Difference between revisions of "Contribution"

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Revision as of 04:14, 26 January 2020

Welcome to theIcon Disti GhostBSD.png Contribution Page.

Introduction

Requests to help GhostBSD on GhostBSD home page.


Join the GhostBSD Team

If you want to take an active hand in making GhostBSD even better, there are many ways you can help. What role do you want to fill?

This is a starting point.

There are many ways to participate in GhostBSD, this page is just your starting spot. Financial contributions are discussed on the funding page. Making changes to the GhostBSD wiki is discussed on the wiki editing page.

Writers

Description of this role: Writers write website content, manuals, guides, blog posts, and articles.

Skills you possess or want to learn
  • Writing, editing, grammar, technical, explaining complex ideas well, teaching, XML, Wiki markup, technical knowledge


Team/Project Example tasks
Docs
  • write documents, handbooks, how-tos, FAQs, marketing material, process/methodology docs, release notes.
  • write content in the Wiki.
Articles
  • write articles for BSD Magazine and other Magazine available.
News
  • write content for the GhostBSD News which is published on GhostBSD newsletter.
Development Docs
  • write Development tasks document Development,

If your interested please contact us.

Designers

Description of this role: Designers create artwork, logos, website, and user interface designs.

Skills you possess or want to learn
  • Ink scape, GIMP, OO.org, design, usability/interaction


Team/Project Example tasks
Design
  • create artwork and designs to for the GhostBSD community.
  • design projects including: GhostBSD Logo, Marketing Collateral, Promo Banners, Widgets, Theme, Icon Theme, Media Art, Posters, T-Shirt Design, Media Gallery, Wallpapers.
Fonts
  • find the best fonts to include, to please artists,
  • identify font creation tools needing packaging,
  • create and improve GhostBSD fonts,
  • propose good GhostBSD fonts defaults..
Usability
  • improve end-user experience with coherent, accessible and intuitive design for GhostBSD.

If your interested please contact us.

Developers

Description of this role: Developers write new features, track down bugs, and help package software.

Skills you possess or want to learn
  • Programming, Packaging, Debugging, BSD


Team/Project Example tasks
Infrastructure
  • help to provide servers, tools and utilities for the GhostBSD Project.
  • create new applications to make development of GhostBSD go smoother.
Release Engineering
  • manage the build system
  • maintain the package repositories
  • create the images for new GhostBSD Releases
Internationalization(I18n)
  • develop, package, and maintain applications like input methods for different languages.
  • improve applications and utilities to support and process different languages.
  • quality-assure that existing applications meet i18n standards.
  • support the infrastructure of the GhostBSD translation community.
Packaging and Porting
  • become a package maintainer to create and maintain RPM packages for software in GhostBSD.
  • join the Package Review
Bug triage
  • track down and shoot GhostBSD bugs in bugzilla.redhat.com.
  • strive to be a bridge between users and developers that aids in fixing and closing bugs.
Usability
  • improve end-user experience with coherent, accessible and intuitive interfaces for GhostBSD.
Websites
  • improve GhostBSD's image and create the best possible interface for users and contributors on the Internet.
Fonts
  • package new fonts and font tools,
  • review font packages before GhostBSD inclusion,
  • fix font or text problems in applications and libraries,
  • propose good GhostBSD fonts defaults,
  • identify font or text problems in applications and libraries,
  • improve font package descriptions and summaries to help users choose the right fonts for their needs.
Testing
  • test/break GhostBSD.
  • do quality assurances to help maintain a robust platform for GhostBSD.


If your interested please contact us.

Communicators

Description of this role: Communicators interact with people at events and online!

Skills you possess or want to learn
  • People skills, event organization, customer service/support, enthusiasm


Team/Project Example tasks
Ambassadors
  • represent GhostBSD Project to the broader public.
  • help spread the word about GhostBSD.
  • be a point of contact for local community members and channel the feedback to GhostBSD Project.
  • help recruit project contributors.
  • think of creative ways for promoting GhostBSD in your region
Free Media
  • help the GhostBSD Free Media Program distribute GhostBSD media (DVDs & USBs) for free.
Marketing
  • Develop a marketing strategy to promote the usage and support of GhostBSD worldwide.

In addition, * support the efforts of other GhostBSD projects to spread GhostBSD and help provide a central repository of ideas and information that can be used to deliver GhostBSD to new audiences.

Mentoring
  • become a mentor in the GhostBSD community and help, empower and mentor people in your area of expertise.
Support/help
  • provide help and support on mailing lists and GhostBSD IRC channels on Freenode.
  • provide Feedback to Developers about bugs.
Usability
  • improve end-user experience with coherent, accessible, and intuitive interfaces for GhostBSD.
Fonts
  • convince foundries to release fonts under a free/libre or BSD friendly license,
  • recruit possible free/libre font authors,
  • recruit new members,
  • get font or text problems fixed,
  • improve the visibility by getting it linked and quoted everywhere.

If you are interested, please contact us.

Translators

Description of this role: Translators, these help to maintain & expand ghostbsd supported languages.

Skills you possess or want to learn
  • English, Non-English native language, technical knowledge, diff, PO, translation, babel tool (kbabel, etc.)


