The document discusses how to get involved in open source software projects through contributing code, documentation, testing, or other roles. It provides guidance on deciding which project and role to take on, how to study the codebase, use version control and bug tracking systems, and contact other developers. Finally, it outlines some internship opportunities for getting paid to work on open source projects over the summer.

2. It is readily available.

3. There is no compulsion on what and how you are supposed to do.

4. Your contribution is in public domain.

5. Plenty of help available.

6. It puts you in contact with lots of important people.

8. Decide what role suits you the best.

9. Study the source code, documentation.

10. Learn how to use various bug tracking system like bugzilla, redmine, trac.

11. Contact people involved in the project through IRC and mailing lists.

12. Learn how to use different version control system like svn, cvs and git.

14. Kernel hacking

15. Distribution hacking like Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Opensuse..

16. Desktop environment hacking like GNOME,KDE,Enlightenment..

17. Many more specific fields like networking, compiler design, digital image processing

18. Language specific contribution: writing libraries which do specific tasks in a particular language.

20. As a core developer

21. As a developer who contributes to UI, and other aspects of the project like package maintenance

22. Documentation Writers/Translators

23. Functional and performance testers, Bug reporters.

24. Artwork experts

26. Every software has its own development model.

27. It is not necessary to go through each and every line of code.

28. Understand the distribution of tasks inside the source code.

29. Look for the files of your interest using tools like grep and find.

30. Look for comments inside the source code.

32. What is a BUG?

33. Why is it needed?

34. What is Bug Triage?

35. How to report bugs?

36. How to start to resolve bugs? Use tools like grep.

38. Mailing lists.

39. IRC—Internet Relay Chat.

40. Follow mailing lists etiquette. No top posting.

41. Be polite.

42. No SMS language should be used.

43. Be patient. Do not force your questions.

44. Search for the solution yourself before asking .

46. What is its use?

47. Different types of VCS?

48. What is a patch?

49. How to generate a patch using diff?

50. Where to submit a patch?

51. Change log?

53. GSOC—Google Summer of Code

54. Redhat Internship

55. Novell- NOSIP

56. GNOME Bounty Projects

57. Oregon State University's Open Source Lab

58. Kerela State Government's initiative

59. Fest like Mukti

61. What is GSOC?

62. Type of projects involved

63. Duration of the project

64. Method of selection

65. Benefits

66. Thank You!!! Happy Hacking!!! T. Vignesh Prabhu (tvigneshprabhu@gmail.com)