Open Source Comes to Campus/Wellesley/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.
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.
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.
Goal #4: practice using a plain text editor
Make sure you know how to use a plain text editor. If you don't have experience using one of those, ask an instructor for help installing one.
Our suggestions:
- gedit on Linux
- Notepad++ on Windows
- Komodo or Sublime for Mac OS
Goal #5: (Optional) Log into the provided server
If your computer doesn't have a C compiler, take a moment to log into the usual place you can compile homework code.
If you don't have such a place, raise your hand!
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.