Open-Source | Anurag Bhandari

Contributing to open source projects

Posted on August 31, 2019August 31, 2019 — Leave a comment

It’s high time for me to level up my developer mojo. Clearly, doing side projects isn’t the way to do so. They usually aren’t tough enough. Then what is? Why, of course, large enterprise projects. Based on this logic, I have decided to dedicate a couple of hours everyday to working on complex, large-scale open-source projects.

I recently picked up a new skill, Redux, and renewed my knowledge of React. So much so that I have drifted away from Angular in favor of React. React+Redux is a deadly combination. It sort of brings out the JS nerd out of you, and makes you better at best practices. No wonder why the best websites around are using React. (install the React DevTools browser extension and discover for yourself)

Since the time I've installed #React DevTools, I am amazed every day to see yet another of my favorite websites using React. RT if you've had a similar experience. pic.twitter.com/ymWKpoNjrh
— Ashcharyachakit (@AnuragBhandari) August 24, 2019

After looking around, I have shortlisted these two projects to focus on:

Calypso – a new frontend for WordPress.com
Mattermost webapp – frontend for an amazing free & open-source Slack replacement

Both are written in JavaScript (my love) and extensively make use of React and Redux. I have already started making slow but steady progress. My first pull request, although trivial, was recently approved and merged at wp-calypso.

The Exciting New Puppy

Posted on January 28, 2013March 27, 2019 — 2 Comments

LXPUP -- Puppy with LXDE — LXPUP — Puppy with LXDE

A couple of days back, I got myself a new puppy. Nope, not the dog sort. It’s a variant of Puppy Linux, and comes with LXDE. The most wonderful aspect of Lxpup is that it is a perfect fusion of an ultra-lightweight feel (of Puppy) and a more usable (and beautiful looking) desktop environment (LXDE). Really, Puppy works so amazingly out-of-the-box and is so incredibly damn fast that it is pretty hard to resist. Add to it its binary compatibility with Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise), and that makes it nothing short of legendary. In short, that gives users the ability to download apps from one of the biggest package repositories on planet.

Puppy’s default window manager, JWM, is kinda annoying to say the least. LXDE is a decent mix of usability and small size, and blends so well with Puppy. In fact, Lxpup’s default customization of LXDE is pretty enough to make you want to keep using it for long.

I’m currently loving my Puppy experience. It runs completely off my USB pendrive. And needless to say, I’m making this post from within Puppy. 🙂

OpenMandriva Association logo contest is live now

Posted on January 25, 2013March 27, 2019 — Leave a comment

OpenMandriva, an association formed to create a community-based Linux distro sponsored by Mandriva SA and ROSA, is now a registered non-profit organization in France. The progress over at OM is going pretty well, and now they need a logo for the association.

Yesterday a logo contest was launched by OM, which will accept user-submitted designs that’ll be later put up for voting, and the best submission will be selected as OM’s official logo.

Think you have what it takes to make the logo for an open source association? Then head over to openmandriva.org for contest details. 🙂

The mighty impressive Slax 7

Posted on January 9, 2013March 27, 2019 — Leave a comment

I was so impressed with the latest iteration of my oldest favorite mini distro, especially its KDE implementation, that I immediately wanted to make Granular’s next release look like and as fast as Slax. Slax 7 comes loaded with all the bare essentials that actually make sense. Plus its ability to run from a USB drive without much efforts makes it a winner to me.

Everything just works, very straightforwardly. It has a lot of stuff packed in a small size of 220MB, which is a marvelous feat (made possible by use of compressed/packaged modules). But it may or may not detect all of your hardware correctly. For me, it didn’t recognize my WiFi module, which I got working by installing the necessary firmware files (look here for instructions). My laptop’s (Synaptics) touchpad performed fine, but its vertical edge scrolling didn’t. I corrected that using the command synclient VertEdgeScroll=1.

Raspberry Pi looks delicious

Posted on September 5, 2012March 27, 2019 — 4 Comments

A geeky thing for the geeks, but generally touted as an educational device – that’s what Raspberry Pi (wiki) is in simplest words. It has pretty much the same hardware configuration as did my first PC. And now that it’s finally out in the wild, it’s perhaps every geek’s dream to extract the hell of the maximum juice out of it. Engadget came up with a nice article about putting the thing to good use: housing a Linux distro! And that too a GUI one (LXDE)! Now that really got me drooling. If I could get my hands on this cheap sweety (just $25!), the first thing I’ll do is… install Linux, what else. 🙂

Raspbian running on Raspberry Pi. Photo Credit: Engadget