How to start contributing to Xfce or any other open source project

This is a translation of a very interesting text that I found, published recently Jannis Pohlman, neither more nor less than the current president of the Xfce Foundation. He maintains some of the most important packages of the project such as Thunar and Garcon. I have tried to keep the translation as faithful as possible to the original text, with some adaptations to suit our language.

It has been some time since I updated this site and even longer since I wrote something useful. I've recently been getting some emails from people looking to contribute to Xfce and have thought about sharing a bit of my "wisdom" gained over the years while working at Xfce and doing a lot of community work. My reflections are not limited to Xfce and apply to many more projects.

There is a bitter truth for those looking for quick instructions to get started contributing to Xfce: you have to find them out for yourself.

It is not that we are lazy or that we do not receive your contributions. In fact, I think, it's very simple: you will be more excited, motivated, and in the end, you will be more successful if you work on something that interests you. We can help you decide to invest your time in easier projects, features or errors that we or our users consider are worthwhile. Some projects make this very visible, but in Xfce this information is hidden in the depths of our wiki, here are some links that you may find interesting:

• Design GIS - to improve the Xfce user experience
• List of desired features by component - made by our users
• List of desired features for the panel - made by our users

Clearly, the above information could be more visible. There may be a link on the Xfce website that leads to a well-maintained and up-to-date list. Would this help people? Maybe

Possibly it is good that the information is not just a click away. Open source projects are about scratching our own itch. This is how I have intruded on everything I have done over the years. This approach is reflected in what people do and sometimes in how companies make money. Thinking about this right now, it's a concept deeply rooted in the evolution of humanity (think: the invention and improvement of tools, industrialization and all that)

So, scratch your own itch.

If you want to start contributing to a project, try this:

• Review the project and think about what you don't like and what you feel can be improved.
• Try to collect information about the pieces that are involved in the feature you think is missing or the bugs what did you find.
• Try to find the right place to add your feature or fix your bug.
• Ask the developers if they are interested in the feature you created or check if the problem was already in the bug tracker of the project,
• The rest is communication and code.

It is not a fast track because you may not be able to contribute something of great value from the beginning. But if you are dedicated, have enough free time to make a difference, and are willing to improve things step by step, you may eventually reach a point where you take responsibility for more and more exciting and important tasks.