Hey, I'm Vishal, a student from IIT Kharagpur. I'm not extremely familiar with the ReactOS ecosystem, but I like what I've seen so far. I'm a free software enthusiast and can definitely see the benefits of having an open-source (even if not considered Free/Libre Software by the FSF) OS that can run Windows programs.
I want to help set up a student pipeline that helps students, hobby programmers, etc., contribute to ROS and accelerate its development. I have a general outline as to how this pipeline would work and involves convincing professors and course instructors to include (mini)projects and coursework that revolves around contributing to ROS. Apart from this, a student group could be setup that revolves around contribution to ReactOS (there are several students groups, headed by professors, in my college that deal with topics ranging from robotics to machine learning).
To achieve this, I believe students need to be incentivized. Students here often desire to have something worth mentioning on their resumes. Instructors also wish to give better quality projects to students rather than recycle old ones every year. I think a combination of all these can be used to funnel at least a few ROS developers every year (even though I'm not one right now). I'm aware of GSoC, and I feel it's not enough. If the ROS community were to set up some sort of an incentive program (not monetary), one that "officially" recognizes student contributions, it could produce a stream of developers who could contribute heavily in the future.
I can understand if some people in the community feel that interested programmers will help them anyway and that the efforts that go into this might not produce a proportionate result. But I think students can be nudged towards ROS contribution by simple incentives such as recognition. These outreach programs (not just limited to my college) can, in my opinion, accelerate the development of ROS.
Thanks, Vishal Subramanyam
Hi Vishal,
Engaging students into our project is something we do for a long time. For example, there are several programs in universities lead by our current/former contributors on doing assignments and coursework with ReactOS (see commits like this one, for example https://github.com/reactos/reactos/commit/73f6b44f8543ea386a590d290139d43b13... ).
Your idea looks cool, but I don't quite understand what are you proposing specifically.
set up some sort of an incentive program (not monetary), one that
"officially" recognizes student contributions
What do you mean by "recognition"? I see only one criteria for that - "recognized" code is merged upstream. What else can it be? At ReactOS it does not matter much whether you are a skillful developer or a student, people just take the task they are able to finish. There is always somebody in our chats: Mattermost/Matrix/Discord available for help (especially for a questions that are properly asked).
So can you please elaborate on your proposal?
Cheers, Victor
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Victor Perevertkin -
Vishal Subramanyam