16th September 2012
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Spam Deminer
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: Boca Raton, Florida
Posts: 284
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Quote:
For those who do not make any purchases or make code contributions, what are you doing to help the project continue?
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That's a great question, and should be asked of anyone that is using the system; there are a variety of things that the 'average user' can do to help the OpenBSD project:
- donate
This can be done in the form of buying a CD, or making a contribution to the foundation or to Theo directly. You can even donate hardware that is needed by the project. I personally prefer, however, to buy t-shirts, because not only are they cool, but they provide a walking marketing campaign in your local area to get the word out about OpenBSD.
- develop
This is the most involved kind of contribution to the project, and most revered. Fools rush in where angels fear tread, and one should already have been 'part of the community' for some time before deciding that they are in a position to actually contribute code that will make a difference. Remember, code that does not make a difference is wasting your time and the time of the other developers it distracts by having it checked.
- debug
Despite the incredible level of bug auditing that has taken place in the project, there are still old and new bugs floating around. By using the system and paying attention to it, you may find something that actually doesn't "just work". The project needs to hear about that, but PLEASE, be responsible about how you contribute those communications to the team.
- follow the community and give feedback
This is also a method that needs to be done responsibly. Asking for new features or complaining that you simply do not like something will get you 10x more vitriol than you would find in this forum, ever. Showing how methods and implementations work, and responsibly showing how they don't, provide relevant feedback that the developers will actually use. And if there's anything that the team loves without question, it's a good DMESG. You can see what's happening on the scene most easily by viewing the mailing list and other resources. Hey, if you are reading posts on this website, you kinda already are .
My wireframe Puffy shirt is showing it's age; time for a refresh .
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Network Firefighter
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