Open Source Projects: Finding/Joining/Contributing?

[JeffAxe]

I am out of college and working as an Application Developer for a major corporation. As successful as that is, it really doesn't satisfy me. The code I write is boring and really doesn't interest me. So I would really like to join an open source project that I could put some heart and soul into during my off-hours.

However, I have no clue where to start.

I'm well aware I could start my own project. But considering I am a newb to the whole OSS programming scene, it is probably better that I start off as a tester/debugger instead of a project leader/manager.

So are there any developers involved in open source projects on this forum? If so, how did you start? Are there any resources that I could tap to find projects or to put myself out there?

TIA

[loftx]

I haven't done much contribution yet, but I just found a project I liked which had some bugs, downloaded the code, and made some patches to improve it (I haven't actually sent them to the project maintainer yet, but that's another story).

Most of the bigger OSS projects (e.g mozilla) have thier own pages on how to get started, and if it's a smaller project you could just try emailing the lead developer.

You could also contribute to ubuntu, as opposed to a specific project, there's plenty of lists of tasks which need doing. For example, the desktop team set some tasks in their first newsletter (http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-desktop/2005-December/000097.html), which might be good ways to start helping out.

Edit: If you're looking for somewhere to find projects, try http://sourceforge.net/ in the Linux section

[sapo]

I know exactly how boring is what you do.. i m in the same boat.. everyday coding boring php code, everything is almost the same :(