One of the most commonly mentioned benefits of open source is:
“Users can fix bugs themselves!” If you’re not a programmer, you
probably hear that and wonder, “What about the other 95% of us?”
But with standard Linux tools, tracking down a bug in common Linux
programs may be easier than you think.
You’ll learn how to search bug reports, file good bugs that developers
will want to fix, help track down what’s really causing a bug — and
sometimes even fix a bug yourself, all without any prior software
development experience.
The focus will be on what a non programmer can do when confronted by a
bug or similar software problem. Along the way, you’ll learn a few
useful Linux command-line tricks and see what makes the command line
so useful (if you don’t already know), and you’ll learn how to
navigate a few of the more common bug systems in use in popular open
source projects.
Akkana Peck is a freelance software developer and writer, and the author of the book “Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional.”
She has been an open source software developer for some 20 years and has contributed to Mozilla, GIMP and an assortment of other projects.
Her web site is http://shallowsky.com
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