Working in
Open Source
Joel Maher
History
1953 - UNIVAC A-2 system released source code
1983 - Free Software Movement / GNU
1991 - Linux
1998 - Netscape - "Open Source" became a keyword
How it worked in the past
Discussions took place in newsgroups and bbs
Code was distributed via ftp
Source control wasn't common
Always build your own code
Why would I spend my time on this?
- Opportunity to learn
- Build your resume
- Meet new people
- Create a project you will use
- Get your name recognized
- Contribute to alternatives
- Trust the code that you run
-
many other reasons
Does Open Source pay the bills?
Open Source is not always about financial profit
Many business work in an open source environment providing support or tools for a price
Companies are becoming more comfortable making open source code as they depend on open source projects to make a profit
Who uses open source
Mozilla, RedHat, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, Wikipedia, N[A]SA, just about any company.
Millions of end users use open source software daily.
Thousands of people actively contribute to projects
Common Open Source Projects
Firefox / Chromium (web browsers)
Apache (Web server for many websites)
Linux (Operating System behind many servers, routers)
Django, Drupal, Joomla (CMS systems)
Python, GNU, Ruby (Programming tools)
LibreOffice (Replace Microsoft Office)
Wordpress (most popular blogging platform)
Facebook, Twitter, and Google all depend heavily on OSS and do their part to contribute many resources towards OSS.
Warning
Be prepared for criticism, NOT always constructive.
Don't expect help and patience from all owners of projects or contributors to your projects.
Don't expect your contributions to be accepted or valued.
Your projects will be copied and changed, don't take it personal.
How to get started
find a project (github, bitbucket, openhatch)
get the source code (clone, download)
fix a bug, add a feature
write tests and documentation
repeat
Final Thought
"Being open encourages access to raw data, less short cuts, and higher quality work. Use your strengths to make a difference and the community to grow your weaknesses."