Team/Project Example tasks
Work with Fonts
  • find the best fonts to include, for internationalization reasons,
  • document the preferred fonts for your locale,
  • improve the way a font supports your script by identifying problems and proposing ameliorations,
  • propose good GhostBSD fonts defaults,
  • identify font or text problems in applications and libraries,
  • prove font package descriptions and summaries to help users choose the right fonts for their needs,
  • convince foundries to release fonts under a free/libre GhostBSD-friendly license,
  • recruit possible free/libre font authors,
  • get font or text problems fixed,
  • improve the SIG visibility by getting it linked and quoted everywhere,
  • document font creation tasks,
  • document free/libre font release best practices,
  • document free/libre font packaging,
  • clarify, complete and improve our wiki,
  • identify interesting third-party material, and link it here,
  • convert wiki information to other document formats.
Work with OS Developer
  • translate the software to your native language.
Work with I18n (internationalization)
  • develop, package, and maintain applications like input methods for different languages.
  • improve applications and utilities to support and process different languages.
  • quality-assure that existing applications meet i18n standards.
  • support the infrastructure of the translation project L10n.

If your interested please contact us.

Web Developers or Administrators

Description of this role: Web developers administrators build and maintain the website infrastructure.

Skills you possess or want to learn
  • Php, HTML, CSS, Drupal, Media Wiki, Web app development, system administration


Team/Project Example tasks
Infrastructure
  • become one of the dedicated volunteers and professionals who provide servers, tools and utilities for the GhostBSD Project.
  • track down and shoot bugs on the GhostBSD websites.
Release Engineering
  • work on the programs that allow the project to produce GhostBSD every six months
  • fix issues with the build system
Websites
  • improve GhostBSD's image and to create the best possible web interface for users and contributors on the Internet.


If your interested please contact us.

Become A Beta Tester

Introduction

If you like playing around with operating systems and have a bit of spare time, one of the most effective ways you can assist the GhostBSD community is by reporting problems you encounter while using GhostBSD.

If you have a spare system, or virtual machine, you can also download and try out the latest stable, beta or release candidate available. These versions are still in testing and have not been officially released yet. Having as many people as possible using GhostBSD on many different hardware configurations assists the project in finding and fixing bugs. This makes using GhostBSD better for everyone. Subscribing to the GhostBSD Development mailing list is a good way to keep up-to-date on the availability of testing snapshots and any major bugs that are found within a snapshot.

If becoming a tester interests you, subscribe to the development mailing list. As new testing versions become available they will be announced on this list. You will also be able to see what problems other testers are finding and can check to see if the problem exists on your hardware as well.

Anyone can become a beta tester. Follow these tips so that you can accurately describe your findings so they can be fixed as soon as possible:

  • before sending an email, search the testing mailing list to see if anyone else has reported a similar problem.
  • when reporting a new issue, use a descriptive subject in your email that includes the error and the version of GhostBSD. Ideally, the subject should be short (8 words or less), and contains key words about the error. An example would be "bxPKG on 3.0-BETA1 Error while fetching".
  • ensure that the body of your email includes the GhostBSD version and architecture (e.g. 3.0-BETA1, Gnome 32-bit ISO version).
  • give a short (2-3 sentences) description of how to recreate the error. If there is an error message, include its text.
  • include any other info that may be useful (e.g. this seems to work on my 32 bit system or this used to work on 2.5).
  • if the problem appears to be hardware related, include a copy of /var/run/dmesg.boot as this file shows the hardware that was probed the last time the GhostBSD system booted.

How To Do That

If you like playing around with operating systems and have a bit of spare time, one of the most effective ways you can assist the GhostBSD community is by reporting problems you encounter while using GhostBSD.

If you have a spare computer system or virtual machine, try our latest alpha, beta or release candidate snapshot. These versions are still in testing and have not been officially released yet. Having as many people as possible using GhostBSD on many different hardware configurations assists the project in finding and fixing bugs. This makes using GhostBSD better for everyone.

To become a tester, contact us at one of the following online locations:

Download the latest development release

The latest installation media for testing can be found here.

Reporting issues

Everyone is eligible to become a beta tester. To aid us in fixing problems as quickly as possible, please accurately report findings using these tips:

  • Before reporting a bug, search the forum to see if anyone else has reported a similar problem.
  • When reporting a new issue, use a descriptive subject that includes the error and the version of GhostBSD. Ideally, the subject should be concise and contain key words about the error.
  • Ensure that the body of the bug report includes the GhostBSD version.
  • Give a good description of how to recreate the error. If there is an error message, include its text.
  • Include any additional info that may be useful.
  • If the problem appears to be hardware related, include a copy of the dmesg.boot file located in the /var/run directory.

Eric Turgeon, [08.04.20 13:46] on Telegram

We moved our project management to GitHub and we will be using GitHub for bug and feature reports.

  • If you need to report a bug related to the ISO or installation report them at
    ISO-Issues.
  • If you need to report a bug related to OS, kernel, drivers report them at
    Kernel issues
  • If you need to report a bug related to software report them at
    Software issues

Eric Turgeon, [08.04.20 13:47]

  • I think an new feature request should go at ghostbsd-build.

We need Feedback

If you find some typographical or grammar error in our documentation, if you have thought of a way to make this manual better, we would love to hear from you! You can report it by the Problem Report system, documentation forums or the docs mailing list.

When submitting any error be sure to mention the specific page and some of the surrounding text so we can find it easily.

If you have a suggestion for improving the documentation, try to be as specific as possible when describing it.

Also you can create a login account and fix it yourself. Your contributions are welcomed, however link spam or other unwanted additions will be removed swiftly and mercilessly. You simply have to create a login account in order to assist.