open source projects

boo-boo

Are any of ye working | have worked on open source stuff, esp using Java ?

Hobbes

I have. What is it you wanted to know?

boo-boo

1) There are rakes of projects on sourceforge, but I'd guess most of them are "dead", or just one guy tipping away. Is there any way to tell which are the ones which have a bit of life in them.

2) Is it a pain to be working without any face-to-face conversations,

3) are you inundated with mails, I subscribed to the Tomcat dev group before & was swamped.

4) Know any particularly useful or interesting ones.


Would you recommend it as being better than sliced bread or is it a pain in the ar$e & waste of time ?

Hobbes

1) I guess the quickest way is to look at the CVS history to see when the last code was checked.

I do not recommend selecting a project on how alive it is. You are better off working on one that you would use. Even projects that haven't had an update for months could be something to work on.

Also just because you want to submit to a project doesn't mean you will be allowed to.

2) This really depends a lot on the project. You have webcams in this day and age.

3) Again depends on the project. The open source project I set up and ran I got reasonable amount of mail over it. I have been subscribed to the ANT-DEV list and been swamped. Normally projects have web based readers as well if you can't handle the mail.

Oh just because you may be part of a project/running it. It doesn't mean your obliged to read every mail or answer it. The whole point of the open source is to allow the community find the solutions and submit it.

4) Again it depends on your level of knowledge, what you use and enjoy. If your starting off your better to contribute to a project that you are using for some time and a good knowledge of.

Developers join projects for different reasons. The two most common are...
"Scratch an itch" - They need the project to do something that they use and they can fix/improve on it.
"prestiege" - The fame that comes from working on major open source projects.

Would you recommend it as being better than sliced bread or is it a pain in the ar$e & waste of time ?

Both.

I started my open source project with the intent to learn more about the Open source process (project was an internal one, but my company are heavy into Open Source, so good exp) and also to learn about the thing I was writing for (sorry as it's internal I can't go into details unless you work in the same company).

I would say I enjoyed it. It was a different way of thinking in regards to coding and I was amazed at some of the suggestions and solutions people came up with along with how people were using it in ways I wouldn't of imagined.

however...

As I work for a company who contributes and releases Open source projects, they have a very detailed and long winded process to get approval. Internal approval is long but external approval to create/join a project is a big deal and that would put a lot of people off (I actually had a few people wanting to join the project who didn't join because of the paperwork involved on the internal process alone).

I also spent I think close to a few months on and off spread over a year trying to get the project externalised without much success.

If you are not with a company then it won't be an issue for you, but if you are in a company that does software development you will want to be very careful and check with the company before doing anything.

Two books I recommend if your new to open source is...

Managing Open source projects and Open Source: Unauthorised White Paper.

As for projects I was intrested in, I was looking at some eclipse projects but the hassle it would be for me to join one or create one isn't worth it at this time.

boo-boo

many thanks Hobbes, lots of food for thought there