GNU MediaGoblin
Now, I’m rather new to contributing to free software projects but MediaGoblin got my attention. Learning about GNU/Linux and free software has been a slow process, apart from my various stints at running GNU/Linux on my MacBook I have stopped fighting the technology and will be more informed and selective about my future hardware purchases.
Unless someone donates some generic hardware I’m resigned to hack away on my MacBook in OS X. Throwing myself in the deep end I set about exploring MediaGoblin’s Hacking How to and tried to figure out how to get started.
After some hit and miss I managed to get the packages I needed via MacPorts, previous tinkering meant I already had it on my machine. With Git already installed I managed to narrow down the install of packages down to one simple MacPorts command.
sudo port install python27 py27-lxml py27-sqlalchemy py27-pil py27-virtualenv py27-gst-python py27-pastescript
There were compatibility problems with running the older 2.6 version of Python and also the newest 3.3 version. I found the sweet spot with python 2.7 and after following the rest of the instructions have a MediaGoblin instance running on my laptop.
My expectations for being able to run the code out of the box were well managed and after only a few hours tinkering have my very own version of “Flickr” to play with. I feel confident I could install it on a web server and might eventually create my own instance online.
Now I begin my journey to get to grips with python and with a few introductory programming courses under my belt I feel I might be able to get involved and contribute something small to the project.