with making the live stream and videos possible. The recordings are published by Open Robotics, which runs ros.org and licenses its content under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

Related Questions This Answers

• What is ROSCon? The annual ROS community conference, listed on ros.org as a core community resource.
• Where are the 2025 recordings? Vimeo, the ROSCon 2025 website, and the ROS Documentation.
• Are slides available? Not yet at the time of the 12/01/2025 update.
• Is there a cost to watch? The ros.org material does not state pricing or access restrictions for the recordings, so check the Vimeo or ROSCon site listing for any terms before relying on open access.

To get started with ROS, go to ros.org and use its Getting Started section, which points to ROS 2 documentation and tutorials. Before installing, check which ROS 2 release matches your operating system: the site highlights Lyrical Luth (long-term support until 2031, targeted at Ubuntu 26.04 and Windows 11) and Jazzy Jalisco (LTS, targeted at Ubuntu 24.04 and Windows 10). Both pages note that other systems are supported to varying degrees, so confirm your platform on the release page before committing.

What ROS is, in one paragraph

ROS (Robot Operating System) is a set of open-source software libraries and tools for building robot applications. It covers drivers, algorithms, and developer tools, so it is a toolkit you assemble a project from rather than a single program you run.

Step-by-step path from the site

1. Read the overview. The ros.org home page explains what ROS is and links to "What is ROS?" and ROS Videos if you want context before installing.
2. Pick a release. Compare Lyrical Luth and Jazzy Jalisco against your OS. Choose the release whose targeted platform matches your machine; this avoids the "supported to varying degrees" gray area on other systems.
3. Install via the release page. Each release has a "Learn More" / "Install" entry. Follow the documentation linked there rather than third-party guides, since install steps differ by release and platform.
4. Work through the ROS 2 tutorials. The Documentation section hosts documentation and tutorials for ROS 2; this is the site's designated learning path.
5. Ask when stuck. Use the community channels below.

Expected result: after steps 3–4 you should have a working ROS 2 installation and have completed the introductory tutorials. The site does not publish a single checklist, so treat "tutorials completed without errors" as your verification point.

Where to get help

Common sticking points

• OS mismatch. Installing a release on a non-targeted OS is the most likely source of trouble; the site explicitly hedges support for other systems.
• Mixing ROS 1 and ROS 2 material. The site's learning path is ROS 2; older tutorials elsewhere may not apply.
• Skipping the tutorials. The site frames documentation and tutorials as the support mechanism for learning, not optional reading.

Beyond installation

The home page also links to the Ecosystem (packages) and Community sections, plus ROSCon 2025 recordings (published December 2025 on Vimeo, the ROSCon website, and the ROS Documentation). These are useful once you have a working setup and want to see how others structure projects.

For ROS help, start with the official documentation and tutorials for ROS 2 on ros.org. If you have a specific question, post it on Robotics Stack Exchange. For open-ended discussions and announcements, use the ROS Forums (Open Robotics Discourse). For direct conversation with maintainers and the community, use Zulip Chat. Each channel serves a different purpose, so choosing the right one gets you a faster, more useful answer.

Match the Channel to Your Need

How to Use Each Channel

Documentation and tutorials

Go to the documentation section of ros.org for ROS 2 documentation and tutorials. Use this first for installation, concepts, and how-to material. The site also points to installation pages for specific releases, such as Lyrical Luth (the latest ROS 2 long-term release, supported until 2031 and targeted at Ubuntu 26.04 and Windows 11) and Jazzy Jalisco (a ROS 2 LTS release targeted at Ubuntu 24.04 and Windows 10). Check the release page before installing so your OS matches the supported target.

Robotics Stack Exchange

Use this when you have a question that has a correct answer. State your ROS version, your OS, the exact error or behavior, and what you already tried. A reproducible example gets better answers than a general description.

Forums (Open Robotics Discourse)

The forums host the latest discussions and Open Robotics Discourse posts, including release news and community announcements. Use them for topics that are open-ended or not yet a clear technical question.

Zulip Chat

Zulip is where you chat with the maintainers and the community. It suits quick clarifications and informal back-and-forth. For anything you may need to find again later, a forum or Stack Exchange post is easier to search.

A Practical Order to Try

1. Search the ROS 2 documentation and tutorials for your topic.
2. Search Robotics Stack Exchange for an existing answer to the same error or question.
3. If nothing fits, post on Robotics Stack Exchange with your ROS version, OS, and a minimal reproducible example.
4. For discussion or announcements, use the Forums; for quick conversation, use Zulip.

Common Pitfalls

• Posting a question in chat that belongs on Stack Exchange. Chat scrolls away; Q&A posts stay searchable.
• Leaving out your release and OS. ROS 2 behavior and supported platforms differ by release, so include both.
• Skipping the docs. Installation and setup issues are usually already covered in the official tutorials.

