How to Become a Free Software Hacker
While programming knowledge is all you need to program, it will help you join the programming community and become a respected specialist. Becoming a free software hacker will bring a great amount of experience. It will take a lot of time and dedication, but it will have great rewards in the end.
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Instructions
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Learn popular programming language, such as C, C++ or Java. Learning Eclipse will also help.
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Familiarize yourself with version control. It is the most important tool for shared software development. Learn how to create and apply patches. Most of the free software development is done by creating and applying different kinds of patches.
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Find a suitable free software project in order to get more experience. The project should be active, with recent releases, have three to five developers, use a programming language that you are already aware of, use version control and have active discussion lists and bug reports.
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Contact the administrator of the project you would like to join. Most likely, acceptance is immediate. Work in the project for several months and listen carefully to the administrator.
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Locate an open source or high-level free software project. These projects are a little tougher to get into right away, so be prepared to work without direct write access to the code repository at first.
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Look for an appropriate conference happening nearby and present your project there. The conference fee may be waived if you mention that you are working with a serious open source or free software project. Be prepared to run demonstrations of the project.
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Tips & Warnings
Use Linux instead of Mac OS or Windows. It is much more accepted in the programming world.
