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Closed 11 years ago.
Is it still possible for someone to learn and start contributing to the linux kernel? looks like the contributor list seems to be dominated by paid employees from large companies. Is there still a chance that one can get their patches or bugs in the kernel or is it sort of saturated with great developers? I'm thinking on focussing on the networking subsystem. Sorry, if all this sounds too noobish, but any opinions on all this? Is it even worth it to start on this route? I plan to spend my evenings and weekends for however long it takes, assuming I will be able to make some contribution.
Thanks.
Yes. Example: Con Kolivas (of course you could also cite that in order to give arguments against hobbyist development). See also this survey (original source):
For the evaluation period, almost 19% of changes were reportedly contributed by unaffiliated hobbyists.
Write something interesting and relevant, head over to the mailing list (or vice versa: Ask if something is interesting at the mailing lists, then head over to development). Not even the head of development Linus Torvalds is looking at your professional status.
Related
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Closed 9 years ago.
This is more a philosophical question but its one I've been pondering for some time now.
I don't know anything about computer security or how computers are broken into. I thought hackers used disassembling software on executable software to create malware and other things.
My question is would making some software open source make it vulnerable to hackers or do I have reverse engineering confused with hacking?
Making something open source does not inherently make it more vulnerable. Trying to hide what you are doing is known as Security Through Obscurity, and it doesn't work very well.
Making something open source makes things easier for casual hackers, since they can see how your app works more easily. On the other hand, making it open source also lets anyone who is interested look through your code and report security vulnerabilities. They're two sides of the same coin.
For the most advanced threats, they'll get through regardless of whether your code is open source or not. On the other hand, honest volunteers are much less likely to bother trying to find and fix bugs in a closed source product.
So basically, it depends. In general, you're better off open sourcing things if you think people are actually going to be interested in the project.
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Closed 10 years ago.
I just read some news about Qualcomm launching an internet of things development platform on top of JME and I was wondering where is jme/j2me used nowadays. I know it was used for some old mobile phones and apparently you can still use for developing application for Bada and Symbian.
But besides that is there any other field where is it used? Can someone exemplify other areas where Jme is used or point to an updated list of embedded devices implementing a jvm compliant with jme?
The newest related inquire I saw around the topic was this forum discussion which did not bring that much light to the question.
I think it has spread, with feature phones, into places where smartphones are still pretty expensive. As an anecdote, my scripting language for phones, Hecl, does not get a lot of traction these days, by and large, but does seem to get a lot of attention in places like Indonesia.
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Closed 10 years ago.
I have dealt and used JavaScript and am quite comfortable with it. However I was wondering if I should learn another one. Is there another language out there that used more widely or has more use in the business industry? And could you also recommend a good book for it?
Should you learn a new programming language?
Yes, you surely should.
Which one then?
I don't know. Why don't you pick one related to your expertise? Or something wildly different from what you know.
Which book is the best one?
Go to the library or a book shop. Flip some books through. Most likely, one of those books is good enough. But nothing beats learning to look up API reference on the net.
EDIT: Question from the comments:
What's the most popular and widely used?
You can use the TIOBE Community Index to look up popular programming languages. However, you shouldn't use that as a deciding factor as things may differ locally to you. I've never done C professionally (which is apparently the most "popular" language according to TIOBE), so it all depends on what you want to do.
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Closed 11 years ago.
I recently watched the "Introduction to Node.js with Ryan Dahl" video on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo_B4LTHi3I), and I really like the look of Node.js. Unfortunately, in that video, Ryan described Node.js as "very much a bleeding-edge technology" (in so many words), and that means it won't suit my purpose in looking at servers/server-side Javascript in the first place - to find a stable, well-supported, open-source technology to use for our server-side purposes.
I'm pretty sure that Node.js's "bleeding-edge" status hasn't change - at least not much - since March, but can anyone confirm this for me? How risky would it be to include Node.js in our design for a large (1000s of nodes), enterprise-wide system?
Thanks!
Aaron
In general I would say "yes", but that has not stopped some cutting edge companies from using it production. I don't know of any that are scaling (clustering) to the level you're talking about.
I would say if you're asking here, then it probably isn't for you right now.
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Closed 9 years ago.
I want to work with the Linux kernel, but I have no idea where to start. Is there a sort of ticketing system somewhere where bugs and such are distributed? Where can I get ideas for potentially useful contributions?
EDIT: Yes I know what I'm doing. I've been writing my own modifications for a good while now, and I'm doing an independent project under one of the operating systems researchers at my university next semester.
The reason I ask is I'd like to contribute my expertise to the dev process, and I don't know where to start in terms of organization. In terms of technical matters, I'm just about there.
Start with these: Kernel Bugs involving typo.
(Search everyday until you find something promising).
Search that bug database with keywords like "comment", "typo", "documentation", "minor bug", etc.
Also, search under the category Documentation here.
Learn the process first. Then, attempt to contribute something significant.
Pick a subsystem and subscribe to the relevant mailing list. Spend some time studying the subsystem. Start small and fix simple bugs then gradually do work of higher significance. You may want to look at the TODO files in the kernel source directory, especially for drivers in staging.
Get a GIT tutorial. You may also watch this