What is Open Source and why is it so popular?
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This is the topic I wanted to write about for a very long time. Sitting in my room on Saturday afternoon, I finally decided to get it done. This article is for some beginners who want to get their hands on Open Source.
What is an Open Source software?
When googled, you will see:
“Open-source software is computer software with its source code made available with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.”
To put it in layman terms, “A software whose source code is made available to everyone to let them change/improve provided that the contributor who changes the code cannot claim the software to be his own.”
Thus, you don’t own the software thoroughly. All you can do is change the code of the software to make it better. Now, you may be thinking what’s there in for you? There are all pros according to me and I have explained them in the latter half of this article.
Why am I writing this?
I was just in the freshman’s year of my college when I came to know about the web and how it works. I started my journey as a developer , building things, started doing some projects and keeping it with myself. Those days, I used to attend some sessions at the Google Developer Group in our college where I first came to know about the Open Source software.
Curiously, wanting to know more about the same, I got to know that anyone can make his/her software Open so as to make it available to others for use and development. Thus, learning more about the same led me to explore other’s projects on GitHub and I went through the codebases of the softwares and started contributing. I remember my first contribution was to correct a “typo” i.e correcting a spelling mistake in the README of the project. That said, I went on exploring more and more and got my hands on Open Source which made me share some of my thoughts with you.
What’s there in for you doing Open Source Contribution?
Source: GIPHY
1) Teaches you how to structure code:
Now a days, nearly many of the software projects are Open Sourced and the community of developer works on the projects to constantly improve them. Thus, big projects have big codebases too which are really hard to understand at first but after giving some time to understand and contribute, you will be fine with those. The thing with such projects is they have a structured code, by “structured”, I mean to say there are strict guidelines for the project i.e they have good tests written which make you write the code as they want, i.e clean and readable. Thus, by writing such code, you will learn how to structure it which ultimately is a great habbit that every developer should practice.
2) Team Work:
Source: GIPHY
Creating and maintaining a large project requires team work. When you contribute to a project, you have to work in a team where you have to take others opinions, give your opinions, ask teammates for improvisations or ask anything whichever you are stuck with. Thus, working in team increases productivity, community interaction, your own network, etc.
3) Improves the developer you:
Okay, so I think, one of the most important part of your developer journey is and should be “ LEARNING ALWAYS ”. Thus, when you contribute, your code is reviewed by others (experts or maintainers of project) who eventually point out the mistakes or the improvisations to be done in the code so that the code can be written much cleaner than you had written. Also, you start to think a problem widely. While solving the problem, you ensure that the code you have written makes the app scalable for a large number of users, also prolonging the life of code.
4) Increases your Network:
One advantage of Open Source contribution is that it also increases your network in the developer community. Thus, you get to know about the things that you have never heard of, you get to explore them, you get to meet people, you get to know what is going in what parts of the world, etc. Having connections with other developers sitting in different countries is always a bonus.
5) Earn some bucks too:
At the end of the day, money matters. Earlier days, people used to think that contributing to Open Source projects won’t earn you money, etc. But if you are a maintainer or a continuous contributor of a great project, you get donations to get continuing the project and making it available to people.
For students in college, doing Open Source is a bonus. There are programmes like:
These programmes offer high incentives and stipends to the fellow students.
6) Plus point for job seekers:
When it comes to applying for job, if you have a good Open Source profile, the recruiter finds a reason to take you out and offer you an interview since you already know how to “manage a project”, “work in team”, “get work done”, “solve a problem efficiently”, etc. Now a days, many companies mention on their job application page as “Open Source would be a bonus”.
7) Stick to it:
That’s what the real mantra is. Just stick to it and in no time, you will reap something great. As of today, many big and great projects are open sourced like node.js, Chrome, React, Angular, Firefox, etc. The list goes on.
Conclusion
So, yeah. This was it. Hope you understood what Open Source is and how would it benefit you. Keep contributing and you will see the effects in no time.
I really hope that you find this article useful. I invite you to participate in the discussion in the comments below, I’m always interested to know your thoughts and happy to answer any questions you might have in your mind.
Thanks for reading! 
P.S Do feel free to connect with me on Twitter.
Originally published at Medium.
