This is the story of how I became a contributor on the Fedora Release Schedule Planner application hosted on Codeberg.
I started my open-source journey when I got my first laptop. It was old and slow, but I needed it for school, so I started looking into how to fix this.
My Introduction to Linux
While looking around for a solution I found Linux, a free operating system that runs on almost anything.
This led me to dip my toes into the Linux world starting with Puppy Linux. This tiny was perfect for my old laptop.
The experience was amazing; I was blown away at how fast and efficient my laptop became. This initial success sparked my interest in learning more about Linux and open source software.
Discovering Open Source Software
Since I was a Windows user before, I had no idea about open source software. I was also broke so all I knew was the endless cycle of looking for cracked software. Using pirated software honestly felt wrong to me.
Playing around on the small Linux distro had me discovering a wealth of free and open source software. Everything from GIMP for image editing, LibreOffice for productivity and Blender for 3D modeling all for freely available. This was liberating; I no longer had to rely on shady sources for software.
Digging further made me realize that I could actually contribute to these free software. The notion that I could not only use but also help improve the software I loved was incredible.
Getting Involved in the Fedora Project
Thanks to how easy Linux makes learning programming, I learned a few languages. This eventually led to me being able to actually make contributions
I also distro hopped a lot and found myself using Fedora as my daily driver. Been using it for a while now and love how stable and polished it is.

Anyway, once I saw that Outreachy was looking for Fedora contributors I decided to apply. There were a lot of skilled contributors to the project I had applied to, but I was determined.
I managed to scrape through and get in as an intern. I am now working on improving Fedora’s release schedule management by transitioning to something more functional and efficient.

The project can be found on Codeberg.
The plan is to learn as much as I can from my experienced mentor, Tomas Hrcka. While doing so engaging with all the other open source contributors will provide a great deal of knowledge and networks.
I hope to learn from this experience contributing to Fedora so I can get others involved with open source software.
The post From Open Source User to Fedora Contributor appeared first on Fedora Community Blog.
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