Is Open Source a Freeforall?

Agile programming in India writes:

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“I hear alot about open source, everything is open source, how people write code on mailing list and Apache and all that… but I ask dear reader, how do they manage to fix BUGS? When many people write code it is hard and you need a methodology, but open source tell us that we don’t need methodology, any person can change code? How does this work? I know, they are good, but no methdology? Open source needs a plan. A new plan. It is not agile enough. you want to insert problems in my code, boy?! Go, join open source mailing list! NO good.”

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Most people who work on open source projects are professional programmers who use the products at work. The individuals in the Apache HTTPD group contribute to the web server because they each use the server at work. The same goes for most any open source project.

Very few open source projects let any one change the code, in the way that Wikipedia lets any one change an entry. (And even Wikipedia is locking some entries down now.) Anyone can submit a patch, but an established “committer” has to decide whether to apply the patch.

How do you get to be a committer? Easy: Act lke a committer. File tickets, submit patches, and post to the mailing list. (But most of all, submit patches!) Once the group sees that a developer knows what he or she is doing, usually, someone in the group will offer write access. But you have to prove yourself first.

As to methodology, most projects use tools like mailing lists, commit logs, issue trackers, and wikis to discuss the code and apprise everyone of every change we make. For more about open source infrastructure, see The Open Source Secret Sauce