Welcome back to GitHub for Beginners. So far, we’ve discussed GitHub Issues and Projects, GitHub Actions, security, GitHub Pages, and Markdown. This time we’re going to talk about open source software and how to contribute to that community. By the end of this post, you’ll know what open source is, how to find projects to work on, how to read an open source repository, as well as start making your first contributions. So let’s get started!
As always, if you prefer to watch the video or want to reference it, we have all of our GitHub for Beginners episodes available on YouTube.
What is open source?
Open source software (OSS) refers to software that features freely available source code. In contrast with “closed source software,” OSS is publicly available for anyone to use and build upon. This means that all of the work, including the codebase and communication between users, is available for everyone to see.
If you’re just getting started in the world of software development, browsing and contributing to open source projects is a great way to dip your toes into large, impactful projects used by countless users worldwide.
