Can you point me (regular joe c# programmer) to some resources that show how to contribute to .NET and start the path to membership? I'm guessing the simple answer is "go to github, check out the latest branch of aspnetcore, start fixing bugs in the Issues list and pray to god someone accepts your PR" but somehow I imagine the barrier to entry is a bit higher than that. Thanks!

Great question! I'll get a blog post out with a more detailed answer, but some quick tips for getting started:

1. Start with conversation - it's much better to start with a new issue or a comment on an existing issue, letting the repo owners know that you're interested and want to contribute to a specific issue. They may give you tips, let you know that the issue's already being worked, etc.

2. Docs are a great way to get started. You can go to any of the .NET Core / ASP.NET Core docs on docs.microsoft.com (e.g. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/), click the edit button, make your corrections or contributions in the browser, and submit.

3. Many projects use the up-for-grabs label for issues that are easy for first time contributors, e.g. https://github.com/aspnet/AspNetCore/labels/up-for-grabs (again, start with a comment on these, since some of them are a little old and may no longer be relevant)

4. Don't just think about the big name .NET projects. Membership is open to contributors to any .NET Foundation project, including a lot of projects with small teams that would love some help. Check out the full list here (https://dotnetfoundation.org/projects), or tweet me with hashtag #dotnethelpwanted and I'll rt to help get you matched up.

5. Check out some of the help wanted listings, e.g. https://discoverdot.net/issues/?tab=helpwanted (remember we're looking for .NET Foundation projects for membership)

I just want to point out that you will not need to pray to God to get a PR accepted in a Microsoft repo if their docs team is any indication. They are nearly aggressively professional at handling GitHub issues. Minor mentions of confusions I've had on docs.microsoft.com were zealously assigned, pursued, and fixed, and the PRs I submitted to the code samples there were approved within a day or two.

I've had the same experience with docs, but the polar opposite with .NET Core FX and ASP.NET Core - seems any new features need to be discussed by committee, and can take several months or even years before they will then say "OK, send a PR", even for features that there is demand for.

Even for bugfixes, I've been really dissapointed in their responses - they call any change in behaviour a 'regression', and won't accept fixes, even if the behaviour they want to preserve only exists as a side effect of the bug, and nobody could possibly want in any case!

I write this as a .NET fanboi, but my negative experience of trying to contribute to Microsoft's OSS projects has been left me dissolutioned.

Versus the whole "we don't want telemetry on by default" argument which the response was "fuck off" then they shipped packages for Debian that the "disable the telemetry" environment variable didn't work on...

I've had the opposite experience about a year ago with their Node.js PowerBI repo. Although, they deprecated that SDK within a few months after, so it's possible it was more of a resource issue.

What changes from a .NET user perspective do you most anticipate from this? Do you think this may help push .NET users like Unity further towards FOSS in some ways?

That's hard - I've got a lot of big expectations here. If I have to summarize, I'm anticipating that this will make it clear to everyone that .NET is bigger than Microsoft, and the whole open source community is empowered to get things done without waiting for Microsoft to do it or give permission.

.NET Foundation is an independent organization, with Microsoft as an important member and big contributor, but .NET is owned by the community. I've heard a lot of great ideas for how the .NET Foundation could support projects better, do more for our Meetups (including providing content, support speakers with things like speaker grants, etc.), put on in person events, etc. - but we haven't had a good way for people to make it happen, and the foundation could only do so much. Now, by letting the community guide the foundation through community board seats and bringing on corporate sponsors, we really can scale up so that if someone has a great idea, they can just do it!

This is really cool news, Jon! This sounds like a great change.

Thanks, Brian! Thanks for all you've done to push us further with TechEmpower benchmarks.