How to get started in developing student opensource projects?

Question

Hi, Im a level three CSE student. I need to involve in an open source project to get experience about FOSS. Where should I start?, how to find projects (suitable for a beginner)? Thanks in advance !!

Answer 1

Try http://www.codeproject.com/Messages/3115449/Fedora-rejects-the-CPOL-license-as-non-FOSS.aspx

Answer 2

How do you want to get involved? Are you interested in coding or testing/documenting?

You could try one of the many Open Source software organisations. Apache Foundation has a lot of projects you could get involved with. There are also some projects on dev.java.net if Java is your thing (Hudson is an example).

Another project is Maven and developing plug-ins for Maven is straight forward if you know Java (I am obviously a Java developer :)

Answer 3

Being a FOSS project leader, I can tell you that plenty of students simply find my project, either by looking for specific project implemented with the tools they know(i.e. C#, PHP, etc), or by using it before and then asking to contribute.

So, my suggestion is that you browse the main websites hosting such projects:

1. http://sf.net
2. http://luanchpad.net
3. http://codeplex.com
4. and many others

Look for active projects, where you can see real communication between users, developers and admins, and contact the admins offering to help. Most of them will gladly let you in and assist you.

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Plus, here are some related questions:

• Is there anywhere that lists open source projects looking for contributors?
• Where to go to browse for open source projects to work on?
• Where to find like-minded FOSS developers?
• Best Open Source Project Hosting Site

Answer 4

Find some open-source program you use a lot, which is relatively obscure and easily extensible, and has room for improvement. If you have been involved in the user community of this software historically, that helps a lot in making them more likely to accept patches. I don't know if games are allowed for this assignment, but I think a game would be ideal for a first open-source project.

Also, if you have some open-source program with a niggling bug, have a look through the source code and fix it. Once you do, chances are good that you will notice, "hey, I could do this other cool thing too!" And you're in business. :)

Just make sure you pick something you would actually want to use.

If you're short on ideas you can always browse freshmeat, sourceforge, berlios, savane, etc.