It's the video by Theo that Chris mentioned. It's actually a pretty good video to watch if you want to hear both sides of the argument. That obviously doesn't mean youtube's algorithm for recommendations is good (it's not), but in this case it's not a bad one.
As a dev, it is always nice when anyone (users of a project) can write clear issues. This makes our jobs as devs much easier. Some of the best contributors to projects that I have worked on have been people that create issues, respond to issues, and generally understand what is going on in the project.
Thats good advice. Not every beginner should jump into a big codebase, but everyone should be able to just write an english description of a bug / problem they encountered.
We should all do what we can to grow the community. Even if you can't code, you can report issues, help test, donate to devs whose projects you use often, write documentation, etc.
I'm early in my Git learning journey (as well as Linux in general). I'd love to contribute something to a project, but no matter how many videos I watch on how to do it, I have an overwhelming fear of doing it wrong and really annoying the main dev on a project. Maybe one day! I'd also like to bring in Git to my day job (Windows sysadmin) so I want to learn everything enough to teach the rest of my team.
> Git learning 2 things that were hard to figure out: 1. `git cat-file commit ` will show ALMOST* EXACTLY what is a commit 2. *: ``` { echo -n 'commit ' git cat-file commit | wc -c | tr ' ' '\0' git cat-file commit } | sha1sum - ``` (replace `sha1sum` with `sha256sum` if object-format=sha256) will output ` -`
Same here. I've always had this fear of contributing to open source. Most of the time, I don't get thru the initial setup of a project because I'm like "if I'm having this many issues setting it up, how would I ever contribute anything useful." Still trying get Blender up and running on my machine. 😅
The easiest way to start, especially if you use the software, is to report bugs or fix documentation. I reported a bug for a syntax issue with the suggested fix and that was my first open source contribution. Take small steps.
With git you could just skip all the CLI stuff and use git gui exclusively. At least that's what i do and it carries me tremendously. I only use commands for complex things like rebase and pull. The only things you should learn about git is the basics and file/data structure of git, with the rest can be inferred.
As a non techie person in terms of diverse coding. Chris win util project is my first github contribution and now I'm learning to use github! Great video as always Chris!
Also, that Gnome extension you love, or that app that has been really useful for your workflow.... Give the devs some money. Even 3$ can feel amazing. Do it, don't be a cheap freeloader.
For the distro that I use is where I submit the most. It's a small enough distro that I can usually just mention an issue in IRC and they will look into it. I also provide a pastebin of the error log and if I found a fix I will mention what I did to fix the problem. Usually within 24hrs the problem is fixed. Excellent community where I am at. Even if we go days without anyone saying anything on irc. :)
My biggest issue was adding my damn ssh key. Also dont forget Github is owned by Microsoft, centralized and they use opensource code without attribution in LLMs illegally.
I think I understand but was a bit confused at first as you showed how you, the project owner/maintainer, use issues instead of how a user will use issues and pull requests. As the project owner you can submit an issue showing the bug and referencing the commit you pushed to fix it as a good method for documenting code changes. But a user would submit an issue documenting the bug, then if able and willing: clone the correct branch, fix the bug, and submit a pull request. I think showing purely a user's point of view would be helpful.
I'm doing my part. The sum total of my opensource contributions is that a color palette generator wasn't sorting properly and it annoyed my sense of tidiness. So I fixed it and opened a PR.
I love this video so much! The entire idea of open source is to have as many eyes on the code as possible. So when people say "Don't contribute to Open Source", I'm left wondering why have your code be open source at all?!
Thank you for this, Titus! You've really helped to demystify and lower the intimidation factor for newbies who want to help make open source projects better.
I think a lot of projects could use help from people with experience in graphic design or writing articles/guides/wikis in general. A lot of github pages have poor documentation for your average end-user stumbling on a program they want, and you don't need to be a coder to learn how to get things working, then take the time to write clear instructions for it.
I get nervous about doing it right, and end up only doing the ones I'm really sure about, and just not reporting a bunch of bugs. I'm even more scared about PRs and I think I've done like 2 or 3 ever. You never know what that particular person or group will think is a good issue/PR (unless they write it all out, but then that's extra barrier in reading and doublechecking).
While I share the same sentiment that open source can always use more contributors, I appreciate Luke's hesitance to mention a specific project to contribute to. I would rather have less people contributing to open source than to have another Apna College ExpressJS incident.
