March 7, 2023

The FreeBSD Project is excited to announce that we will again be serving as a mentoring organization in this year’s Google Summer of Code. If you’ve ever wanted to work with FreeBSD, take advantage of this amazing opportunity.

What is Google Summer of Code?

Not just for students any more, Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a unique program where new contributors to open source, ages 18 and over, are paired with a mentor to introduce them to the open source community and provide guidance while they work on a real world open source project over the summer. GSoC Contributors earn a stipend to work on their medium (~175 hour) or large (~350 hour) projects. Please note that this is not an internship, yet provides an invaluable experience and allows you to be part of an amazing community! Since its inception, Google Summer of Code has enabled more than 19,000 GSoC contributors from 133 countries to work with 800 open source projects and produce millions of lines of code.

Why Choose to Work with FreeBSD?

FreeBSD is an open source Unix-like operating system descended from the Unix developed at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1970s. Founded in 1993, the FreeBSD Project consists of several hundred committers and thousands of contributors.

Unlike Linux, FreeBSD is a complete operating system including kernel, userland, documentation, and tools giving those working with the Project a better understanding of how a complete OS works.

The FreeBSD Community is incredibly welcoming and those signing on to be mentors for GSoC are very committed to the success of their GSoC students. Many have years of mentoring experience with some coming from past GSoC programs themselves.

FreeBSD is used within many commercial products, including Netflix, Appleā€™s Mac OS X, and Sony PS4 and PS5. Working with the Project provides an excellent networking opportunity.

Want to Learn More?

Start by checking out the FreeBSD Summer Projects page and FreeBSD GSoC project ideas list. If you have questions, please reach out to the FreeBSD GSoC Admins and join us for the FreeBSD Google Summer of Code Office Hours on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 at 10am PDT/17:00 UTC

Applications are open March 20-April 4, 2023.

We hope you’ll take advantage of this excellent opportunity to learn more about programming in a welcoming community.