While the choice of suggested projects seems completely arbitrary, my issue is with the "Stay away from the Kernel part."
My fist ever contribution to an open source project was a silly little patch for the Kernel. While there was some initial indifference on the mailing list, Greg Kroah Hartman patiently guided me and after four iterations finally pulled in my patch.
True, there are more than a few grumpy Kernel hackers, there are also loads of folks willing to help out newbies. You know, like in ANY opensource project. Hell, there's a website and an awesome mailing list just for newbies!
My fist ever contribution to an open source project was a silly little patch for the Kernel. While there was some initial indifference on the mailing list, Greg Kroah Hartman patiently guided me and after four iterations finally pulled in my patch.
True, there are more than a few grumpy Kernel hackers, there are also loads of folks willing to help out newbies. You know, like in ANY opensource project. Hell, there's a website and an awesome mailing list just for newbies!