Re: [gnome-love] Getting started

[Michael Hasselmann <michael taschenorakel de>]

On Wed, 2014-01-22 at 15:23 +0530, Kashyap Murthy Salabhaktula wrote:
> Hi, 
>     I am quite new to open source contribution. It seem to me that
> gnome would be a pretty nice organization to start off with, given the
> fact that it has robust documentation and diverse areas which I could
> explore. But I am having trouble to choose where to start it off. Any
> help in this regard would be helpful. I am comfortable with C/C++ and
> python. 

This question comes up frequently on this mailing list and there have
been many answers in the past.

You get started by starting to do something. Anything. Writing an e-mail
and asking is good but that is not the first step at all.

I know that deep inside you behave tactical when you ask "how to do [I]
get started?" (because I heard somewhere else that this funny
open-source thingy is good for my career).

You want to know whether investing any time, any effort at all, into
open-source (which looks so stupid, right?) is worth it. That's why you
*only* wrote an e-mail. Because asking that question, sending that
e-mail, took you very little effort. Most probably none at all.

Well, that's simply the wrong question, Kashyap. Do you really think
there is a good simple answer to that? A cookie-cutter recipe? Perhaps a
well-guarded secret?

I give you an answer, but not to your question: Start to think for
yourself. That's the first step.

And yes it's totally worth it.

ciao Michael

PS: I am deeply sorry if this comes off as cynical. It's not. It's very
very far away from being cynical. Please trust me on that.