If you have ever used Linux, Firefox, VLC, WordPress, or installed a Python library for your college project, there is a good chance you have already used open-source software.
But have you ever wondered how this software was built?
Unlike closed-source software, which is developed by a company that keeps its source code secret, open source software makes its code available to the public under licenses that allow people to study, modify, and distribute it according to their needs.
The best part? You can also contribute to these projects!
And you don’t need to be a seasoned developer with years of experience to do so.
As a student, open source can serve as your gateway to real-world software development.
What Exactly Is Open Source?
Let’s first start by defining what open source is.
Forget everything you know about software development for a second.
Imagine that your college is working on a project that everyone can see and contribute to.
One person creates a feature, another person discovers a bug, someone else improves upon the documentation, and yet another person proposes an entirely different approach to solving the problem.
This is essentially what open source is all about.
The source code of an open-source project is made publicly available, and people can contribute to the project under the terms of its license.
Some projects are backed by companies, while others are community-maintained.
Some have thousands of contributors, while others have only a few.
Some have developers from all over the world, while others are maintained by just one person.
You can have a developer from India submit a fix, a developer from Germany review the code, and a developer from Japan working on an entirely different part of the same project.
That’s the magic of open source and the internet.
Why Should Students Care?
Here’s the good news: You don’t have to wait for a full-time software development job to gain real-world experience.
As a student, you’ve already had the opportunity to build things.
You might have built a website for a class project, built a machine learning model, or built an app for a hackathon.
These are all amazing accomplishments!
But what if I told you there’s a different kind of project that can expose you to an entirely different way of building software?
An open-source project can give you the opportunity to work with code that other people have written, use their tools, and follow their contribution guidelines.
Your software is no longer just something you build for yourself, your team, or your college.
It can be something that other people use in their work and their day-to-day lives.
That’s an incredibly powerful feeling.
“But I’m Not Good Enough Yet!”
This might be one of the biggest hurdles for new contributors.
You go to GitHub and see a project with a ton of stars and contributors, and the moment you look at the code, you feel intimidated.
You think to yourself,
“There is no way I can contribute to this project.”
And you’re not wrong!
Contributing to open source doesn’t always mean writing fancy new features or understanding an entire codebase.
There are many ways to contribute to a project, and most open-source projects are always looking for help.
You can:
- Fix a small bug
- Improve documentation
- Correct an example
- Write or improve tests
- Report a bug
- Improve the website
- Help with translations
- Add a small feature
- Help someone understand how to use the project
- Your first contribution could be as simple as fixing a typo in the documentation.
It’s not about being the best developer on GitHub. It’s about learning how to contribute to open source.
What is the role of GitHub in open-source software?
If you’re familiar with programming, you’ve undoubtedly heard of GitHub. This website is essentially the home to many open-source projects, as well as the place where developers collaborate. At first glance, GitHub can be pretty intimidating.
There are many terms that seem foreign at first, such as:
- Repository
- Issue
- Fork
- Pull Request
You don’t need to know all of these terms before contributing to open source. In fact, you shouldn’t stress too much about the theory behind GitHub. The best way to learn is to jump right in, learn Git, and start exploring. Once you start working with Git, many of these terms will make a lot more sense.
How do I make my first open source contribution?
Let’s say that you already know how to use Python. Instead of trying to find a random project to contribute to, you should look for a project that interests you.
Maybe you’re interested in AI.
Maybe you’re interested in web development.
Maybe you’re interested in cybersecurity, mobile apps, games, or data science.
Whatever it is, find a project that fits your interests.
Once you’ve found a project, do some research before making your first contribution.
Explore the project’s documentation and README file to understand what the project does. See if the project has any contribution guidelines. Take a look at the project’s issues.
Some issues will have labels such as
“good first issue”
or
“beginner friendly”
– these are great for first-time contributors.
