What do you do if you want to enhance your System Administration skills through open-source projects?

1 Why open-source?

Open-source projects are software or hardware projects that are developed and maintained by a community of volunteers, and whose source code or design is freely available for anyone to use, modify, or contribute to. Open-source projects can cover a wide range of topics, from operating systems and web servers, to databases and cloud platforms, to security tools and automation scripts. By participating in open-source projects, you can learn from the best practices and feedback of other experienced developers and system administrators, as well as showcase your own skills and knowledge to potential employers or clients.

2 How to find open-source projects?

Open-source projects can be found on various online platforms and resources. GitHub is one of the most popular, offering thousands of repositories that can be browsed by topics, languages, or keywords. Open Source Friday is another great initiative by GitHub, encouraging people to dedicate time each week to contribute to open-source projects. CodeTriage is a service that helps people find projects with open issues that need attention, and provides daily emails with random issues to solve or comment on. You can also filter projects by language, popularity, or difficulty.

3 How to contribute to open-source projects?

If you want to contribute to an open-source project, you need to ensure your contribution is welcome and useful. To do this, you should read the project's documentation, especially the README file, the CONTRIBUTING file, and the CODE OF CONDUCT file. This will give you an understanding of the project's purpose, goals, structure, style, and rules for collaboration. Additionally, you should browse the project's issue tracker for issues that are labeled as "good first issue", "help wanted", or "beginner friendly", which are usually suitable for newcomers. You must also fork and clone the repository to create a copy of the project's code on your own account and download it to your local machine. It is important to create a branch for each issue or feature that you work on. After making your changes and testing them locally, you can create a pull request from your forked repository's web page. The maintainers or other contributors will review your changes and provide feedback or approval. Revisions may be needed before your pull request is accepted and merged.

4 How to learn from open-source projects?

Contributing to open-source projects is not only a way to give back to the community and improve the software, but also a great opportunity to learn new skills and knowledge. To maximize your learning potential, you should read the code of other contributors and maintainers, the documentation of the project and its dependencies, and the discussions that take place among the contributors and maintainers. By reading the code, you can learn how they write, structure, document, and test their code, as well as compare different solutions and approaches to the same problem. By reading the documentation, you can learn how the project is designed, what features and functionalities it offers, how to use it, and how to troubleshoot it. And by reading the discussions, you can learn how they communicate, collaborate, and coordinate their work, as well as how to give and receive constructive feedback.

5 How to benefit from open-source projects?

Participating in open-source projects can bring many benefits, both personally and professionally. Contributions to open-source projects can be used to build a portfolio of projects that showcase skills and experience, as well as to improve a resume by adding relevant and valuable skills and experience. Additionally, contributing to open-source projects can enhance skills as a system administrator by learning new technologies, tools, and techniques, as well as soft skills such as communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Finally, participating in open-source projects can also enhance confidence and self-esteem by challenging oneself and overcoming difficulties and obstacles.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?