Contributing to a Linux distribution

Posted by Big Al on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Big Al
Published on 2010-06-08T06:14:46Z Indexed on 2010/06/08 6:22 UTC
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Filed under:

linux

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language-agnostic

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operating-system

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linux-kernel

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linux-distro

I'm interested in contributing to a Linux distro, but regarding the various distro's developer communities, I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out which one I'd most like to join.

What languages I know: C, C++, Lua, Python, and fairly familiar with Perl (though I wouldn't say I "know" it). In particular, I have very little experience with x86 assembly besides hacking stuff together for performance tweaks, though that will be partially rectified soon.

What I'm looking for: A community that provides plenty of opportunities for developers to work on various aspects of the distribution. To be honest I'm most interested in reading and working on the kernel source (in which case the distro doesn't matter), but it's pretty daunting and I figure getting into the Linux community and working with experienced Linux developers might give me a better idea of how to jump into the guts(let me know if this is bogus, or if you have any advice regarding that).

So...

Which distro has the "best" developer community in terms of organization, people who are fun to work with, and opportunities to contribute?

I've read various "Contributing to XXX" pages and mailing lists for distros like Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Fedora, etc. but I'd rather get a more personal testament from an actual developer.

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