Once you’ve found an issue that looks interesting, make sure to understand the problem fully. If you’re having trouble understanding, ask for help. Once you’ve fixed the issue, you can submit a pull request, which is essentially a request for the project’s maintainer to review your changes and merge them into the project.Once you’ve submitted a pull request, the maintainer will review it.
They might accept it right away, or they might ask you to make some changes. They may also reject the pull request, or ask you to clarify your changes. This is completely normal.
In fact, this is one of the best parts about open source. In college, you might turn in an assignment and get a grade.
In open source, someone will actually review your code and discuss it with you.
It can be scary to get feedback, especially if you’re used to getting good grades in college. But receiving feedback is one of the best ways to improve as a developer. Just remember: Rejection is not personal. Your first pull request might not be accepted, and that’s okay. Maybe the project doesn’t need the feature you were working on. OR someone else is already working on a similar feature. Maybe the implementation wasn’t the best, and the maintainer asked you to change it.
What skills do you learn by contributing to open source?
The best part about open source is that you don’t need to focus on what you’re going to get out of it.
Instead, you should focus on what you’re going to learn.
You’ll learn how to read code that someone else has written, understand a large codebase, use Git and GitHub, and write tests for your code.
You’ll learn how to follow contribution guidelines, communicate with others, and write documentation.
You’ll learn how to give and receive feedback, and you’ll learn how to work with people you don’t know.
These are all incredibly valuable skills that you won’t necessarily learn in college.
Think about it.
When you’re working on a college project, you might open up a blank text editor and start writing code from scratch.
When you’re working on an open-source project, you might open up a repository with thousands of files written by dozens of developers.
Instead of writing code from scratch, you have to understand what other people have written and where you can make your changes. That’s much closer to what you’ll actually do in a real-world software development job.
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Can Open Source Help Me Get an Internship or a Job?
Open source can definitely help you stand out from the competition, but it’s not a magic bullet. Simply having a GitHub account isn’t going to get you a job. What will get you a job is what you’ve actually done.
Let’s say that you’re interviewing for a software development position, and the interviewer asks you to tell them about a project you’ve worked on.
You could tell them, “I’ve learned Python, Git, and machine learning and have done a few college projects.” Or, you could tell them, “I found an issue in an open-source project, understood the codebase, made a change, wrote tests for my change, and submitted a pull request to the project. The maintainer reviewed my pull request, and I made the suggested changes.”
The second response is much better, because it shows the interviewer that you’ve actually done something interesting. You can tell them about the issue you found, what you changed, why you made those changes, and what you’ve learned from the experience. That’s much more impressive than simply listing off technologies on your resume.
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Open Source Isn’t Just for Developers
There’s one more thing I want to say. You don’t have to be a developer to contribute to open source. If you’re a good writer, you can help projects by writing documentation. If you have an eye for design, you can help projects by improving their website or user interface. If you’re good at finding bugs, you can help projects by reporting issues. If you know another language, you can help projects by translating text. There are many ways to contribute to open source besides writing code. So, if you’re a student thinking,
“I’m not good at coding yet”, you can still find ways to contribute to open source. Just find a project that fits your skills and interests.
Don’t Set Your Sights Too High
One common mistake that many new contributors make is setting their sights too high. You don’t need to contribute to the largest open-source project you can find. In fact, you should avoid doing that. You might look at a project’s repository and be overwhelmed by how big it is. Instead, find a project that’s smaller and easier to understand.
Once you’ve contributed to a few small projects, you’ll have the confidence and experience to contribute to something bigger. So, Don’t Be Afraid To Try Open Source If you’re a student who is interested in technology, there’s no reason not to try open source. You’ll get to work with real developers, use real tools, and build real projects. But more importantly, you’ll get to change the way you think about learning and building software. Instead of focusing on what you’re going to learn, you’ll focus on what you’re going to build. You don’t need to be a seasoned developer to contribute.
You don’t need to have an internship before you contribute. You don’t need to do something big. Just find a project that interests you, read through the documentation, find an issue, make a change, and submit a pull request. Your first contribution to open source might be small, but it can have a big impact on your journey as a developer.