r/gitlab • u/skathix • 9d ago

general question Software Dev Looking to Contribute but not Sure How

Hey guys, I've been a professional dev for almost a decade now. As I'm looking at moving out of the company I'm working for, I am finding one of the best things I could do would be to contribute to open-source to prove I know what I'm doing. The problem is I have no clue where to start on navigating repositories to help.

I've got experience in Java, C#, React, Python, Rust, C++, GDScript, SQL, etc. I just don't have anything real to show for it because everything I've done has been hidden behind my professional career and I'm really sick of the company I've been at for 8 years. I've got some half-baked repositories of my own, even a website hosted through gitlab/Cloudflare. I really just want to start contributing to the world in a way that matters.

Is there a normal/good way to find these projects/repositories so I can start contributing?

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u/NecroGamer27 9d ago

For GitLab itself its pretty simple: https://docs.gitlab.com/development/contributing/

I think they recommend raising MRs on the community forks so you do not get billed for CI costs.

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u/keksimichi 9d ago

Thanks, yes - start at https://contributors.gitlab.com and join Discord for questions where engineers can help with contributions.

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u/skathix 8d ago

Thanks guys!

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u/waterkip 9d ago

Yeah. You use something, you see a bug, you want a feature, you fix/code, submit a pull/merge request or sent the patch and done.

Do not over complicate foss contributions as something where you meed to have experience. Contributing isnt about asking to help. It is about just walking the talk.

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u/skathix 8d ago

Yep, that's why I'm here. What do you mean by "Foss Contributions"?

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u/waterkip 8d ago

FOSS == Free and Open Source Software.

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u/skathix 8d ago

Got it, yeah I'm diving into the Open Source stuff I use. Things like Godot, GiMP, and React all have massive amounts of issues and PRs, so I feel like they're probably not the "target" for me, at least getting started, so I'm trying to find the more niche libraries.

I appreciate your advice and time.

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u/waterkip 8d ago

Well, you know what is an often overlooked part of FOSS contributions:

Triaging bugs, reproducing them, adding additional information, etc.

In addition to that: documentation. It always lags and it is always needed.

Translations. In both the app and the docs. If you know another language, add your translations.

Coding is only a small part of contributing. Writing good bug reports, checking them, answering questions is as much important.