What do people such as Linus Torvalds, Ward Cunningham, and Richard Stallman all have in common?
If you are just a little interested in software development, you may have heard about one of them. Even if you haven't heard of them, surely you are very likely to know about some of their creations: Linux, Wiki, and the GNU System.
They are all famous and successful software developers and all of them contribute to open source software. So what? You might be thinking, "Why should I contribute to open source software (OSS) projects?"
If you followed the last step and downloaded the source code, open it on IntelliJ or in your favorite IDE, I would like to share two important thoughts on this and maybe inspire you to participate, which are as follows:
It's a great opportunity to learn and collaborate with really smart people and experts of the open source community you want to join
It's also the best way to improve your resume; today more and more employers of developers are looking towards community contributors, blog writers, discussion lists, and committers on an OSS project
There are probably many software developers that would like to start contributing but don't know where to start. If you develop software for a while using open source projects, you'll probably face a bug and maybe have to fix it, whether you are a member of the project or not.
If you could fix a bug, why not make that your contribution? Now, try the following steps:
Download and build the source code.
Join the discussion list.
See how the Issue Management Tool works and ask for access.
Find a bug. You can find your own bug or access the Issue Management Tool and pick one.
Reproduce the error in your environment.
Create unit tests and fix the bug.
Make and submit the patch.
Communicate with other developers.
Welcome to the team!
Note
For more information about how to contribute to Infinispan, please click on the following link:
http://infinispan.org/docs/7.0.x/contributing/contributing.html