Contribute to ReactOS
The ReactOS Project always seeks new qualified contributors from all skill levels. No matter if you are a developer, tester, editor or designer, your contribution is highly appreciated. Please see below for all available positions and contact us via Mattermost or the mailing lists.
Every year we participate in Google Summer of Code which is a program by Google that lets you work with us during the summer to work on a major project. Google pays the student, and ReactOS provides guidance and assistance in the form of a mentor. Check our Wiki page for more information.
We also conduct Hackfests every year where our team comes together to socialize and work on issues together.
Kernel Developer
For the ReactOS Kernel and drivers, we are looking for people proficient in C, and it is a big plus if you are proficient in C++ too. C++ proficiency does not equate C proficiency, so do not assume you have the latter if you have the former. Also keep in mind, again, that these are the minimum requirements. On top of these you need to be a good problem solver, believe in the mission of ReactOS, and most importantly, be able to demonstrate that you can work with the ReactOS codebase via a few pull requests.
If you qualify for this position, you’ll be joining the very small and exclusive ranks of people who know how to do NT systems development. And believe us, those ranks are very, very small so you will be gaining an immense amount of knowledge working with such people. It’s a great experience to interact with people who have been working in this field for over the years.
Application Developer
ReactOS User-Mode applications are written in C or C++. You can have a look at Win32 development using C++ to get started with developing GUI applications using the Win32 API. Also check our Development Introduction wiki page which pretty much covers all of the details on getting started with development for ReactOS.
Web Developer
The ReactOS Infrastructure builds upon several components written in PHP. If you are comfortable in PHP and want to help improving this website and the tools ReactOS developers use, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Tester
No operating system is usable if it is found to be unstable and prone to crashes. As ReactOS development work involves studying the behavior of an operating system that is not completely documented, testing is of even greater importance in order to fulfill the objective of binary compatibility with Windows.
You can assist the ReactOS development effort by installing regular nightly (master) builds available here and providing feedback on issues/problems you encountered during and after installing the OS via our bug tracker. More information regarding debugging is available here and is recommended reading for those who wish to submit a report to our bug tracker. For this, you need to have basic knowledge in collecting information from a crash like backtraces and crash dumps. Knowledge of using a basic debugger is a plus.
We have several Wiki pages for setting up a debugging environment and building using different compilers too:
Jira Maintainer
We use Jira to keep track of issues. This position is for people interested in maintaining Jira. You will have to look after the development/work progress in the bugtracker and assist in triaging the issues. This includes but is not limited to: Asking for the exact version that was tested, disseminating logs (or asking further steps to provide those), labeling issues.
Content Editor
The best operating system is pointless if nobody knows about it. As a team of mostly developers, we need some creative people to post content to our website and social media accounts (such as Facebook and Twitter). In this role, you will write articles, make changes or update the Wiki pages. Our current site is generated using Hugo. New design ideas are welcome too.
Community Manager
The ReactOS community keeps in touch via Mattermost and our forums. The role is to keep people involved, keep discussions going and moderate.
Translator
Localization is fundamental for an operating system to be used by many users around the globe where English is not their mother tongue. If there’s a language that ReactOS is not currently translated in or you like to improve the current existing translation in the operating system please take a look at the following article at how to begin translating ReactOS.
Paid jobs
While ReactOS is an open-source project mostly driven by volunteers, we know that some tasks could profit from having a paid developer look at them.
ReactOS Deutschland e.V., the non-profit organization supporting the ReactOS Project, has been collecting donations for this purpose and supports several models for paid development:
Scholarships
Interested students with a proven track record of working on ReactOS can be granted a monthly scholarship (which is tax-free in many countries). This requires enrollment at a university but hardly any paperwork.Contracted work
Freelancers able to invoice ReactOS Deutschland e.V. can be contracted for individual work that benefits the project. This requires a proven track record of working on ReactOS-related topics as well as a detailed proposal.