Open Source Comes to Campus/CCSF/Laptop setup

Goal #1: install an IRC client

IRC is a real-time chat protocol that open source projects often use to talk about the project and as a medium for users and developers to help each other.

• Windows
• OS X
• Linux

Note from within CCSF wireless, IRC is blocked by the network administrators. So you should use this web chat link instead.

Here’s a nice summary of irc basics:

• http://www.ircbeginner.com/ircinfo/ircc-commands.html

To test your IRC client or the freenode webchat connect, connect and say hello on #openhatch on irc.freenode.net

• https://openhatch.readthedocs.org/en/latest/community/contact.html

Goal #2: practice navigating from the command line

Many of the tools of open source development are primarily used via the command line. Let's get some practice with navigating the computer from the command line.

• Windows
• OS X
• Linux

Goal #3: install git

Git is a popular revision control system that is used by many open source projects. We'll use it during this workshop.

• Windows
• OS X
• Linux

Goal #4: create a GitHub account

GitHub is a popular Git repository hosting service used by many open source projects. We'll use it during this workshop.

• https://github.com/

Goal #5: practice using a plain text editor

Make sure you know how to use a plain text editor. We have some text editors that we recommend.

Our suggestions:

• Notepad++ on Windows
• KomodoEdit or Sublime on OS X
• gedit on Linux

Goal #6: (optional) Practice the command line by learning about tar

In this step, you can work through a training mission intended to teach you about how open source projects use the tool tar to create and decompress collections of files.

To work through that, visit:

• https://openhatch.org/missions/tar

Success!

You are done with laptop setup!

Take a break, stretch, meet some neighbors, and ask the staff if you have any questions about this material.

Bonus material

Here are some things you can do once laptop setup is over:

• Find and join an IRC channel for something you are interested in.
  • on Freenode, try #ubuntu (the Linux distribution), #web (web development), #gsoc (Google Summer of Code)
  • You can get a full list of Freenode's channels here
• Learn about Google Summer of Code and look at last year's accepted mentor projects.