There are many ways you can give something back to the free and open source software (FOSS) community. You can help new users come to grips with Linux or write documentation for your favorite app. If you have coding or graphic design skills, you can help in those areas as well. But, what if you're really itching to contribute to a FOSS project and can't find one that really appeals to you? The answer, of course, is to start your own!

Now, obviously, you'll need some prerequisite skills for this. You'll need to be pretty adept at the programming language you're going to use. But don't let that put you off – if all goes well, you'll spend more time implementing patches from other users rather than writing new code by yourself. I can attest to this: When I started the MikeOS project [1], I wasn't especially knowledgeable about x86 assembly language. But I learned the basics – enough to judge the quality of the patches that then started trickling in.

Creating a whole new FOSS project may seem like a daunting task, but if you break it down into steps, it becomes a lot easier. We've watched many FOSS projects come and go over the years – and have our own experiences starting and contributing to them – so this month, we'll share what we've learned to help you successfully kickstart your project.

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