Summary: What are the top 6 myths? That open source software will enter every market, is inherently innovative, it improves faster than commercial software, that it has less lock-in, that it’s free and that it has little benefit if one is not involved in the community. IDC calls these ideas “myths” but acknowledges there’s more than a grain of truth to all of them At its Directions 2012 conference in Boston today, IDC revealed the top 5 myths and realities about open source software.The first myth is that open source will take o...

I spoke in the unconference at PHPUK last week, on running an open source project. I thought I would collect together my thoughts into one place before I lose the scratty piece of paper I wrote them down on. I'm not sure I'm the right person to be giving advice exactly, but these are the things that, having been project lead on joind.in for a while, I think are important.CommunityI love it when people share their code, just make something and publish it, but to my mind it isn't an open source project until it has people around it. There's nothing wrong with building something as a hobby, bu...

I often talk to students that want to contribute to open-source projects, but just don't have an idea what to work on.Here's a tip if you're in a similar situation (e.g. you want to apply for GSOC) :1 git clone repository_url_of_some_open_source_project target_directory2 grep -RIn TODO target_directory/*So, find the URL of the repository project you want to contribute to, checkout the repository using git/mercurial/svn and then find all the TODOs in the source code using grep.The -RIn flags will tell grep to do a recursive search (-R), skip binary files (-I) and include line numbers (-n) for r...

These are the only things you need to do to be successful*. You can get away with just doing one of the two, but that's rare, and usually someone else is doing the other part for you.If you you don't have any marketable skills, learn some. It's the future. We have Khan Academy and Wikipedia and Codecademy and almost the entire world's collective knowledge at your fingertips. Use it.Then make something that you can talk about. Make something cool. Something interesting. Spend time on it. Go crazy. Even if it's the least useful thing you've ever made, if you can talk about it, make it. This part...

The ecosystem for open source Python projects is both rich and diverse. This enables you to stand on the shoulders of giants in the production of your next open source project. In addition, it means that there's a set of community norms and best practices. By adhering to these conventions and applying the practices in your project, you may gain wider adoption for your software. This article covers practices that have worked well for building large and small projects that have gained wide user c...

As a systems administrator, I tend to think about source code and computing platform in large numbers. Computers however are getting smaller and more powerful, and the reality of computers that we put in or on our body as a normal daily routine is coming closer, and for many is already here. When our safety, our liberty, and our sense of humanity are tied to programmable devices, should we not only hope, but expect that we should have the right to examine how these devices function? Last August Karen Sandler, the executive directory of the GNOME foundation gave a short talk about her implante...

As a freelance web developer, I’ve seen and used my fair share of open source web applications (and desktop software), and I’d like to point out something that I see all too often in open source projects: the user interface almost always lets the project down. Let me explain…The ProblemI’ve used a considerable amount of open source software (web-based and desktop), and I feel that a large portion of them are let down by their UI. The functionality is brilliant, the code is great, and the product is useful, but the user interface often just lacks the smoothness and le...

I originally assumed that open source was simply a means of producing technology.But technology is just a lovely byproduct, the real goal is social.Not all open source projects work this way, but perhaps they should.I stumbled upon this realization while maintaining fog as it grew and grew and grew.Leaving issues open seemed unbearable, but over time the volume far exceeded my ability to keep up.Over time I saw the promise of a better way, but my expectations of open source would need to adapt.I learned that if running a project means fixing bugs, you may never find time for anything else.Ever...