So – 2013 year is almost over. It’s time for recap. It’s time to ask a question – what have I done for The Community?

I’ve been a programmer for the past 15+ years and sysop for 12+. I always used free and open source software – like those from Apache project, perl, php, python etc. And I’ve been using Linux for the past 16+ years. And this is this word about which I’ve been thinking quite a lot lately: “using”. Three years ago I took part in the LinuxCon Europe conference (2011) at Prague. I met there many people, that inspired me by the way they acted.

Until then when I hit some issue with software I barely reported it via some Bugzilla to some project keepers. Barely… But then I realized that those guys’ way is great. Something is not working like You’d like it to? git clone the repo, change, create pull request… wait – maybe first meet guys and join project?

And that’s what I did this year. I joined two great projects: Fedora project & Gnome project And started contributing. How much time does it cost me? It depends – there’re weeks when I do nothing, and there are those where I put 10 hours of effort to solve some problem or create new functionality. And it feels really good :)

So are you a contributor? No? Think about it! You don’t have to be a developer. Check this page of Gnome project: https://www.gnome.org/get-involved/ – you can help – and you can make a difference :)

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