I've wanted to get involved sometimes, but I always hear only the best developers get actual commits, and I know I am not an amazing programmer so I haven't bothered :(
Your conception is largely false. I can't think of any project I work on regularly that won't give a commit bit to anyone who asks.
But keep in mind, for best success, the order of operations is "step 1. write code. Step 2. ask for commit bit". Sometimes it works the other way, but not as often.
Of course. It's not that commit access is my goal, it's that I'd want my work to stand a chance of being integrated into the kernel instead of rejected out of hand, and I've never been sure just how much that happens w/ no-names. If it's horrible code, then yes reject it, but besides esoteric drivers it's always seemed like a bit of an old-boys-club to this outsider.
These days having a commit access for occasional contributors is largely unnecessary. Most modern VCSs (i.e. not SVN) can distinguish between the committer and the actual author. This means that regardless of who commits your patch, you still get the full Ohloh-happy credit for your contributions.
Believe me, when you become a regular and valued contributor, the maintainers will gladly grant you the access. It's in their interest: less time to spend on patch reviews and commits, and an additional incentive for you to keep contributing. All sane maintainers care about the growth of their projects.
He's not talking about commit access. He's talking about actually having a chance at getting code in, rather than rejected outright.
The entire process is daunting. Here is the problem in a nutshell (or a comment):
1. I have an idea for something. I'd like to code it. First, I want to find if someone is working on it.
2. I try to search the mailing list, but don't find anything. Some things slightly cover it, but most don't.
3. I'd ask in the mailing list, but frankly, I don't want to sound stupid. Besides, talk is cheap, code matters, right? Besides, what I want to code up is small.
4. So I just code it up. I hack it up, and get it to work. Yay! It works for me!
5. So, now I need to send it back in. Hrm, who do I send it to? Lots of emails. Do I submit a bug report and then a patch? I can try that.
5a. Hey look! No one responds to my patch after weeks of sitting there!
5b. Hey look! Someone responded! Yay! They explain briefly that this is the wrong place for the patch.
5c. Hey look! Someone responded! Yay! They ask a question regarding something you have no idea about that possibly relates to your patch and Sparc processors. WTF!?
Here's the thing: open source projects generally make it difficult to contribute easily. This is a good thing. It forces people to truly commit to getting their code live. However, it is also a deterrent. Couple this with piss-poor documentation, and you have a serious problem. I'd love to develop user side apps for Gnome, but honestly, I just don't have the desire to wade through the mountains of misinformation and back and forth. I want to code, not spend time Google searching every 2 minutes.
This is something MS does very well, and why it gets the love of developers. They present an easy way to get up and developing on the MS platform, on any MS platform, with little to no effort. Developers spend their time developing, not installing half a dozen packages and then finding out that they don't have the exact version number of the package they need to have.
Yes, I've contributed to OS projects. I've contributed fixes to problems I've had. Heck, I remember doing some stuff with X to get multihead monitor support in my WM of choice at the time, and sending it in for a fix (not sure what came of it).
A lot of rambling here. I guess it comes down to developers scratching an itch. And since developers who are developing already have an environment setup, there is no need to scratch that itch anymore.
I should point out that most of my OS/Linux days were pre 2005. Mostly 99-2004, and so things probably have changed since then. I just remember the confusion, the lack of direction, etc. Maybe it was my inexperience at the time.
