Open Source Made Easy: How Anyone Can Contribute

Bhupinder Singh — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 10:58:20 +0000

What is Open Source?
--> opensource is a decentralized model where one can use the software for free and most importantly one can change its source code to add new features that one likes as opensource have its source code publicaly available and one can also redistribute it under an open-source license

Why Open Source matters?
--> many recruiters now demand skills and want a clear evidence of your work apart from the projects made Open-source is the best way to get in demand skills and accelerate your learning journey
and

putting out good in the world is the way to live
Difference between Open Source vs Closed Source.
--> Open Source make their code publically avaialable allowing people to modify recreate and distribute it freely under a license
but Closed Source have their code private and managed by official developers of the company
Famous open-source projects
while talking about opensource here are some famous and widely used softwares
LINUX : an opensource Operating System
GIT : a Version Control System
VS CODE : its a popular code editor ( opensource )
REACT : its a library of js that makes frontend more seemless

Licenses explained simply
MIT License: This license allows devs to freely use , modify and redistribute the software they created it has a requirement that dev should add the original copyright notice and licensing text to be included under all the copies of the software it is widely used in open-source projects.

General Public License (GPL): this is a copyleft license that ensures that any derivative work done on a opensource software has its source code available publically for modification and use

Apache License:it also allows users to use , modify , recreate softwares but under some specific criteria and protocols this protects the patent and trademark of product

How to find beginner-friendly issues
what does Beginner friendly means there?
for beginners finding bug is not a easy task one needs a deep understanding of the project to find bugs and for beginners bug finding should mean fixing README.md , fixing examples , or some easy bugs so that the whole project doesnt collapse

Most projects tag issues to help newcomers

good first issue
beginner
help wanted
first-timers-only

DEV Community: Bhupinder Singh

Open Source Made Easy: How Anyone Can Contribute