The Open Source Community Is Remarkable

It is easy to think that because most Open Source Software is free, then it must be of low quality. On the contrary, most Open Source Software is of very high quality, due to the fact that a lot of people review it and work on it to eliminate bugs.

The obvious question becomes, what motivates developers working on Open Source Software to devote their time and expertise for free? There are several motivations for software developers working on Open Source Software.

Experience is the first one. One of the best ways for a budding developer to gain hands-on experience in software development, is to work on Open Source Software projects. The kind of environment offered by Open Source Software development allows their work to be reviewed by more senior and experienced developers.

This is the best way to work on real life software, with the guidance of more seasoned developers who guide budding developers in the art of software development, and help them on the path to gaining practical and valuable hands-on experience.

Another motivation is the peer recognition and the increased sense of community. Working on Open Source Software projects allows a developer to build a reputation and gain recognition from other developers. Furthermore, as a developer working on an Open Source project, one can benefit from being part of a community built around the software, and gets a sense of belonging.

A third motivation to consider is job prospects. Working on Open Source Software provides a developer with a reference for job prospects. Since Open Source Software is publicly available, prospective employers can look at the work done by a developer, by looking at their commit history made on public repositories such as Github.

In such repositories, the work done by a developer can be easily inspected by prospective employers, in order for them to evaluate the developer’s skills for suitability for developer roles.