First, some OSS projects/apps I know of are Peertube, Lemmy (right now using Voyager app), Mastodon, Matrix (used to use the Element app, gave up because I realized it was too hard for those around me who got used to Whatsapp), OpenStreetMap (through OrganicMaps), Jellyfin, and Actual Budget, Godot Engine, Luanti, GrapheneOS... I might know more, but those are the ones I remember right now.

Second, I have some basic experience with programming (mainly Java [haven't learnt GUI yet tho], SQL, and C# for Unity videogames), but no experience entering an already created codebase yet, let alone making changes and sending them (and I admit I might need to get some practice with Git), so it is pretty intimidating. Do you have any advice about it?

Third, I'd like to hear about projects you find interesting or useful. Not neccesarily to contribute or even use them myself, but I'm interested in which other projects there are out there.

Edit: Thank you for the responses, what I got was basically find OSS to replace not-OSS I currently use, and contribute either fixing issues myself, helping with other stuff (making issues, writting or translating documentation, helping newer users), or giving feedback on the project.

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[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Basically two choices:

Find a project you're interested in and make a contribution. Many projects tag certain issues with something like "Good First Issue" as a way of lowering barriers to entry. Other things are updating documentation, fixing typos, then you can branch out into patches and pull requests.
Make your own FOSS project.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Pretty much on point.

You don't have to touch the whole codebase to contribute, you can only touch the parts you are familiar with.

[–] digdilem@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

A lot of the replies so far focus on fixing the problem yourself, which is awesome if you're a coder.

But even reporting problems is a big help to all projects. Found a bug? Report it - give the right information and be cordial.

Also, contribute sensible suggestions. Some smaller projects suffer from a single owner not understanding how others might use their work because they don't have that perspective (certainly an issue for me). Plus, getting involved and contributing this way can be a huge motivator to these small projects. It can be pretty disheartening to work hard on a passion project and not hear anything back from users.

[–] thevoidzero@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This. After leaving Reddit I feel like I lost a place I could post about my little foss app and get people to try it. Specially in the niche topics.

I am trying my best to get people I know try but they don't understand the domain, and I don't have a reach to people that will understand

[–] digdilem@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

I know what you mean - although I've found the... receptiveness? on lemmy is generally better than reddit for most things, but yes, the scale is tiny in comparison.

[–] TotallyWorthLife@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

So making sure all bugs are accounted for, and making suggestions/giving feedback to developers, thanks for the advice

[–] MightEnlightenYou@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Find something wrong or something you think could be improved. Check if it's a raised issue or on a roadmap. If not, raise the issue. Fork the repo, fix the issue, make a pull request.

Github is probably the most accessible for doing this, create an account and learn the basics.

[–] TotallyWorthLife@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Already got the Github account, and know some basics, but I think I should learn further as I only know the basics (forking, making branches, uploading the modified code to my fork, and making pull requests, don't even know to do these in detail so I guess I'll look at more extensive Git and Github tutorials lol)

[–] MightEnlightenYou@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

That good! Now you also need to find something you want to fix or improve :)