What is Open Source?
Open source is a commonly used term for the code which is publically accessible and people can see, edit, and share the data. In open-source projects, developers from all around the world can contribute to the project and make it better.
Benefits of Open Source
- Lower cost
- Higher quality software and code
- Secure as code is public
- Flexible
- Faster development
Cons of Open Source
- Needs maintenance
- Hidden costs
- Support
- User friendly
Getting Started
Getting started with open source as a maintainer
To get started with open source as a maintainer, you need to do the following steps
- Build a project
- Add it as a public repo to GitHub, GitLab, or BitBucket.
- Add some docs on what it is and how to contribute
- Add a license to your repo
- Add some issues in the issues section (if you have any)
- Let everyone know about it (if no one knows about it then no one will be able to contribute :P)
Getting started as a contributor
- Find a repo you want to contribute to
- Add the features or bug fixes
- Make a pull request
- Wait for your code to be merged
The main trouble for every beginner while starting to contribute is finding repositories. So here are some useful articles-
8 resources to start with opensource immediately by Tapas Adhikary.
Find Open Source Projects To Contribute As A Beginner by Catalin Pit.
A curated list of beginner-friendly issues for Hacktoberfest 2021 by Vinit Shahdeo.
If you were ever thinking of contributing to open source, now is the perfect time to start ๐
Useful links