By Henry Blyth
Front-ender at Incuna
It's true.
(adj) open-source:
Of or relating to or being computer software for which the source code is freely available.
- Bug-fixing
- Customisation
- Cost
It's easier to get and make patches for Open Source code, and often it's free.
You probably already know all of the practical reasons for using Open Source. Many people have extolled the benefits of its use over pretty much the entire history of computing.
- Feel good
- Connect with people
- Share in something that you care about
- Get a feeling for how others write code
- Get the solutions to problems out of my head
I love solving problems. When writing code, everything is a problem. Also, I play devil's advocate a lot, since I hardly ever know what I really think on a subject any way. So when I read some code, I'm going through it in my head to figure it out, and in doing so I automatically start thinking of different ways to do things. If any of those methods linger in my head, I like to get them out into code; mostly because it's fun, but also so I can relax. Of course, it would be silly to waste it, so often I will send it to the original author.
If a project you find is doing something interesting and you want to use it, but it doesn't work for you, look into it if you have the time.
If you find anything, let the author know, file a bug report.
If you know how to fix it, fix it!
Because you can!
Sending a pull-request for a bug fix shouldn't be seen as an insult; far from that, it shows you care enough about a project to want to contribute.
But recently I stopped telling people about it.
I don't know. I honestly don't know. But now I'm telling you all how much I love Lemon Curd, and it's absurd.
But I'm telling you because I love Lemon Curd.
Tell them why it rocks, how it rocks, and how they can rock by contributing to it.
Anyone can contribute to an Open Source project in so many ways other than writing code. This is mostly within the world of free software, or FOSS (Free Open Source Software), where any and all help is welcomed.
- Documentation
- Marketing
- Design
And by doing so, your awesome will increase.
Song Of Github is a Heroku app that gets your Open Source commits from GitHub and arranges them into a C-major tune based on the number of commits a day.