Reflections on FOSS

I have always been a strong proponent of Linux and the use of open source software. Since middle school, I was always the "odd one" not using windows and its proprietary software. I would always have to find some work around in completing my work, but it was always worth the feeling of satisfaction and the freedom in using free and open source software. Open source software is a great collaborative effort by a community of people who are driven by a passion for their work and interest in helping the workflow of humanity. It is not motivated by financial profit, or esteem, it is an effort to make quality code for anyone to use and to contribute to. There is something so beautiful and amazing about such an unorthodox way of producing software. There is no structured hierarchy of top programmers who dictate the direction and release of such software. It is open to anybody to contribute and maintain. The freedom that comes with open source software is refreshing. One just has to download the source code and alter whatever they want about a particular distribution of linux, or some piece of software. They could make such changes without altering the original and could release as some other distribution. This collaborative community effort for designing and maintaining software is an astounding testament to the things we can achieve as a collective. This 'bazaar style' of coding is in stark contrast to the commercial production of code, one with strict deadlines and an established hierarchy of bosses demanding these deadlines be met. There is a great feeling of relief when contributing to these FOSS projects. It is a great site when there is a healthy community of people contributing to something with passion and excitement. The open source community almost feels as though it is a gathering of like minded people pursuing their passions of technology and the engineering of software. Although the process seems to be lacking in structure and organization, there are many example to the contrary. Take for instance the various popular linux distributions such as Ubuntu or Fedora; there are regular releases put out by a team of developers. These are all organized efforts to release these distributions but can also be contributed to by the community. A beautiful cathedral can be constructed through the hard work and dedication of a passionate community. This project has shown be the other side in this process. I am not just passively using this software anymore. I have been equipped with the tools needed to meaningfully contribute to, in my case, sklearn. There are many reported bugs and problems that I have been perusing on the github page. There is no shortage of work to be done for this machine learning library, the issues tracker page for scikit learn has appropriate labels for the types of problems and their respective difficulties.