SPO600 Lab 1

 In the first lab of SPO600 course, my work is to explore two open-source software projects. As an Android user, who like to root my phone (I have a Pixel 6, and I saw you are having one too), I am using several applications that take advantage of root permissions. One of those apps is Adaway – an application that blocks ads system-wide.

Source: https://adaway.org/


Looking at its source code on Github, I found the software is distributed under GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE - Version 3. In short, PGLv3 is a copyleft license, which requires copies or modifications of the source must also be released under the same license.

Everyone can make contributions to the project by reporting bugs, suggesting enhancements, or translating to languages. For example, look at the most commented pull request – pull request number 784:



Source: https://github.com/AdAway/AdAway/pull


Source: https://github.com/AdAway/AdAway/pull/784

There were 21 commits and months needed in total to resolve the issue. There were five people involved in the process. The author of the project was the one who opened the case, and then people joined the conversation to contribute their efforts to help the author fixes the bugs. Most of the commits were done by the author in the branch he created before merging to the master branch.

 

Another open-source project I am currently using is GrapheneOS – a customer Android version


Source: https://github.com/GrapheneOS

In order to find bugs in the project, the developers of GrapheneOS created an independent repository just for issue tracking. The users can report a problem they encounter during daily use by opening a new issue ticket. For instance, these are examples of active issues that need to be fixed:

Source: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker

People can join the threads and make suggestions, comments, and solutions:

Source: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/159

If an issue is fixed, the issue ticket will be closed:

Source: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aclosed

Before you want to make a contribution to an open-source project, you should check the guidelines for the project. The guidelines will tell you what you should know in advance to start contributing. For example, Adway author suggests that you should discover the software’s structure and how to build it.


Source: https://github.com/AdAway/AdAway/blob/31d0b78b9e87de13727b758b42438ab14ff899cb/CONTRIBUTING.md

Additionally, there are also style guides you have to know if you make a commitment to Github to avoid style conflicts with different developers in the projects. In the case of GrapheneOS, the author recommends the contributors to visit a website, which includes all the instructions and rules for the project (https://opensource.guide).





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