Giving back

[bobross419]

I've been wanting to give back to the community for quite a while now... and I've actually been working with a smaller distro doing some packaging. Unfortunately, I'm not getting out of it what I was hoping for... I still have to strong arm for my next assignment so I can only do one or two needed packages a week.

At any rate, I'm starting to look into other distros that are looking for help. I'm not as interested in helping a major Fedora or Debian... I'd like to stick with some of the smaller guys. I think I could learn more in a more "manual" environment where an established level of automation isn't in place. Right now I'm primarily able to help at a packaging level... I can script, but I'm not a good coder.

What communities are you guys involved in and how? Anyone know of a community that is looking for help that might be a good fit for what I described above?

 

[lxskllr]

I really don't know what goes on behind the scenes. I've thought I'd like to do packaging, but learning how things work, and being responsible for that many machines scares me :^D

If I were to do it, I'd package for Debian. You say it's not what you're looking for, but Debian is probably the largest distro that runs without a corporate backer, and much of the current GNU/Linux ecosystem runs on Debian. I also like their views regarding libre software, and responsibility to the community.

Here's a list of packages that need help...

http://wnpp.debian.net/

Alternately, do what YOU like. Package for the distro you use. If you like something that doesn't come in your distro, make it happen. If there's a small related group of neglected packages, and the distro doesn't want to deal with you, create a repository of packages people can use. If it's a widely perceived need, you may get others mirroring your repo too.

Edit:
Something like SliTaz or DSL might be fun too; a tiny distro. There's certainly something you could do for them. DSL just came back from the dead, so I'm sure they could use some help.

 

[theevilsharpie]

You absolutely don't have to be a good coder to give back to the open source community.

Other than coding, there are four things that every non-commercial open-source project needs more of:
1. Money/Equipment
2. Documentation
3. Support
4. Bug reports

In addition, other non-coding related skills can be useful. Professional coders are well-represented in the open-source world, but there's a definite lack of professional designers. Also, if you had access to certain environments that are difficult to replicate in a home office (e.g., a datacenter with thousands of servers), you could potentially assist with development and testing without ever writing a single line of code.

With respect to packaging for distributions, I'm not sure how much I'd get out of doing packaging work for a niche distribution, but different strokes for different folks, I guess. I will second lsxkllr's suggestion to package for Debian if you want to go that route.