Google Announces Summer of Code 2008

morrison writes "The 2008 Google Summer of Code is on. We have discussed this four-year-old tradition before (2005, 2006, 2007). Google will once again be hosting a program that gives computer science students a $4,500 stipend to work on open source software projects. Last year, Google funded over 900 students' projects in more than 90 countries. As noted in the program FAQ, this year they hope to do even more. The #gsoc IRC channel on Freenode is already buzzing with activity."

Comments

OpenMoko, coreboot, and ATI video drivers

[Anonymous Coward]

GO!

Too bad I get paid too much and actually have a real job. I'm being serious, it would be awesome to do a summer of code.

Re:OpenMoko, coreboot, and ATI video drivers

[CSMatt]

Agreed. I really need new ATI drivers. Neither the free drivers nor fglrx will allow me to suspend my laptop.

write a decent reporting tool

[timmarhy]

a database intergrated reporting tool like ms reporting services, but without the crap limitations and odd behaviour, would be awesome.

without it OSS in business still has a big FAIL stamped on it's forehead.

Re:What should get precedence?

[Matt Perry]

The anti-ballistic-chair defense system. Google's going to need it some day.

I'm surprised that Microsoft doesn't star their own "Summer of Code" considering how they keep saying that developers are so important.

Re:What should get precedence?

[Matt Perry]

they already have winter, spring, and fall. MS allows free (as in no cost, not five finger discount) downloads of all their programming/OS/Server software at my uni. (This is something MS "donated", they aren't getting paid for it).

It isn't about donating software. Software is cheap. Those same students can get free operating systems and development software that's non-Microsoft too. What Google is doing is donating the organizational skills to help students. They get to work on something that's larger than just a small personal project. They learn how to work within a larger team structure that may have established rules for code style, structure, documentation, etc. Most importantly, they are assigned a mentor who can help them navigate this new environment and help them to become better programmers. The financial reward isn't bad either. Microsoft isn't doing anything like that.

Re:What should get precedence?

[jesser]

Why? For most users, having fast (and accurate!) back/forward is more useful than having Firefox allocate less RAM. The feature even automatically turns itself off if you don't have a lot of physical RAM.

Turning off bfcache might be useful for rudimentary leak detection, but a proper leak-detection tool is less likely to be confused by fragmentation, other caches, or the OS simply not reclaiming memory that the application has relinquished.

Re:computer science students?

[Lincolnshire Poacher]

> This isn't limited to computer science students.

Quite true, but why do Google restrict participation to students?

The first goal listed on their SoC FAQ is:

``Get more open source code created and released for the benefit of all''

So why exclude professional developers who could crank out code?

I would dearly like to take a two-month sabbatical from work and
concentrate solely on writing code. There are huge voids in the
provision of free astronomical tools that could be addressed. But
finances dictate otherwise.

Instead, vast swathes of time and money will be wasted as students
learn about version control, rediscover elementary mistakes and
become entrapped in the politics of open source.

Thanks for nothing, Google.

Re:Small Winner and Big Winner

[Nazlfrag]

Even when you add the small winners together, Google still wins. Lot's of outstanding brainpower for dirt cheap. You're right, but it's not only brainpower Googles getting. The publicity itself would be worth the money, with the headhunting opportunities a distant second.