What is Hacktoberfest 2020 and the notion of Open Source?

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Google Developer Student Clubs TIET

5 min readSep 13, 2020

Let’s consider that you are an English speaking person and you suddenly land in a city dominated by Spanish speakers. The signs on the streets are very unfamiliar. The topsy-turvydom that you will probably encounter(unless you know Spanish) is similar to that of someone new to the world of open-source, which can be very overwhelming.

Here is a roadmap to come out of the conundrum. So, let’s cut off the jargon and understand the concepts of “Open Source” in layman terms.

What is Open Source?

A simple Google search(I suggest shifting to DuckDuckGo XD) for the definition of “Open Source” results into the following definition:

“denoting software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified.”

At the simplest level, open-source programming is simply writing code that other individuals can unobstructedly use and modify. There are a few specifications for it to be considered open-source code.

The programme being distributed must be redistributed to someone else without any limitations.
The source code must be made available so that it can be enhanced or changed by the receiving party.
A license may enable updated versions of the software to bear a different name or version from the original software.

As long as these features are present in your code, it can be called “open source” and reviewed by anyone.

For example, Ubuntu Linux is an open-source operating system. You can download Ubuntu, make as many copies as you want, and send them to your mates. You can download Ubuntu on an infinite number of your computers. If you were interested, you could download and edit the source code for the Ubuntu programme, build your version of the programme — or Ubuntu itself. Open-source licenses also encourage you to do so, while closed-source licenses impose limitations on you.

The opposite of open-source software is closed-source software, which requires a license that limits users and keeps the source code out of them. Firefox, Chrome, OpenOffice, Linux, and Android are some common examples of open-source software, while Microsoft Windows is possibly the most popular component of closed-source software out there.

What is not Open Source?

Let’s get it clear, just being on GitHub and being in a public repository, doesn’t make your code “Open Source”. It is the license that determines if the code can be used and modified by others. Copying code from an unlicensed repository can result in court cases and various other repercussions.

Why Contribute to Open Source?

Cause. Why not? Open source projects have given birth to a spectrum of beneficial software over the years. Many of the great technologies that we utilize today were born out of open source development!

Let’s have a look at the prominent reasons:

To make the world a better place, duhhh :P
Open Source gives you a great start. It helps you to sharpen your programming skills. Whether it’s coding, user interface design, web design, writing, or organizing, whether you’re looking for a job, there’s a role for you in an open-source project.
Open Source provides the experience to learn leadership and management skills, such as dispute mediation, coordinating teams, and prioritizing work.
You get to be a part of an active community and meet a lot of like-minded people.
Find mentors or maybe be one.

Enough reasons, maybe?

How to begin contributing to Open Source?

Learn the basics of Git and GitHub. Understand GitHub workflow.

2. Build a set of skills.

3. Find repositories on GitHub according to your interest.

4. Study the codebase.

5. Join a community.

6. Start an open-source project of your own maybe. Find open-source alternatives to commercial products.

Beginner level issues can be found at this link.

What is HacktoberFest?

Hacktoberfest is a month-long celebration of open-source technology organized by DigitalOcean. If you’re new to development, a student, longtime contributor, event host, you can help drive open-source and offer significant contributions to an ever-growing community.

This event takes place for the entire month of October, in which people from all over the world, contribute to open source projects on GitHub.
You can sign up at any time during the month at this link.
Pull requests can be made in any GitHub-hosted repositories/projects.

Guidelines for successful completion of Hacktoberfest (in order to earn cool swags!) —

You must send four pull requests in any time zone between October 1–31 to complete the task.
The pull request must include commits that you have made yourself.
Pull requests recorded as spam or automatic by maintainers will be marked as invalid, and will not count against the result.
Even if your pull requests aren’t accepted, as long as you open at least 4 pull requests, you will earn a shirt.
As long as you registered for Hacktoberfest, you’ll still get some free stickers in the mail. So it’s still worth registering, even if you’re too busy to participate.

Conclusion:

Hacktoberfest is a great way to urge people to get involved in open-source. By looking at the numbers, we can see that many people want to get involved in Hacktoberfest. But, just need that extra tap or the extra push for it as well if you are a first-timer. There is no better platform to commence your endeavor with open-source. So why wait?

Open source is changing the world — one pull request at a time.

HAPPY CODING!

Written by — ANUSHRI JAIN & Saurav Shrivastav

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