What do I think when I hear “Hey, it’s open source!”?

To be honest, whenever I heard that something was open source, I didn’t pay much attention to that aspect—at least not until later in my CS degree. Back then, it simply meant to me that the project or software was free to use at no cost. Now, I understand that open source is so much more than just free: it provides all sorts of freedoms - freedom to contribute and experiment without subscription, budget, time, or experience limitations, freedom to reach out to the community, and freedom to ask any kinds of questions.

Open vs Closed, any ideas?

I’ve already mentioned some of the advantages of open source, such as the freedom that contributors and collaborators enjoy. Open source software allows large communities to collaborate, often leading to much more rapid innovation and peer-reviewed security. However, the decentralized nature of open-source projects can result in slower decision-making or a lack of a unified vision. That is why closed source software can benefit from a tightly controlled roadmap, rapid (and sometimes more focused) development cycles. Yet, the trade-off is reduced community input and less transparency, which can limit user freedom.

Why am I here?

That being said, I truly believe that contributing to open source projects can help anyone boost their skill set as a developer. Whether it’s fixing bugs, adding features, or simply correcting typos, every pull request submitted brings you one step closer to becoming a better developer. This inevitably fosters better discipline, helps build a stronger résumé for potential employers, and provides a sense of self-satisfaction. That’s why I decided to take this course!

Open Source Projects to consider

One of the open source projects I use daily is VSCode, which is where I’m typing this text right now. It’s important to note that while Microsoft advertises VS Code as an “open source” editor, a large part of its ecosystem, and some of its tooling, is proprietary. Another open source project I used for one of my NYU classes is Blender, an open source 3D creation suite for modeling, animation, rendering, and video editing. I also rely on Project Jupyter a lot. Finally, I should mention Wikipedia, which is undeniably an open source project that I use frequently and am excited to contribute to!