I just submitted an issue in Magisk. I've been intimidated from doing so for a couple of years. The reason I was hesitant was because of the requirements. And because how huge the project is. I'm glad I did though because they made changes in the code. I hope to see the results on the next development release.
Well interesting how this gets uploaded as I contributed to open source. I don't really contribute to open source projects much (I only done it 3 times so far). But if there is something no one else done, then I might consider contributing to the project. I mainly contribute to a project's documentation for installation.
Also Linux Gaming and proton: helped by Valve, a corporation and developed a proprietary software called Steam. Irony since Linux spirit is about FLOSS freedom and community based when the most popular game launcher and game store on Linux is Steam lol
@@gx1tar1er True. Mostly because of common interests, necessity and lack of alternatives. As more options and alternatives are created, I'm assuming that might change in the future. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. There are currently good alternatives to GitHub.
@@gx1tar1erits about freedom but also about choice, you choose or not to continue using propriatary software. And i think for most its ok, because its not free software maintained by freeloaders with spirit alone that is going to be maintained like propriatary ones.. (eg:gimp vs adobe). Sorry to say but this is the truth and reality can be often disappointing.
@@gx1tar1er True. Mostly out of common interests, necessity and lack of options. As more options and alternatives are created, I'm assuming that might change in the future. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. If you value free and open source, there are good alternatives to GitHub. Example: Codeberg.
@@asunavk69 It's like they say: the idea of maintaining the purity of an environment free from capitalist and intellectually proprietary influences, in order to sustain projects just out of passion and the ideal of having free and accessible tools is very beautiful, but everyone has bills to pay. Everyone is entitled to give their opinion on whether or not the concept of closed source should exist, as well as discussing whether corporations should take the right to focus on FOSS. But it is difficult to deny that money and profit are factors that make FOSS more visible.
What you really meant was community driven foss, free open source software, license type is key here to protect it. There are plenty of corporations that take advantage of open source but keep control of the license and use in a draconian way.
If a program X crashes, is it X that has a bug? Is it your package maintainers that packaged it wrong? Is it your theming application that unknownly removed a part of the API? Where is program X repository even hosted? I think it is fair to not know which part crashed if you are not deep in software. Practical example: the two times my computer could not boot, it was that the system python was upgraded, somehow making it incompatible with the nvidia driver manager, making the screen black after booting up. Not that easy to track down. This applies not only to bug reports but to feature requests, it is not that simple to know which piece of your system (or their dependencies) should so what.
@@user-ek8cd1gg3f indeed, as it is often rather difficult to determine which element caused the bug, when you're not a programmer in anyway shape or form!
Thats why i starting supporting on github i love your windows tool i saw you video about your new linux tool i use both myself who knows what the future holds keep up the good work man ❤
Great video! One question: I can’t figure out where exactly to start with learning to code applications specifically. Game engines make games easy to create but to create apps you are just reading writing code with no simplification of the process, so is application coding just something to learn in a community college or something or are there good resources online for learning how to make UI and under the hood things and how to use toolkits like GTK and such?
Lol I was targeted. My first and only open source contribution was to fix a typo in a readme for some Microsoft giveaway. I’d like to do more, I just have no idea how to start. Well, until now. Thanks!
It's pretty annoying when maintainers delete your changes completely from commit history without prociding any details or respond when contacting them for personal reasons, I would suggest to contribute carefully
Well issues on your projecs are autoclosed by bot (I think) after 2 weeks. I think that is bad. Like, idk If you saw issue and decided to ignore it or saw the issue and decided to look at it later and forgot about it, or you didn't saw the issue at all (because you missed it, or was on holidays or something). Simple answer like "no" or "wont fix" would be helpful...
Chris: "If you're a developer; if you're a normal user..." Devs: "Never have I been so insulted by a statement I completely agree with." If you're a normal user, use your distro's blog or bug reporter to report bugs and make suggestions. You don't have to be a 'dev' or ubergeek to help out.
When you have most people create accounts just post an issue saying "your software crashed, please fix" then refusing to elaborate any further, (sometimes not even using the GH account ever again), you end up with projects that have hundreds of unresolved bogus issues. If you're reading this and you're this kind of person, then please don't "contribute" to open-source.
