First things first
Check out our participate page to get a good feel:
http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate
How to get started
Ubuntu is very easy to get started with. The first step would be to jump on IRC, and join some of the #ubuntu- channels depending what you are looking for. Ubuntu needs you! We are one of the fastest growing distributions, and have a ton of users, and need the development community to grow along with us.
Easiest way to help
Bug triage. What this means is that you help troubleshoot bugs, categorized them, reject them as needed. This helps because the right people can see the bugs easier when there are not 60,000 open. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/HowToTriage.
Getting started with packaging
This is a bit harder, but the best way to get started here is to check out the MOTU. MOTU deals with a huge amount of packages. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU
One thing to keep in mind is that some things may not be able to be learned in a matter of hours. But you get to work with fun people, and learn valuable skills, and most importantly help make your OS kick ass.
Update
I have been reading feedback on this post, and probably I should have explained what IRC was. I am going to post a blog on the future about IRC and how to use it, but here it is in a nutshell: IRC is a chatroom program. It lets you communicate with other ubuntu users and developers in chatrooms sorted by topic.
You need an IRC client
Windows: MIRC
Linux: Xchat (ubuntu users can install this in synaptic, or at the command prompt type sudo apt-get install xchat)
You need to know how to use it:
Windows users: http://www.mirc.com/irc.html
Linux users: http://www.ddruk.com/articles/display.php?id=48
You need to know where we are:
Server: irc.freenode.net
Channels: #ubuntu, #ubuntu-devel, #kubuntu, #ubuntu-effects, #ubuntu-bugs, #ubuntu-motu
“But I don’t know how to use Linux at all!” — Start out by downloading Ubuntu (Edgy) at http://www.ubuntu.com. Once you download it, we have a great support community at http://www.ubuntuforums.org.
I am from digg and I am so sick of these Ubuntu posts!
I guess it’s popular to have an operating system that costs you nothing, and is only getting better. Go figure?
This blog is just spamming to get adwords revenue!
Yes, you caught me. I made $2.64 since January.
Related posts:
#1 by Idiot or Good Supporter on April 7, 2007 - 6:04 pm
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It is a little daunting sometimes to become involved in such a large community. Trying to keep perspective and take little nibbles cab seem cumbersome if you have come from an open source project where you can be one of the top developers to becoming a nobody again.
I so want to join in but my enthusiasm can seem, as Jono put it in a videocast, like an idiot. No one wants to be an idiot but sometimes we do things without thinking it through.
Lets hope we can all start small and work our way through to being really useful instead of idiots!
#2 by Ukubuntu on April 8, 2007 - 4:53 am
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One of the most difficult things for many new users to Ubuntu is that they are new to Linux as well. They may even be very inexperienced with any form of programming. This makes the bugslist a bewildering place, and trying to get a handle on all the command line recommendations on irc very difficult to keep track of.
For these people they may still be very valuable. Non-technical documentation, writing experiences or reviews for the Ubuntu magazine fullcircle, and just becoming more familiar with the Ubuntu system itself. Self-learning, with help from support on irc or forums if needed, will help you understand the system better. If you find out something useful that was not easy to find elsewhere then document it as others may be in the place without seeing answers.
Bug triaging and packaging help may be easy for a seasoned Linux person, but for a new user wanting to make their contibution, there are still ways to help.
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#3 by cables on April 8, 2007 - 1:04 pm
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You should post a link to the Freenode Java client, for people who want to ask a few quick questions without installing a client. (http://java.freenode.net//index.php?channel=ubuntu).
#4 by Adam Pieniazek on April 8, 2007 - 2:19 pm
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One of the best things a non technical user can do is inform other users of the open-source community via word of mouth. I myself do this nearly every day and have converted over nearly 100 people to openoffice.org and hope to do so with Ubuntu. I started using Ubuntu about 2 months ago and it is my first Linux experience but I’m learning a ton every day and although I’ll never be able to help with the development of Ubuntu I can still contribute to the community by marketing the program…every blog post, article and word of mouth exchange will only improve Ubuntu by gaining more and more users for it…
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#5 by Craftkiller on April 8, 2007 - 9:53 pm
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I absolutly love Ubuntu and I’m glad you posted this but just to warn you I believe it is against the adsense TOS to disclose your adsense earnings on your website
#6 by sharms on April 9, 2007 - 12:01 pm
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Never specified it was from adwords, I think I am in the clear.
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