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- 58% of open source contributors vanish after 2 commits
58% of open source contributors vanish after 2 commits
Welcome to edition #56 of the We ❤️ Open Source newsletter!
Want to build AI projects without massive upfront costs? 58% of first-time open source contributors make one or two commits and vanish—here's how to make contributions that actually matter. This week we're exploring what makes a meaningful contribution (it's not fixing typos), examining Agent Identity Protocol as the security framework agentic AI desperately needs, learning how developers can engage with policy makers before AI regulations lump us with deployers, adding free AI code review to open source repos, and reviewing whether NixOS is the most powerful Linux distro in 2026.
Made and curated by real humans.🙂 This week we'll look at...
DB Mastery Series 2026
A year-long series built for engineers who run databases in the real world.
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Articles
 | AI is writing code faster than humans can review it — and open source maintainers are paying the price. Qodo's AI code review platform is free for any open source repo on GitHub. Structured findings, cross-file reasoning, and zero cost. Set it up today. WHY WE ❤️ IT: The collaboration described in the article is a good example of empowering developers with a powerful AI developer stack. Plus, Dana Fine and Nnenna Ndukwe do amazing work! |
 | Is NixOS the most powerful Linux distro? Learn Linux TV reviews the distribution that treats your entire system as code. Discover how declarative configuration, atomic rollbacks, and functional package management make NixOS fundamentally different from every other distro you've used. WHY WE ❤️ IT: In this hands-on review, Jay demonstrates that, while there's a learning curve, the declarative model feels more structured than constantly patching systems in place. We feel many in our community will love this. |
 | 58% of first-time open source contributors make one or two commits and vanish. This guide skips the "fix a typo" advice and gets into what actually makes a contribution matter — to you, to the maintainer, and to the project. Read it before you open that PR. WHY WE ❤️ IT: We feel there are few articles more important (and helpful) than this one. Making a meaningful contribution is often the first step in someone's open source journey. This article helps you get it right. |
What's in your technology toolbox?
AI agents with unchecked permissions are a breach waiting to happen. Agent Identity Protocol (AIP) is an open source framework bringing least-privilege access and audit trails to agentic AI. It's in alpha, headed to the IETF, and looking for contributors. Read the spec. Join the build.
From the We ❤️ Open Source Podcast
 | State AI regulations don't differentiate between developers and deployers, potentially impacting open source contributors responsible for downstream uses. Katie Steen-James explains how developers can engage with policy makers through Federal Register comments, the Open Policy Alliance, and why the developer-deployer distinction protects open source. |
Featured podcast short
Wrap Up
If you've made it this far (thank you!), check out everything we do, our YouTube channel with 1000's of open source talks, the many meetups we host around the southeast and NYC, the All Things AI spring event we co-host, and of course All Things Open, the largest open source tech conference on the US east coast.
We hope you learn something new this weekend!
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