Good Ways To Join an Open Source Project?

Tathagata asks: "I'm a student, on my final year in a college in India, and I have been using GNU/Linux for quite sometime now. Though I'm from a Computer Science background, getting into a project that involves serious programming was not possible, as people (read teachers) run away if you utter the word 'Linux'. They are generally not bothered about mentoring someone on an exciting project, and they would suggest you to get settled with Visual Basic, .NET, — and would prefer a 24 hour solution when it comes to programming. So, my programming endeavors have remained limited to writing few lines of C/C++, or Java. For last few days, I've been googling, and trying to read how to join an existing Open Source project." What suggestions would you pass along to someone who is willing to join his first Open Source effort?

Most of the things I've read suggest that a good place to start is by submitting patches, fixing bugs, becoming package maintainer — but most are overloaded with jargon like upstream/downstream, nightly builds, and so forth. Additionally, how does joining the mailing list, or the IRC channel help when you don't even understand the slang, not to mention the intricacies of the technical discussion? It 's quite an overwhelming world to step in. Could you suggest a road map, links to essential tools or a few projects, for people like me, who would want to improve their skills by contributing FOSS?"

Re:Easy

[Anonymous Coward]

End of story.

Interesting that over 90% of your post occured after you said "End of story."

Re:Skool...

[i.r.id10t]

Crap, I'm doing it wrong! I teach hte only Linux class here at the Comm College I work at (in another department) as an adjunct, adn I spend time with my students showing them how to use man pages, search google effectively, read the "How to Ask Smart Questions" doc by ESR, etc.... Any other tips on how I can change my ways?

Don't

[Statecraftsman]

Yes, I've seen all your supposed facts and evidence that open source software helps people learn to program and provides many more people with the tools they need. Unfortunately, I don't go by facts and evidence. I go by my gut.

My gut tells me that free software is just wrong, and that if you don't get paid for your work, you just might be a communist. So please don't submit patches and support this drain on our economy. Go out and *buy* the software you need. That way you'll be able to support the country and economy again next time an upgrade or new version comes out. My gut and thousands of democracy-loving programmers thank you.

Re:My jargon word

[Hoi Polloi]

And if you cook it down and carmelize it it becomes "dulce de leachate". Yum!

Re:Easy

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting that you know his penis size.

Re:Find something that you'll ENJOY

[Mathness]

I like to use the free software Theora video codec to rip DVDs

MoxFulder, dude! Run man, the mafiaa have you targeted now, and I think one of them is a chain smoker.

- The Lone Punmen

Re:or fix the bugs :)

[v4vijayakumar]

Andrew Morton has said it before, and it holds best: "What do I do if I want to be a kernel hacker?". His answer: "fix bugs".

But wait, what if I want to create my own bugs?! :(