On Fri, 2012-06-29 at 08:43 -0400, Vero Vergara wrote:
Hi Ankur and everyone here!
Hi Veronica!
My name is Verónica and I'm from Quito, Ecuador. In computing, I'm interested in parallel programming, HPC and scientific computing.
Great! :D
While I've worked on Unix systems for the last few years, I've only recently started to learn more about system administration (on RHEL). I would like to contribute to one of these projects or (a combination of them): Packaging, Infrastructure, SciTechSIG, Testing. Any advice on which one would be the best place to start?
I personally think testing is the simplest to start with. (Not because it's simple: it has complex tasks too.) Rather, testing has a wider scope. Just enabling the updates-testing repository and giving karma[1][2][3] to packages is testing too.
Packaging and infra generally have a steeper learning curve. Since you've begun learning administration, you would already know some of what may be required at infra. Give them a shout, get started[4]? They might have work for you right away!
If you're interested in packaging too, I'd suggest a font package[5]. Font packages generally don't require any building/compiling from source. They're more about placing files in the correct locations. So, while working on fonts, you learn the "spec" in detail, but you don't need to learn various build systems at the same time (autotools, cmake, qmake etc.). You can concentrate on the rpm side of packaging and learn the work flow: review submission, review, the SCM, updates etc. If you're feeling confident, you can start with a non-font package too. (We have a wish-list here[6]). To get sponsored as a packager, you need to convince a sponsor that you've understood the fedora packaging system, or co-maintain a package[7].
The SciTech SIG will cover more than one area,i.e., it'll be a combination of packaging, testing, infra, design even. I see they have some open tasks here[8]: most seem to be packaging tasks. You can start with one if their packages if you want.
I hope the number of links I've given below doesn't scare you :P Just pick one and start XD!
Needless to say, if you have any trouble with whatever you choose as your starting point, ASK!
All the best!:D
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_test_updates [2] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Updates_Testing [3] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA [4] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure/GettingStarted [5] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Font_package_lifecycle [6] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Package_maintainers_wishlist [7] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_get_sponsored_into_the_packager_group [8] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/SciTech