Here at Codethink, we’ve recently focused our energy into enhancing the onboarding process we use for all new starters at the company. As we grow steadily in size, it’s important that we have a well-defined approach to both welcoming new employees into the company, and introducing them to the organization’s culture.
As part of this overall onboarding effort, we’ve created How to Git going in FOSS: an introductory guide to the world of free and open source software (FOSS), and some of the common technologies, practices, and principles associated with free and open source software.
This guide was initially aimed at work experience students and summer interns. However, the document is in fact equally applicable to anyone who is new to free and open source software, no matter their prior experience in software or IT in general. How to Git going in FOSS is hosted on GitLab and consists of several repositories, each designed to be a self-guided walk through.
Our guide begins with a general introduction to FOSS, including explanations of the history of GNU/Linux, how to use Git (as well as Git hosting services such as GitLab), and how to use a text editor. The document then moves on to exercises that show the reader how to implement some of the things they’ve just learned.
How to Git going in FOSS is fully public and available for anyone to try. If you’re new to FOSS or know someone who is, then please have a read-through, and see what you think. If you have any feedback, feel free to raise an issue on GitLab. And, of course, we also welcome contributions. We’re keen to keep improving the guide however possible. One future improvement we plan to make is an additional exercise that is more complex than the existing two, such as potentially introducing the reader to Continuous Integration.
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