Is Hadoop a good open-source project to join?

Question

I've been learning Java for the last 2 months with a Core Java book. Now I want to write something real, but at first I decided that I need to improve my knoweledge about algorithms and data sturctures so I'm currently reading a book on that.

I want to join an open-source project which is mature enough to learn from it but is still growing so I can really contribute to it. I browsed the whole apache and sourceforge looking for something interesting and the project I became really excited about is Apache Hadoop. Although it's quite complicated I don't think it's going to be a problem if I'm interested enough.

So the question is: does anybody here has expereince contributing to Hadoop? What can you say? Is there enough room for futrher development?

Answer 1

There's always room for further development.

Answer 2

Yes, Hadoop has a whole ecosystem of projects to get associated with. Like HDFS, Hadoop Map-Reduce, Pig, Hive, Oozie etc. You might poke around using any of the VMs available like http://www.cloudera.com/downloads/

This will help you get acquainted with what all different projects are involved and thereafter you can contribute to make things better.

cheers

Answer 3

We certainly always welcome new contributors. Although it sounds trite, all open-source projects, Hadoop included, need improved documentation and tests. While this work may not be the sexiest, it does provide new contributors with experience in the code and the opportunity to provide useful patches that committers love to see. I'd caution against an anti-pattern I often see: announcing or signing up for too much work or suggesting too radical a change before establishing experience and credentials within the project.