As a newbie Linux Dev that wants to for funsies, and eventually for work too, on open source projects what should I learn? (lemmy.world)

submitted 23 hours ago by viov@lemmy.world to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Trying to make some roadmaps with task lists, kanban board, etc. With focus on open source.

Been learning for a year now but trying to get a more natural progression put together to hone my focus of learn/get deeper into this then this then that. To grow bit by bit by bit.

So please suggest anything for any of the below.

My focuses:

Helping grow/develop for open source game development/game mods (SuperTuxKart Evolved, The Smash-like, Beyond All Reason, Luanti, 0 A.D., etc)
Helping projects that need it gain funding (OpenCollective, NLNet, NGI Zero Core, Liberapay)
Helping people find other people for their own projects, and for each others projects
Helping grow community, and visibility/knowledge of open source in world (Through growing certain parts of open source communities focused on Videos, Animation, Articles, etc. Even general outreach too)
Blogging/Marketing to help projects get more eyes on them (Ghost?)
Help out however I can for Operating systems (Kali Linux, Postmarket, Linux Mint, Bazzite, PopOS_Cosmic, Kubuntu, etc)
Support various Appimages/flatpaks development (eventually the new Linux standard)
To help write documentation (Future after being experienced)
Helping to develop open-schematics open-source vehicles/public transit
Currently you all deserve funding from all the effort put in over decades, years, months (depending on how long you been around). So I want to help out to get you all funded. I've enjoyed my journey using open source stuff now I want to contribute back however I can not just with donations.
Eventually to get my own donations pipeline but eh later on.
To get work in Linux/Open Source somehow overtime in future. That would be a dream come true.

Thinking for some fundamentals & tools to learn (Put into groups):

Grant Writing Fundraising Copy Writing OpenCollective Marketing NLNet NGI Zero Core

Networking Cybersecurity Documentation Building From Source GNU/Linux itself with Terminal Computer Science Git Agile Forgejo/Codeberg Programming Small Projects in General Focusing on Learning What is Needed in the Moment A Programming Kanban Board you recommend? A Virtual Machine Program you recommend? Neovim VSCodium Logseq (For Obsidian-like mind palace for learning) Design Principles of GNU/Linux OS, Apps, & Games Docker Kubernetes Godot Penpot Ghost? An AI-Assisting tool? (Won't rely on it as a crutch just as a tool to aid in development but will learn this later when I learn to be an actually good dev) QA for Code (After gaining experience) Maintaining Code (What goes into maintaining code?)

Programming languages, I want to do small projects for, to learn:

Rust Python HTML PHP (Web Dev) Lua (Modding) GDScript

What else would you recommend for fundamentals that I am missing to learn? Or for more in depth learning for any of this? (Whether it is for specific focuses: Software Engineering/DevOps/Game Dev/etc, certain fundamentals: Agile, etc , or for specific tools: Git, etc)

Any online/in-person groups I should join to get to know the community too overtime?

Hopefully this grows to be an additional resource others can use too. I ask here for up to date stuff, and since it feels better to talk to a person with experience than just relying on searching. Which I am still searching alongside this just figured I would ask on top of that.

Will save anything you suggest and put it all together. Please and thanks!!

I want to be helpful for Linux/Open Source by maintaining/creating. I won't burn myself out and will start slow to get deep into each. Just I want to help out however I can overtime and be useful. I may be one person but overtime I'd like to inspire more people to help with those focuses too.

top 5 comments

sorted by: hot top new old

[-] farooqkz@realbitcoin.cash 2 points 11 hours ago

In person groups depend on where you are. But if there isn't a group where you live, you can start one yourself! That's the case in me city. We are starting a group ourselves for the city.

[-] thenextguy@sh.itjust.works 9 points 18 hours ago

How to work on a team.

Pick a project. Sign up. Pick a bug or small feature. Work on it. Accept criticism. Repeat.

BTW 'overtime' and 'over time' have two very different meanings.

[-] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 5 points 17 hours ago

Pick and learn any programming language. If you know 1 you can read and understand almost all of them.

For open source contributions my approach is, I use almost all the open source apps, tools, etc. And when I want to do something that isn't supported or if something doesn't work the way you want you can just check the source code and fix it. I'm not a Kotlin developer but I've contributed to several apps I use daily. Usually the community is also helpful if I've made a mistake or if something should be done in a different way for a language the PR Reviewer will just point it out I learn something new fix it and send it again.

[-] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 3 points 20 hours ago

That's a lot of stuff. Are you sure you can learn it all at once?

Anyway, I would highly recommend finding local software meetups to attend. You can sites like meetup.com, or luma or eventbrite to find them. You can also try to hunt down websites made by other people that might document it.

You can also try these, although they are focused more on cybersecurity:

https://infosecmap.com/

https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/List_of_Hacker_Spaces

But definitely try to engage with the community near you. It will help you stay motivated, and you'll learn a lot.