What is Open Source ?
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner. Open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration, meaning any capable user is able to participate online in development, making the number of possible contributors indefinite. The ability to examine the code facilitates public trust in the software. Open source code can be used for studying and allows capable end users to adapt software to their personal needs in a similar way user scripts and custom style sheets allow for web sites, and eventually publish the modification as a fork for users with similar preferences, and directly submit possible improvements as pull requests. Source code is the part of software that most computer users don't ever see; it's the code computer programmers can manipulate to change how a piece of software—a program or application—works. Programmers who have access to a computer program's source code can improve that program by adding features to it or fixing parts that don't always work correctly.
Why You Should Contribute to Open-Source?
Contributing to open source projects can be a rewarding way to learn, teach, share, and build experience.
There are plenty of reasons why you should contribute to an open source project, such as:
- To improve the software you rely on daily.
- To find a mentor if you need one.
- To learn new skills or improve on existing ones.
- To share your skills.
- To gain a much deeper knowledge about the software you're using.
- To build up your reputation and help grow your career.
- Plus, it's fun and gives you personal satisfaction and hey, you never know who is watching, maybe it's your next employer or partner.
Step by Step Guide on How to Contribute to Open Source
When we say contributing to open-source, it does not necesarilly mean that you need to know how to code. There are different ways in which you can contribute even if you are a non-coder – but having some coding skills will help you (and the projects) out a lot.
Some common contributions can be through:
- Adding a description to a project's documentation to elaborate on a certain point, mostly referred to as a README file.
- Giving guidance on a specific project and how to use it.
- Adding sample output to show how the code works.
- Writing in-depth tutorials for the project.
- Adding translation for a project.
- Answering questions about a project (like on Stack Overflow or Reddit) You can offer to mentor another contributor.
- You can fix typos and arrange the project's work folder correctly.
Roles in a typical OS Project In a typical OS project we will have the following people:
Author :
This is the person who created the project. They have the power to assign new roles to other members to help with the project's maintenance.
Owner :
The owner has administrative ownership of the project (and can be the same person as the author)
Maintainers :
These people are responsible for driving the vision and goals of the project. They're usually people who feel responsible for the direction of the project and who are committed to improving it.
Contributors :
Contributors add to the project in one way or another. They follow the same code review process, are subject to the same requirements on code style, and so on.
Community Members/Users :
These valuable members of the community can provide feedback about features, bug reports, and more.