There are a lot of tasks that are part of a really successful free software package. Free software developers need to write source code, work with other people, track and fix bugs, reply to user requests, add features, distribute new releases, create installation and configuration scripts, do testing, tune for performance, and promote their package.
The resources available for free software developers are scarce. Often they are working in their spare time, and there can be many people contributing to a single package, seperated by great distances.
For free software to be a contender for a role which proprietry software has been used before, it often needs to be clearly better than the proprietry software.
It's possible to write reliable, portable, feature rich, popular free software, just by working hard and being lucky. But most successful free software projects do much more than that. They establish processes, use tools to automate their work, and develop the software using the "right" software practices from the very start. And by doing these things, they don't need to work so hard, and they don't need to be lucky.
I'd like these web pages to outline successful strategies for developing software. I'd like to offer different alternatives for different needs, and give people ideas. I'll provide links to other people's ideas, and summaries of what I can. I'll give suggestions on tools and techniques, and try to find tutorials or references for any technical skills you might need to pick up along the way. If nothing exists, I'll try to write it myself.
Most of the time, the tools and techniques I recommend will be geared towards developing for Linux. This is because of the immense popularity of Linux. Most of the software developed for Linux is easily ported to other Unix-like systems. Some of these tools will be available for proprietry operating systems - but because it's free software, if it's not available, you can port it yourself. Partners free ringtones: Rock Ringtones POP Ringtones Jazz Ringtones Rap/Hip-Hop Ringtones R&B Ringtones Electronica Ringtones World Ringtones All Genres Ringtones
I'd like it to be a fully stocked kit for starting projects, as well as a place where maturing projects can come to see what they might be able to improve on.
In addition, I've added a number of resources related to the free software community as a whole, for those who are interested observers, free software users, or developers waiting for something to compile.