The site also links to ROSCon material, including recordings from ROSCon 2025, which can help if you want talks and walkthroughs beyond written documentation.

Choose Lyrical Luth if you are starting a new project that needs the longest support window and you can run Ubuntu 26.04 (Resolute) or Windows 11. Choose Jazzy Jalisco if your machines are on Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) or Windows 10 and you want a mature LTS release that matches your current OS. Both are ROS 2 long-term releases; the deciding factors are support horizon and target platform, not feature differences described on ros.org.

Side-by-side comparison

The page describes Lyrical Luth as "our latest ROS 2 long-term release with support until 2031" and Jazzy Jalisco as "our latest ROS 2 LTS release." Only Lyrical Luth has an explicit end-of-support year in the source material, so treat the support column as a known fact for one option and an open question for the other.

How to decide

Pick Lyrical Luth when

• You are provisioning new hardware or a fresh development image and can standardize on Ubuntu 26.04 or Windows 11.
• You want to avoid a migration for as long as possible; the stated support runs to 2031.
• You are comfortable that the release is newer, so third-party packages and tutorials may lag behind it.

Pick Jazzy Jalisco when

• Your team, CI runners, or robots already run Ubuntu 24.04 or Windows 10 and you do not want to upgrade the OS as part of adopting ROS 2.
• You want the release that most current tutorials and community answers were written against, which reduces friction when following along.
• Your support horizon is shorter than a full OS upgrade cycle, so the missing end-of-support date on the page is not a blocker.

When neither is obvious

If you must support both older and newer machines, install Jazzy Jalisco on the Ubuntu 24.04 / Windows 10 fleet and reserve Lyrical Luth for new deployments. The page notes that "other systems are supported to varying degrees," so verify your exact OS and architecture against the ROS 2 documentation before committing — "varying degrees" means some combinations are partial or community-maintained.

Verify before you install

1. Confirm your OS version exactly (for example, lsb_release -a on Ubuntu) and compare it to the target listed for each release.
2. Open the "Install Lyrical Luth" or Jazzy Jalisco page from ros.org and check the platform table for your distribution and architecture.
3. Check that the packages your project depends on publish builds for that release; a newer LTS often has fewer prebuilt binaries early on.
4. Only then follow the install instructions for your chosen release.

The most common snag is assuming "supported to varying degrees" means fully supported: a release can install on a secondary OS while some tools or drivers are missing. Confirm each dependency rather than the release as a whole.

Where to go next

ros.org links installation guides for both releases, plus ROS 2 documentation and tutorials, Robotics Stack Exchange for troubleshooting, and the forums and Zulip chat for maintainer and community discussion. Use the documentation for your chosen release specifically, since instructions differ between LTS versions.

ROS (Robot Operating System) is a set of open-source software libraries and tools for building robot applications, and ros.org is its main community and information hub. It suits developers, students, and researchers who need drivers, algorithms, developer tools, documentation, and community support for robotics projects. The site itself is informational and community-oriented; it presents ROS releases and links to documentation, Q&A, forums, packages, and chat rather than acting as a single download or account portal.

What ROS provides

According to the ros.org homepage, ROS covers:

• Drivers for connecting robot hardware
• State-of-the-art algorithms for robotics tasks
• Powerful developer tools for building applications
• Open-source availability across the stack

The site frames this as everything needed for "your next robotics project," from low-level hardware access to higher-level functionality.

ROS 2 releases highlighted on the site

The homepage features current ROS 2 distributions, including long-term support (LTS) releases:

The site notes that other systems are supported "to varying degrees," so platform choice should be checked against the specific release you plan to use.

Community and support resources

ros.org points to several distinct support channels, each with a different purpose:

• Documentation and tutorials for ROS 2 — the primary learning path
• Robotics Stack Exchange — ask questions and get answers
• Forums — read the latest discussions
• Zulip Chat — talk directly with maintainers and the community
• Packages — browse available ROS packages
• ROSCon — conference information and recordings

Recent updates on the homepage include ROSCon 2025 recordings, a post on ROS 2 Kilted running natively on macOS Apple Silicon, and weekly ROS news roundups.

Who runs it

The site states it is brought to you by Open Robotics and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, with a ©2026 Open Robotics notice. That licensing applies to the site content; the software itself is described as open source.

How to use the site

1. Start with Getting Started or the ROS 2 documentation to install a release and follow tutorials.
2. Pick a release based on your OS and support horizon — for example, an LTS release if you need long-term stability.
3. Use Stack Exchange or Zulip when you hit problems the documentation doesn't cover.
4. Check Packages before building functionality that may already exist.
5. Watch ROSCon recordings for applied talks and project examples.

The main practical caution: confirm your operating system against the release's targeted platforms before committing, since support outside the listed Ubuntu and Windows versions varies.