Sure, I'll contribute to open source if I know something about an open source project which is not abundantly available on the Internet. However, that never happens to me 🙂
Of course, since it makes the product better for everyone in the end :) it's especially helpful if you take the time to describe properly how to recreate the bug if possible as this makes the work for the Dev's way easier
To be fair - as a normie. I am contributing by using open source OS and reporting bugs via KDE bug report. I try to buy or use everything that supports open source as well. So no nvidia. For now
@@ChrisTitusTech Thank you for not removing me. I trust you know a lot about operating systems. You know a lot about customization. You know a lot about a lot of things. Convincing people who are not already convinced to do what you ask? Maybe not so much.
@@jonathanbush6197 The purpose of the video wasn't that, but to bring a balanced perspective to Theo's Don't contribute to open source. The titles are two extremes, but the underlying message is actually the same. Don't make bad pull requests, instead learn to write good issues.
I need a way to undo tweaks, the winutil undo tweaks, doesnt show the powershell log that theyre succesful. Alright I'll superuser or other hyponymic stack exchange for now then. I have search a lot of issues in githuh, theyre all closed why? This is not as pro-active feedback as aves dev or more other privacy devs et al Windows tweaking repair also doesnt work diff options in that app
True that. Contribute to a better world. A single grain of rice can tip the scale. One may be the difference between victory and defeat. - The Emperor.
what kind of company you are, that kind of company you get. corporate pun intended. yep trading code is not good. freedom is good. so dont try to pay anyone. or get paid. freedom does not require any money or trading. this issue is so massive that I dont contribute.
Is it ok to write an issue and in that issue write how that issue can be resolved, or is it better to write only the issue itself and in the comments section write down potential fix?
Absolutely. Issues are a great way to have discussions. There is also a Discussions section of some githubs that are great for workshopping and doing feature requests.
Actually it's really good if you can provide help where the issue/bug might be in. Even better if you can post a PR to fix it too, but not everyone writes code. I once did put both issue and PR to fix it and it got merged real quick, since maintainers don't have to do the work themselves. Depends on the issue template and the culture where the suggestion should be put. If it's short & simple, i usually put in the original post, while longer explanation/investigation can be put in separate comment.
I got issue, i wanted to switch to Linux, but any distro i try i get bigger CPU usage when watching RU-vid, and laptop fans are annoying. I have Ryzen 5300U, Vega 6 integreted GPU, tried Chromium and Firefox with HW acc flags enabled, mesa and amgpu driver on Ubuntu, EndevourOS, LinuxLite, Debian 12, still i get usage more then on Windows. And Microsoft well, you know why i want to switch. But going to linux i find myself on google a lot, even for simple thing like resizing windows on xfce is annoying, cause you can't grab edge easy. Then trackpad being worse and so on. On Windows i get 6% cpu and 2-3% gpu usage. On Endevour OS watching YT i get 13-15% CPU and GPU, yes ambient mode is off. Even if KDE is slower to lunch stuff, i would use it. MX Linux i found is fastest, but i need to fix window resizing on xfce by changing window manager and a lot of tweaking which i don't want to do, and why does only KDE have GPU usage in System Monitor, and i have to add it by myself.?
Ain't not way a CPU with 15 W consumption and an integrated GPU can ramp up you fans to the max speed. You may want to investigate this issue extensively. Also, CPU and GPU usage(s) depend a lot on video codec used by RU-vid.
BUT CHRIS I DO CONTRIBUTE; Ive contributed to yuou twice in the past, got ripped off both times and no response from you to make things right! one was for your windows pare down tools. i couldnt get it working myself on free version so i paid for a version and it wouldnt work or download or something either. now i dont use windows anymore but may install it on future build coming up in two weeks. Alos may install windows on the crappy laptop i bought while i wait to rebuild that system Cant remeber the 2nd thing i bought from you.....youd have to give me a list of things you sell. it mightve been a linux tool Do you have a LINEAGE OS phone install github...?
This is related to when you were on about making issue on GitHub, how do you read the code as someone who isn't skilled in coding? Should I try to explain the issue and how to recreate it?
I'm hoping for this scenario: Me: "By the way, ladies, I submit pull requests on GitHub." Ladies: "Oh no; all our clothes just fell off." (Take THAT, Arch name-droppers!)
I gave up on contributing to most projects when they implemented "code of conduct" like we're in kindergarten and how dare we cross the teacher. Now I'm happy to be a leach
CoCs are necessary because: 1. Having rules written down is very important, like contracts. 2. Not everyone on the internet are nice people. 3. Trolls can drain maintainer's time and energy.
