Preface

In this blog I am gonna tell you about open source from top to bottom. You may have heard about GSoC i.e. Google Summer of Code and would have been interested to know about what it is and how to get into it or you would have heard about open source , so don't worry I am gonna cover everything in this blog.

What is Open Source Software(OSS)?

Open-source software 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.

It is a type of software which is made in public i.e. you, me and every programmer out there can contribute to the code base of the software (i.e. can add features in the software).

Now you might questions like what will I gain after contributions, how to choose a software/project to contribute, how can I get involved in open source if I am beginner and so on. Then bare with me till the end of this blog and I can assure you that after reading this blog most of your doubts will be solved.

Why to contribute to open source?

•Firstly to apply your learning as to master anything learning 🔰 by doing is the fastest and most convenient way

•It's a great way to learn from others and get multiple mentors 👬 who are experienced in your field of interest

•It helps you interact and connect with a lot of great people in the tech ecosystem, thus increasing your network 🤝

•Open source allows to work in a company without being hired and gives you an edge over others candidates applying for a job 😎

•It opens doors to a lot of opportunities for you in the tech world 🌎

•Lastly you can also earn money while contributing to open source 🤑

For ways to earn money check Eddie's video on the same.

Now the question comes how can we contribute to open source and If I don't know coding so can I also contribute to it, so the answer to it is as follows.

How to Contribute to Open Source and the type of contributions accepted?

•Foremost start with why you want to contribute to open source i.e. the reason behind getting involved into open source.

•To contribute to open source you firstly need to find a project or software that interests.

•And to find projects you can search on GitHub, contribute to software you use or join a community and contribute to the projects in that community.

Pro tip: To find a friendly and healthy project check the closed pull requests and see why the were closed to check the friendliness of the project maintainer.

•Also be consistent while contributing, do it on a regular basis.

Now coming to the type of contributions so :-

•You can contribute by doing documentation of the project like readme before contributing files.

•Make/ write tutorials about the software.

•Do live streams running the program on your computer and discuss the problems faced while running it.

•Write how-to-use guidelines and other guidelines for the same.

•Fix bugs, write blogs on the project and add features,etc.

So these are the ways you can contribute to an open source project.

Star Tips to Consider

->Your efforts don't go unnoticed in open source contributions so be consistent.

->It takes times to make a contribution so be patient (for atleast a month or two).

->Try to make many small contributions instead of a large one.

->Understand the reason and motivation behind the birth of a particular project.

->Review others pull requests to know more about the project.

Bonus Part for beginners

For beginners there have been many easy first issues created in "Opal" , thanks to Filip from Permit.io. So go to their GitHub profile, add a star and start contributing to open source now.

Also for GSoC and other similar open source programs check out Kunal's Video on the same.

So that's all for this blog. I hope all your queries would have been dealt with. So Aloha! everyone.

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