4 ms·

Ask HN: How should one properly initiate an Open Source project?

5 points by philippnagel 12y ago

Hi, I have an idea for a potentially interesting and useful project. My experience in the area of open source software is limited. Therefor I am thankful for any tips, resources etc. Regards, Phil

SEJeff 12y ago
Write a proof of concept and toss it on github. If you think it will attract a lot of people, create a mailing list via something like google groups. Send info to tech websites and blog about it. That is how everyone else does it. Disclaimer: I'm a comaintainer of 2 large open source projects: https://github.com/saltstack/salt https://github.com/saltstack/salt https://github.com/graphite-project https://github.com/graphite-project
duncan_bayne 12y ago
Release early for feedback (both on the code, and the concept). Try to make the (technical, social) culture explicit from the outset. Don't be afraid to pivot. Seek advice on technical issues - if there aren't any early contributors, try resources like http://codereview.stackexchange.com/ http://codereview.stackexchange.com/. This is Linus' announcement of Linux: http://twovoyagers.com/blinkynet.net/comp/linux002.html http://twovoyagers.com/blinkynet.net/comp/linux002.html "I've enjouyed doing it, and somebody might enjoy looking at it and even modifying it for their own needs. It is still small enough to understand, use and modify, and I'm looking forward to any comments you might have."
marcosscriven 12y ago
One rather dull, but important, aspect to think about early on is licensing. More permissive licenses seem to be preferred today, especially if you want submissions from corporate entities. Related to that is keeping some kind of contributors record (the important point being you at least have a valid email for every person that submitted something).
- duncan_bayne 12y ago
  If you use an over-permissive license, you run the risk of a company like Apple growing to a multi-billion-dollar enterprise off the back of your hard work, then migrating in a proprietary direction once rich. Whether that's a problem or not is up to you and your sense of fairness :) My preference is the LGPL, for reasons I explain in the boilerplate README for my FOSS work: ===== The GPL is specifically designed to reduce the usefulness of GPL-licensed code to closed-source, proprietary software. The BSD license (and similar) don't mandate code-sharing if the BSD-licensed code is modified by licensees. The LGPL achieves the best of both worlds: an LGPL-licensed library can be incorporated within closed-source proprietary code, and yet those using an LGPL-licensed library are required to release source code to that library if they change it. =====
mindcrime 12y ago
I wrote up a blog post a couple of months ago, full of pointers to useful resources for getting started with Open Source. Instead of repeating what I said there, I'll just share the link: http://fogbeam.blogspot.com/2014/08/starting-points-for-learning-about-open.html http://fogbeam.blogspot.com/2014/08/starting-points-for-lear... I think you'll find (some|a lot|all) of that stuff useful.

5 points by philippnagel 12y ago

Hi, I have an idea for a potentially interesting and useful project. My experience in the area of open source software is limited. Therefor I am thankful for any tips, resources etc. Regards, Phil

SEJeff 12y ago

Write a proof of concept and toss it on github. If you think it will attract a lot of people, create a mailing list via something like google groups. Send info to tech websites and blog about it. That is how everyone else does it. Disclaimer: I'm a comaintainer of 2 large open source projects: https://github.com/saltstack/salt https://github.com/saltstack/salt https://github.com/graphite-project https://github.com/graphite-project

duncan_bayne 12y ago

Release early for feedback (both on the code, and the concept). Try to make the (technical, social) culture explicit from the outset. Don't be afraid to pivot. Seek advice on technical issues - if there aren't any early contributors, try resources like http://codereview.stackexchange.com/ http://codereview.stackexchange.com/. This is Linus' announcement of Linux: http://twovoyagers.com/blinkynet.net/comp/linux002.html http://twovoyagers.com/blinkynet.net/comp/linux002.html "I've enjouyed doing it, and somebody might enjoy looking at it and even modifying it for their own needs. It is still small enough to understand, use and modify, and I'm looking forward to any comments you might have."

marcosscriven 12y ago

One rather dull, but important, aspect to think about early on is licensing. More permissive licenses seem to be preferred today, especially if you want submissions from corporate entities. Related to that is keeping some kind of contributors record (the important point being you at least have a valid email for every person that submitted something).

duncan_bayne 12y ago
If you use an over-permissive license, you run the risk of a company like Apple growing to a multi-billion-dollar enterprise off the back of your hard work, then migrating in a proprietary direction once rich. Whether that's a problem or not is up to you and your sense of fairness :) My preference is the LGPL, for reasons I explain in the boilerplate README for my FOSS work: ===== The GPL is specifically designed to reduce the usefulness of GPL-licensed code to closed-source, proprietary software. The BSD license (and similar) don't mandate code-sharing if the BSD-licensed code is modified by licensees. The LGPL achieves the best of both worlds: an LGPL-licensed library can be incorporated within closed-source proprietary code, and yet those using an LGPL-licensed library are required to release source code to that library if they change it. =====

mindcrime 12y ago

I wrote up a blog post a couple of months ago, full of pointers to useful resources for getting started with Open Source. Instead of repeating what I said there, I'll just share the link: http://fogbeam.blogspot.com/2014/08/starting-points-for-learning-about-open.html http://fogbeam.blogspot.com/2014/08/starting-points-for-lear... I think you'll find (some|a lot|all) of that stuff useful.