First steps in contributing to Open Source

This is the deck of my intro on how and why to contribute to opensource talk.

Transcript

1. First steps in contributing to OpenSource or: how I learned to relax and love opensource.
2. Telco Network Team @ Red Hat Contributed to: - Athens - KubeVirt - SR-IOV Network Operator - OPA Gatekeeper - OVN-Kubernetes - CNI Plugins @fedepaol - MetalLB fedepaol@gmail.com About me
3. Open Source is everywhere
4. Open Source is everywhere
5. Times have changed Linux is not in the public domain. Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches. That's the way that the license works.
6. Times have changed Linux is not in the public domain. Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches. That's the way that the license works. Steve Ballmer - 2001
7. Times have changed
8. The Open model has proven to work
9. Developer tools
10. What contributing to Open Source is about?
12. Common Excuses • They won’t like my code
13. Common Excuses • They won’t like my code • The codebase is too hard to read
14. Common Excuses • They won’t like my code • The codebase is too hard to read • I feel I am not good enough
15. Common Excuses • They won’t like my code • The codebase is too hard to read • I feel I am not good enough IMPOSTOR SYNDROME
16. Contributors are a rare commodity
17. Why you should contribute to Open Source • You need a new feature in a project you use
18. Why you should contribute to Open Source • You need a new feature in a project you use • You want to learn
19. Why you should contribute to Open Source • You need a new feature in a project you use • You want to learn • You want to get credibility
20. Why you should contribute to Open Source • You need a new feature in a project you use • You want to learn • You want to get credibility • It feels good (it really does)
21. GitHub Workflow
22. GitHub workflow Fork the repo
23. GitHub workflow • Clone your repo • Work locally on a branch • Push the branch to your fork https://flic.kr/p/9sqxm2
24. GitHub workflow
25. GitHub workflow Profit!
26. Adding a new feature
27. Adding a new feature • You have the project
28. Adding a new feature • You have the project • You know what to do
29. Adding a new feature • You have the project • You know what to do • Always ask first!
30. How to find the right project
31. Finding a project • Start with something you like / respect • See if it matches the tech stack you want to work with • Ask around • See if it is contributor friendly
32. Traits of a contributor friendly project
33. Onboarding Docs https://flic.kr/p/5J9VCJ
34. from https://github.com/gomods/athens/ Onboarding docs
35. from https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Get_Involved Onboarding docs
36. from metallb.universe.tf/community/ Onboarding docs
37. Issues to work on https://flic.kr/p/TgaSRz
38. from https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes Issues
39. from https://github.com/nats-io/nats.go Issues
40. from https://github.com/gomods/athens/issues Labels on issues
41. from https://github.com/metallb/metallb/issues Labels on issues
42. Pay attention to
43. from https://github.com/axios/axios Stagnating Prs
44. Stagnating Prs
45. Maintainers response time https://flic.kr/p/93U9UM
46. Continuous Integration / Delivery https://flic.kr/p/RJ5xEs
47. Released Versions https://flic.kr/p/vJ6Ekn
48. You found a project, then what?
49. Big, famous project or small project? https://flic.kr/p/T3nu6F https://flic.kr/p/oKfTqp
50. First steps • (Say hi) • Find an issue • Ask if you can take it • Start working until submitting a PR...
51. And this is just the beginning https://flic.kr/p/5Gm38m
52. Open Source is different from what you are used to
53. Once submitting the PR, you’ll get reviews • Reviews are really thorough • As a new contributor, maintainers will keep a higher bar • You’ll need to defend your ideas • You’ll have to accept critics and suggestions (or both)
54. Once submitting the PR, you’ll get reviews • Reviews are really thorough • As a new contributor, maintainers will keep a higher bar • You’ll need to defend your ideas • You’ll have to accept critics and suggestions (or both) • And iterate
55. Open Source is about communicating https://flic.kr/p/9SCd2b
56. Open Source is about communicating
57. What do you get back?
58. Learn from the best • If you choose the right project, maintainers are likely to be among the best people in industry • See how they work • Learn from them • Get coding advices from them • Free coding lessons
59. Find your way through a huge codebase • (Or learn to ask) • Demonstrate you are able to work on a big project with a lot of people • Learn to read code https://flic.kr/p/M5FbgT
60. Find your way through a huge codebase • (Or learn to ask) • Demonstrate you are able to work on a big project with a lot of people • Learn to read (a lot of) code https://flic.kr/p/M5FbgT
61. Expand your network • Meet people from different countries • Get in touch with smart people • Make friends! https://flic.kr/p/pt18wC
62. Feels Good!
63. Will make your resume shine https://flic.kr/p/nbAtrh
64. Will make your resume shine • You demonstrate passion • You have a public example of your work (and how you interact with other people) • You worked on something recognizable • You can handle a big codebase • You show you can work in a distributed environment
65. Sometimes it’s hard https://flic.kr/p/J88ZHx
66. Conflicts • With time, you’ll work on more complex tasks • With more complex tasks, there will be different opinions • You’ll need to manage them, and sometimes it’s hard and painful to fight against somebody well trusted
67. You’ll initially be a second class citizen • Your PRs might still be ignored • The maintainers may decide the feature you spent so much time on is not wanted anymore • They may give unrelated comment / ask to redesign the whole thing
68. “Of course, I'd also suggest that whoever was the genius who thought it was a good idea to read things ONE F*CKING BYTE AT A TIME with system calls for each byte should be retroactively aborted. Who the f*ck does idiotic things like that? How did they not die as babies, considering that they were likely too stupid to find a tit to suck on?” from https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/7/6/495 People may be rude
69. Is it worth the effort?
70. Thanks! Any questions? @fedepaol fedepaol@gmail.com Slides at: speakerdeck.com/fedepaol fpaoline@redhat.com