I am interested in getting involved in Linux Open Source development. I am a seventy year old retiree. I started programming on the AN/FSQ7 at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory in 1957. (If you read "Computing in the Middle Ages" by Severo Ornstein, I was there.) I finished by professional work life as a Senior Software Engineer at CISCO Systems in 2003. I miss the problem solving and the camaraderie of the work place. I wonder whether I can contribute to the development of Linux. How do I start? Ken Jones
On Sat, 12 Feb 2005, Ken Jones wrote:
I am interested in getting involved in Linux Open Source development. How do I start?
This advice from someone who has NOT done any development for Linux but would love to someday after I retire (or are out of work for an extended period of time)... 1: Install Linux on your PC (or whatever compatible hardware you have). 2: Go to this directory: /usr/src/linux/Documentation and read some (or most) of the text files here, notably: * BUG-HUNTING * CodingStyle * SubmittingPatches 3: Become familiar with this site: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/ 4: Have fun! :-) -- Gary
On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 14:29:50 -0500 Ken Jones <kjones@ziplink.net> wrote:
I am interested in getting involved in Linux Open Source development.
I am a seventy year old retiree. I started programming on the AN/FSQ7 at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory in 1957. (If you read "Computing in the Middle Ages" by Severo Ornstein, I was there.) I finished by professional work life as a Senior Software Engineer at CISCO Systems in 2003.
First, the Bad News: the number of people who shudder at the term "shuffle the deck" is greatly diminishing. Looking at the way some software is developed these days, that may be a Bad Thing. ;)
I miss the problem solving and the camaraderie of the work place. I wonder whether I can contribute to the development of Linux. How do I start?
The best thing I could suggest is to find a project that interests you, join the development mailing list (if it has one), and ask how you can help. (This will likely be answered in advance by reading that project's TODO list.) There are lots of drivers that need to be written or debugged. Finding something to work on shouldn't be too hard. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- William Smith wsmith-at-chezsmith-dot-com Fall River, MA http://www.chezsmith.com Microsoft Windows doesn't HAVE security holes... It IS a security hole. * TAG! v3.1a *
Ken,
I miss the problem solving and the camaraderie of the work place.
1) Find a problem you want to solve, that doesn't have a good solution yet, perhaps hasn't been solved, or has been tackled by a Linux project and you are curious about. Be open to learning more. 2) Check out www.sourceforge.net, which is the repository for open source projects, and search for the projects you might like to contribute. Join their mailing list, look at the pending tasks, and lurk a while to find out how the project is organized. 3) Match your interests and talents with the pending projects and try something that you tackle easily. Confirming or finding a bug (the projects usually have publicly available bug lists) is a good way to start. Maybe you are good at documentation - usually there are many areas where you can contribute - it's also a great way to learn. 4) Once you are confident enough, download the source code and start fixing bugs and suggesting enhancements. Best of luck. Many Linux-based projects need people with your talents. Ira
participants (4)
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Bill Smith -
Gary Hanley -
Ira Krakow -
Ken Jones