Free and Open Source Software matters because it's real, and because you, the student, can see in to the guts of it. And when you go out into the real world, looking for a job as a Real Software Developer, you have a tremendous advantage if you can prove that you have experience in real software projects -- ugly, messy, confusing, gigantic software projects.

Without FOSS, getting experience in real software projects requires access, and probably permission, to see the source code. For students, that access is usually limited to those who can get internships or positions in co-op programs. Not everyone has the opportunity to spend the summer interning with a company that does large-scale software development, meaning that a vanishingly small number of students have the opportunity to work with large (closed) codebases. And even if they do, those students typically cannot show their work to anyone outside of the sponsoring company.

In the world of FOSS, the source code is available to anyone who wants to see it. Not only is the source code available -- also available are all of the interesting challenges that go with managing large software projects. In this book, we explore a number of these challenges and help you engage in them in direct and practical ways.