Getting Started: Contributing to Open-Source Software

What is open-source software?

Open-source software (OSS) is simply software in which the source code is accessible to anyone. Users can view the source code, make changes to the code, and redistribute it.

OSS may be licensed under a variety of licenses. The key, according to the Open Source Initiative, is that the license “must allow software to be freely used, modified, and shared”. Some popular licenses for OSS include the MIT License, GNU General Public License, and Apache License 2.0. You…