Getting Started on Contributing to Free Software

Interested in contributing to free and open source software but wondering where and how to begin? Dive in to find out...it's quite simple.

- Nandakumar Edamana

Contributing to free and open source projects is one of the best things a budding software engineer can do to oneself. Like with internships, you get to learn a lot and meet brilliant people. You populate your CV with the names of important projects, and they appear on your public GitHub profile in case someone is trying to cross-check, even though your contribution was just a typo fix. Finally, you feel worthy because you improved something that others clearly benefit from, and feel proud that you acted instead of merely complaining.

It is partly due to my involvement with free software that I was able to solve some peculiar problems at work and excel in some tests at school easily while my peers were trying hard. If a person like me–whose contributions to others’ projects have always been very minimal–feels like this, imagine how it’d change the life of someone who contributes seriously.

Just before getting into the how-to part, let me remind you that you shouldn’t be hyper-focused on external contributions to the point that you don’t have any projects of your own. It’s not about control. If you have any disagreements with the owners of a project, you can easily fork the project because it is free software. You cannot revoke your contributions, but you might be able to reuse them. The real problem is that, if you are a mere contributor, chances are you’ll end up being an expert in some narrow area. On the other hand, if you start and grow projects on your own, you can learn everything — from programming to packaging and branding to marketing.

Please don’t be discouraged by this tip. I want you to keep it in mind because contributing to free software can be addictive!

What does contribution mean?