Giving back to Open Source

[hard candy]

I was reading this new (to me) publication The Linux Handbook at Borders last night. There was a chapter on contributing to open source- from sending bug reports to programming new programs. It kind of opened my eyes to the fact that open source is so easy to take from that I kind of forget about the "giving back" part.
What are some other ways we can give back to open source?

[mdwatts]

Some may accept donations or you could offer assistance for a open source project you are interested in such as volunteering to contribute by assisting to write some of the documentation or testing of the source on your own distro and hardware before the next version of the project is released.

I'm sure many of them would appreciate any assistance you could offer.

[hard candy]

Shoot, I was thinking on a more glorious scale. How about if I write a linux program that will recognize all the ATI and NVIDIA video cards, all the wireless pcmia notebook cards regardless of chipsets, and all the newest printers and scanners- USB,serial, and parallel port and enable them to start working on installation. I better get started- see you in about 20 years. :D

One thing that did hit me while reading the article was how much developers need bug reports when a new version is released. I always thought it was a select group whose bug reports were taken seriously. But the average developer needs feedback from everyone- even if it's just a "good job" email.

[Haunted]

if you have a fast connection you could mirror some OS FTP server.

[ph34r]

Even more important would be to write clear concise documentation...

[carrja99]

Originally posted by hard candy

What are some other ways we can give back to open source?

Well, you can always do like me and buy a boxed set or donate some money to the GNU (think about exactly how many GNU programs do you use on a daily basis? Do you use tar?)

Of course this may not seem to be the same as donating a program to the Open Source community, but you are giving support to the projects they work on. Even a $20 donation could go a far way if 10,000 users donated $20.

[Kaligraphic]

As a quick rule of thumb, if you find a bug, and the developer hasn't listed it somewhere (and it isn't listed in a bug tracking list for the program), then report it. Remember - if you use the latest versions, then you are QA. This is simply being a good user.

If you particularly appreciate or want to encourage a project, by all means see if you can donate some money. Just know that a donation is only a donation - you don't get anything special unless the developer says so. This is being an appreciative user.

The area where linux (and much open source/free software) really needs help is in writing and maintaining documentation. Many developers are much more at ease writing the code than documenting it, and assembling the documentation can be a difficult task even for projects of only moderate complexity. If you are fluent in more than one language, one area that is often overlooked is the translation of documentation. While English is the primary technical language, it is of little use to an end user who only speaks Romanian. Remember, linux isn't just for english-speaking PHDs; we want to increase in general usage. Assisting with the documentation is being a helpful user.

*hint to aspiring developers*
If you become known for writing documentation, you may find yourself with a group of grateful friends who can help you debug your code;)
*/hint to aspiring developers*

[Stween]

Originally posted by ph34r
Even more important would be to write clear concise documentation...

Bingo!

Good documentation is what is lacking from most open source software. I'm not saying projects don't ship with documentation; it's just most of what is there is aimed at more experienced users, and often not particularly organised.

I can relate to this because I'm not the best writer that the world has ever seen ;)

[Wolface]

I'd like to help with the documentation... sounds like a great idea.

I can even translate between spanish and english; how do I do this? do I have to contact every developer?

[bwkaz]

Regarding the translations:

Find a program you like, first. Because yeah, you probably will have to (eventually) talk to the developer(s).

It is possible that the developers won't have thought that their program would ever need to be translated, either. But if they thought ahead one bit, they'll have used gettext or something similar. Assuming they use gettext, the source for the latest version will have a po directory in it (or something like that). In here, there will be a file with a .pot extension. Copy that file to es.po and start editing it. It will have English strings in it, after the text "msgid". On the next line, it'll have msgstr "". Put the Spanish translation between the quotes.

When you're done, contact the developer and let them know you have a Spanish translation. You could also ask whether they need one, before you start -- if somebody else is working on it already, then you might be better off moving to another project.

Basically, after the developer gets your es.po file, they'll add "es" to the LINGUAS file in the po/ directory. Next release, users will be able to build the Spanish translation too, and use it.

If you want to create docs, ask the developer(s) too. I wouldn't think they'd say no, but you never know. Write them up and send the files off.

BUT, before you start on either of these, make sure you know which license the software is using, because you'll most likely have to release your work under the same license.

[Wolface]

Thanks fo the info

I'll choose a cool app to help with :D

[Kaligraphic]

Yeah, that's a good point by bwkaz - always check with the maintainer first. After all, you wouldn't want to spend all that time writing/translating, only to be told, "Oh, the Spanish (/Swedish/Greek/Ugaritic/whatever) version was just released last week."

It'd be kind of embarassing to find out that you've been duplicating effort all that time.