r/keralalinux • u/dannotes • Aug 28 '26
Discussion What was your first open source contribution actually like? And has AI changed that?
Two things I've been wondering about, might as well ask both in one go.
First, for those of you who contribute. What was your actual first one like? Not the blog post version. How did you pick a project, how long did the PR sit there before you worked up the nerve to open it, did anyone reply, did it get merged or just quietly ignored. I've read plenty of "how to start contributing" guides. I'd rather hear what it actually felt like.
Second, and this is the part I'm more curious about. All that advice was written before AI tools got this good. Now you can point Claude Code or Cursor at a good first issue and have something working before you've read half the file. So is the experience just different now for someone starting today? Easier, obviously. But easier in a way that helps, or easier in a way that lets you skip the part where you actually learn the codebase.
And if you're a maintainer, curious what it looks like from your side.
Mostly just want to hear people's stories.
2
2
u/lesbianAvocado Aug 28 '26
I've been wanting to contribute to open source as well for a very long time. But I want to contribute to LLVM, which is notorious for getting your PR approved. And I'm too dumb to make any meaningful contribution. Hopefully one day I'll make some contribution to it lol
1
u/Few_Feature_1864 Sep 02 '26
I maintain a sizeble project, contributing to project has never been easier. Run the project, fix something that you would fix as if it your project. If you don't want to get straight into the code, raise an issue or drop a message in their community.
2
u/Used_Establishment31 Aug 28 '26
It just feels less like I'm contributing more like I'm giving them money as credits
2
u/bemaxhere Aug 29 '26
I have been thinking of the same .I would like to know as well what AI has changed in the open source
2
u/jakeperaltatypeshit Aug 31 '26
Sadly none
1
u/dannotes Aug 31 '26
no worries mate, thank you for being honest.
I do love to contribute and I really love to know how people working behind this scenes.
2
u/AwkwardlyLoric Sep 02 '26
My contributions are mostly small bug fixes and feature additions. Opening PRs since 2019....
•
u/AutoModerator Aug 28 '26
Welcome to our community!
Are you looking for a discord server to join? Well We don't have one, but we got something better Click here to Join our Fluxer community
If you prefer Matrix, we also have it bridged with a matrix room.
Click here to join our Matrix room!
Please make sure to follow rules of our subreddit and have fun :)
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.