Greetings Readers! This blog is all about my journey in Open-Source, it covers all about me first discovering Open-Source, hosting a project in Hacktoberfest to meeting some really amazing people on the way. This Blog is written for the "Open-Source" track of the CoCodeBlogs Blog-a-thon challenge.
How it all started?
January 2021, Covid-19 was on it's peak and all of us were stuck inside our houses, because of which many of us, especially students had an ample amount of time on our hands, so did I, and so I began to explore things that piqued my interest for a long time, researching more about technologies was one of my interests, so I began to watch more tech content on Youtube and reading articles and posts on the internet about all things related to tech, this is exactly what led me down to the rabbit-hole of Linux, and hence the open source community. I have had some hands on experience with Linux briefly in the winter of 2019 but that was on a persistent USB with Kali flashed on it and not a daily driver.
Déjà vu
I had heard of Linux before, but when? I remembered that it was probably the summer of 2015 when I was at my cousin's place. He had just gotten a new laptop and, as a teenager, I asked to play some games on it, on hearing the same, he replied: "This machine doesn't have windows yet". On hearing that the 13-year-old me asked, what do you mean it doesn't have windows on it? What does it have instead then? Does it not boot? He replied that it had an operating system named Linux instead. I was fascinated, for it was the first time in my life that I got to know OS other than Windows can be installed on our day-to-day machines, I wanted to know more about it and install it on my system, but he said that we need to know to code for it and that it's something only programmers can do, and back then the only code which I could do was a little bit of QBasic which they taught us in school a few summers back and HTML, but that doesn't even count as a programming language, does it? Intimidated by his statement I kind of gave up my Linux dream back then and went on with my life. Little did I know back then, that it had already left an impression on my subconscious and that I'll be pulled back to it sooner or later, And it did happen briefly in 2019 as I mentioned earlier, but It was going to come into my life again, this time to stay.
Back to the present (Kind of)
As soon as those memories struck, I knew I had to fiddle around with Linux and actually use it as my daily driver. Due to some health complications and of course my pre-boards, that plan had to be put on a halt, but not for long. In June of 2021, I ordered a new laptop, and can you guess the first thing I did within a week of getting it? YES it was dual booting it with Linux, I started off with Pop OS, just because I didn't like the aesthetics of Ubuntu (Still don't, no hate). That was my entry point to the world of linux and hence open-source, Since then I have distro hopped many times, used various operating systems via Kernel-level virtual machines on Linux, and even used the infamous Sosumi (Linux users would know). The biggest transition was when I switched to Manjaro though, an Arch linux based operating system back in the winter of 2021, the AUR (Arch User Repository) got me overwhelmed, with the humongous number of contributions, and number of active users, I was absolutely shook to see how great open-source can be. For someone unaware, AUR is basically a treasure trove for an Arch user, you can find almost everything in AUR, ports of most software, some native apps, you name it, most of it is out there on the AUR. That is what inspired me to get into open-source, and make contributions that matter, contributions that help someone in one way or another.
Avant-Garde
I always thought of Twitter as a place to discuss politics, at times tech and of course the place people go to tweet about postponing JEE and NEET, and oh my, I couldn't have been more wrong, Kunal Kushwaha was the one because of whom I got to know that we can come over to Twitter, connect with like-minded people, show what we have learnt and grow our network while getting the well-deserved recognition for our work. To me, he is the avant-garde of Tech-Twitter in India. And it is all thanks to him that I started using Twitter.
The Journey so far
I made an account on Twitter as soon as I was done with my last JEE attempt in July 2022, after that I started staying active, following people who posted about opportunities and their learnings in tech, about the contributions they did and how great open source projects are. Time went on I kept learning new things and as October was about to start I got to know about Hacktoberfest, everyone around me thought of participating in it as a contributor, I thought in a slightly different way, I thought, what if I make a project which is beginner friendly and helps everyone put whatever they have learned into real-world experience, that is when I infused one of the dialogues from a movie I liked, "Brooks was here" from "The Shawshank Redemption" into a website where everyone could come up, edit the webpage, add their own section with their info and style it. And wow, the response to the project was VERY impressive, to say the least, as of now it stands at 164 forks, and 431 commits. These are extremely large numbers at least for me, at least for someone who just started out in open-source. Seeing everyone contribute, put their skills to use and consequently complete Hacktoberfest was a really great feeling for me. I felt good that I can help and be a part of the journey of all these amazing people irrespective of how small my part may be, and that is what motivates me to strive for more, to aim higher and do better.
Back to the present (for real this time)
Back to the present, it is January 2023 as of writing this blog, and I feel kind of proud of how far I have come. I wish to contribute to some amazing open-source projects myself and maybe someday make or contribute to something you all can use in your daily lives. I am extremely grateful to all the people I met on my way and extremely thankful to the fortunate coincidences that led me down this path of learning in public and knowing about open-source. I strive to help and promote information about the same to as many people as I can. Because all of this can truly be life-changing.
With that, I finally rest my words and bring this Blog to an end. Adiós amigo, Thanks for reading it all the way through, I really appreciate it. I would love to hear your thoughts on this little blog of mine so make sure to maybe drop a comment down below.