Starting from the little things around us, adding bricks and tiles to open-source development

Open source is a very good thing, and most people agree with it. But what then? Do you choose to just praise them? Or is it true to do something to contribute to its development?

Open source actually has a very big ideal. This ideal may make some people feel uncomfortable, but it will make more people feel liberated: that is to achieve collaboration between people. More people are involved. Let many people come together to make useful things: You give a drop of water to open source, open source will return to you.

Many people will come together to discover software vulnerabilities, fix vulnerabilities, and quickly respond to new demands: This is a magic of open source. There are a lot of great software available for free because people share their development process.

Because the source code of these software is provided to everyone, theoretically, anyone can participate in it and develop new functions for it. The code for these new features is then fed back to the open-source community for others to use.

If you are only satisfied with the use of open-source software, there is no problem. But if you want to make some contributions to open-source software, for example, if you have a problem that nobody else is fixing, or you just want to contribute your own strength, however, if you do not know where to start, the following ten suggestions may help you.

1. Use popular open-source software

It is not difficult to use Linux. If you have a backup system, install a free Linux operating system and check what it can do. Without other software requirements, Linux can run very well on an old low-configuration hardware. You will also find that it carries a lot of useful software, and it makes you rarely feel comfortable.

However, there may be some reasons why you have to continue using Windows, such as the company's rules, or you must always use an application that only supports Microsoft's operating system. If so, don't be discouraged. There are still a lot of open-source software for you to use in windows.

Downloading Firefox is a simple task. This browser is safer than Microsoft's IE browser. When you use it, you will find that it supports adding extensions. Each extension has its own author.

There is also open-source office software OpenOffice.org, which is an office software package competing with Microsoft's office. "There are many opportunities to use open-source software outside the Linux World," said Alan Cox, a Linux expert. "OpenOffice, Firefox, PHP, Perl... many Web-based programming tasks on Windows use open tools."

If you use open-source software, you will encourage and promote others to use it. when more and more people use open-source software, the open-source community will naturally develop. Therefore, even if you only spend time learning and experiencing open-source software, it is also a return to the open-source community.

2. When your enterprise chooses a new system, make sure that open source is considered a choice.

Now is the best time to do this, because Windows users are facing the inadaptability to Vista's great changes. From a historical point of view, it is difficult to turn a large number of users to Linux, this will require training users on using different operating systems (although many think this is not an obstacle ).

But now, the unreasonable change in Windows Vista means that even if you choose to use the next version of Windows, training costs are required.

Cox said that even if you cannot completely switch to open source, one thing you need to know is that almost all the hardware you have purchased will run Linux or Solaris in the future, they don't have as demanding hardware as Vista does. In this way, these devices can still be effectively reused or used once they are planned to change in the future.

3. participate in online open source discussion community

When you want to discover a plug-in or verification problem, you may find that you have been deeply attracted by open-source online forums. By viewing, reading FAQs, and searching for other people's questions, you can usually get what you want. However, if a question sometimes does not have a clear answer, don't be discouraged. At this time, you have a chance to interact with the community. You can usually get a friendly and helpful answer to this question from the Internet-you can tell it to others later.

Soon, you will find that you also have an open-source idea. You can answer questions from people later than you.

4. Learning Programming

For most people, this may be a great leap, and it may take a long time to learn good programming. However, this is an open-source world, which is full of help. For example, for Kernel programmers, you can view the kernelnewbies.com website. For any type of programming you are interested in, you will find corresponding help in the Open Source world. You only need to enter the name of "Teach Yourself" and language in the search engine, then you can select the method that best suits you.

However, you need to know that there is still a lot of work to be done in addition to programming in software development and implementation. Cox said, "the work of translators, designers, and availability is very important ."

5. Write help documents and debug work

Writing documents for software is another area where you can certainly contribute. The open-source community in this field is particularly eager to receive help from volunteers, and volunteers can easily provide help, but it is currently a very weak link. As a user of a software and a user who has to go to the Forum to seek answers to questions, you may have realized that if you can make a document explaining how it works, this is a meaningful job, even greater than the work of the person who wrote the software. Cox said, "Writing open-source documents is a very open work and we are particularly weak at work ."

6. participate in open-source activities

It is good to communicate with friends in the open-source community on the Internet, but face-to-face communication with them is more beneficial. There are open-source activities everywhere. You can choose the fields you are interested in. The more you participate in this community from all levels, the more you will find that you can use your skills, and you will find that you can get the help, thoughts, and creative solutions you need more easily.

7. Less empty comments and more practical sponsors

Many open-source software are developed on the basis of semi-volunteer (semi-voluntary). It is not the author who is joking with you to send a donation request. They do need funds to continue development. If you use a software and like it very much, why don't you share a reasonable fee from the money it saves to developers? In this way, they may be more motivated to make the software more perfect.

But it is an open-source world, and money doesn't mean everything: "I think many people prefer programming rather than money, and they need to be careful when dealing with money relationships in volunteer projects," Cox said. "A little money you use to buy beer or pizza can make a software better ." And your name will always be mentioned in "thank you" of the software.

In addition, paying to participate in open-source activities, or to join organizations that support development and development, all of which play a positive role in the development of open-source.

8. find other ways to use the open-source Mode

For example, Wikipedia has created an Open Source Path to knowledge, and is creating a knowledge base that anyone can view and Add.

These methods have their own weaknesses and advantages. Next time you use an open-source knowledge base, why don't you consider helping improve the content of these articles? You may have professional advice, or you may have a pair of wrong eyes, which others don't have.

Let's take a look at groklaw. It creatively uses open source concepts to help make complex legal issues understandable. Many companies are building internal wikis and forums to learn the true ideas of their employees.

9. Reporting vulnerabilities-not just complaining about them

We often hear people who have failed to use a software. Only when people report vulnerabilities in software can they be quickly solved. A good vulnerability report is very valuable, said Cox.

What you need to be careful with is that you have to do some work to lock a vulnerability, understand it, make sure it is really a vulnerability, and then explain it. The benefit of doing so is that once you submit this job, this vulnerability will be easier for software maintainers to fix and many people will benefit from it.

10. give full consideration to problems and be loyal

Share successful experiences with others and your best practices and successes. However, disguising everything as a good practice does not benefit the development of open source, Cox said: "We also need to share failures and controversial things. It can help open-source communities know the problem and help users better know when and where to choose open-source ."

The development of open source is based on the Community's collection of personal work. It will benefit everyone in the open source community by doing something you care about at all levels of your contribution.

Note: The above content comes from the Internet and I am not liable for any joint liability.
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