When end-users contribute to open-source projects through code or documentation, their diverse perspectives provide added value to the project, the project’s end-users, and the larger developer community. Open-source projects can be updated quickly and as needed, and offer reliable and flexible software that is not built on locked proprietary systems.Ĭontributing to open-source projects helps ensure that they are as good as they can be and representative of the broad base of technology end-users. Projects that follow the open-source development model encourage a transparent process that is advanced through distributed peer review. Open-source software is software that is freely available to use, redistribute, and modify.
This tutorial will discuss the benefits of contributing to open-source projects, and go over installing and setting up Git so that you can contribute to software projects. Free to download and use, Git is an example of an open-source project itself. Open-source projects that are hosted in public repositories benefit from contributions made by the broader developer community, and are typically managed through Git.Ī distributed version control system, Git helps both individuals and teams contribute to and maintain open-source software projects.
