Community Driven

Open source is mostly community driven. There is a lot of power behind this. If you’ve never read The Cathedral and the Bazaar, do yourself a favour and read it.

Most open source projects, especially those for all the different components of the Linux distributions I use have great communities driving them. What this means is that much to all of the roles required in a typical software development project are filled by volunteers from all over the world. There are many benefits to this, though the two I appreciate the most is what I’m writing about here.

Features Needed by People added by People

So, many of the features we find in these software projects are there because people needed them. Someone needs to get something specific out of a some software, whether it be a feature accessed via a user interface or just some documentation to give clarity on on a certain topic. If this person has the capacity to influence the project into adding this or even add this functionality himself, he can do so and have it become part of the main project. I’m making it sound much simpler than it really is, but the point I’m trying to make is that the designs, architectures and functionality of open source software is largely influenced by what people actually need and what works well for them.

I believe it’s also a big part of the reason logging is done so well in open source software, because the people making it add what they need to achieve the task and make their lives simpler while doing so.

The Ultimate Peer Review Gives High Quality

When you submit work to an open source project, you’re submission is seen by everyone who wishes to look at it. Some of these people know you, some you don’t, some like you, some don’t, some are rational, some are not, some are emotional some are not. So many different perspectives are laying their eyes on your work, and for this reason it will be criticized in a way you won’t ever be able to find or replicate in a fixed team of people. Fresh, biased and unbiased views of the work are always created as people come and go.

Further, since many of these people are part of the project and looking at these things because it’s what they like and what they want to be doing at that moment, their perspectives are influenced by passion, which is a very powerful influence. Either way.

All this generally has the side effect of improving quality. In some cases bad influences cause the opposite, though in some open source projects you get extremely high quality work coming out of the community.

Some of these communities are so strict, that unless your submission is of the highest level of quality, as defined by them, it will simply be rejected.

What I mentioned here isn’t the sole explanation or cause for high quality, and certainly doesn’t stand alone. It’s just a strong influencing pillar for quality, and one of the reasons I Love Linux!

You can certainly improve and sharpen your skills by contributing to an open source project. Not only this, but it’s very satisfying to know you’re contributing to these projects. Try it.

Conclusion

So Why Love Linux? Because it’s driven and created by a community who does it for no other reason than loving what they do!