HOW TO GET STARTED WITH OPEN SOURCE CONTRIBUTION?
If you are looking to know about open source software and how to contribute to open source projects , you are in right place.This blog is for you.Let’s get started.
What’s the recent movie you watched?Did you watch it in VLC Media player?VLC Media Player is one of the most popular open source software examples which is a cross platform media player written in c and c++, which is available for free to use .
If you are into graphic designing and animations you might have used Blender.Blender is also a open source software.If you love building stuffs and are a developer like me you might have used Visual Studio Code , its also one of thebest open source software .
Open Source Software is a computer software whose source code is made publicly available for modification and enhancements.We use various open source softwares daily for free and we should be really thankful for the community developing such open source softwares .
So after knowing about open source softwares , you can be part of developing such softwares by contributing to their projects.Be ready to go on a roller coast ride with me on this journey of open source contributions.
There are various open source projects and even if you are a beginner who has just started doing development or coding you can still contribute to these projects.You can do it by finding beginner or easy issues in those projects.
When i started doing web development i found a community called HakinCodes .There were various projects and after finding the project which i am interested i started contributing to it.By doing this i was able to improve my skills in web development.
The open source community will help you to enhance your skillset and knowledge .Its good to feel to be part of the community so that you can learn from others and also teach others.It helps you in building online presence.
How do i get started ?
You must choose a programming language or tech stack of your choice.Then search for a project that is interesting to you.Open Hatch is perfect for beginners. The search page of Open Hatch filters out bugs based on languages.
Microsoft has various open source projects.You can check out here:
https://opensource.microsoft.com/
Mozilla also has a wide range of projects filtered based on programming language.These are some large organisations where you can start contributing.
Recently Hacktoberfest was conducted in the last month that is October.After i successfully completed Hacktoberfest challenge , many were asking me about open source .That’s why i decided to help them out by writing this blog.
Well, Hacktoberfest is a month-long celebration of open source software run by DigitalOcean in partnership with GitHub and Twilio..
There are various projects available ranging from beginner to hard issues where you can contribute.
I learnt a lot in this Hacktoberfest journey.I was able to connect with people all over globe and discuss about various open source softwares. I taught many how to do Pull request .I inspired many of my peers to be part of this open source celebration.As a core member of a research and programming oriented club in our collage we organised workshop to bring awareness to students about open source.
Open source contributing will help you to get to know your communities well and it will help you to enhance your skills.So what are you waiting for ?Get started with open source contributions.
I strongly believe that reading few lines of code is worth more than reading 1000 pages of a book. When you follow code written by great programmers, you automatically tend to pickup some great practices while coding.
Happy Contributing :)
