1Haiku
2=======================
3**[Homepage](https://www.haiku-os.org/)
4| [Mailing Lists](https://www.haiku-os.org/community/ml)
5| [IRC Channels](https://www.haiku-os.org/community/irc)
6| [Issue Tracker](https://dev.haiku-os.org/)
7| [API docs](https://api.haiku-os.org)**
8
9Haiku is an open-source operating system that specifically targets personal
10computing. Inspired by the BeOS, Haiku is fast, simple to use, easy to learn
11and yet very powerful.
12
13Goals
14------------
15 * Sensible defaults with minimal configuration required.
16 * Clean, clear, concise code.
17 * Unified desktop environment.
18
19Trying Haiku
20---------------
21Haiku provides pre-built [nightly images](http://download.haiku-os.org/) and
22[release images](https://www.haiku-os.org/get-haiku). Haiku is compatible
23with a large variety of hardware, but in case you don't want to "take the
24plunge" and install Haiku on bare metal, you can install it on a virtual
25machine (VM) instead. If you've never used a VM before, you can follow one of
26the ["Emulating Haiku"](https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/virtualizing/) guides.
27
28Compiling Haiku
29---------------
30See `ReadMe.Compiling`.
31
32Contributing
33-------------------
34Haiku is a meritocratic open source project with a large variety of tasks. Even
35if you can't write code, *you can still help*! Haiku needs designers,
36(technical) writers, translators, testers... [Get involved](https://www.haiku-os.org/community/getting-involved/)
37and help out!
38
39### Contributing code
40If you're submitting a patch to us, please make sure you're following the
41[patch submitting guidelines](https://dev.haiku-os.org/wiki/CodingGuidelines/SubmittingPatches).
42
43If you're having trouble finding something in the source tree, you can use
44one of our web-based source code browsers:
45
46 * https://xref.landonf.org/ (OpenGrok, provided by Landon Fuller)
47 * https://git.haiku-os.org/ (git, provided by Haiku, Inc.)
48
49### Contributing documentation
50The main piece of documentation that still needs work are the API docs (found
51in the tree at `docs/user`). Just find an undocumented class, write
52documentation for it, and [submit a patch](https://dev.haiku-os.org/wiki/CodingGuidelines/SubmittingPatches).
53
54### Contributing translations
55See [wiki:i18n](https://dev.haiku-os.org/wiki/i18n).
56
57### Contributing software ports
58See [HaikuPorts](https://github.com/haikuports/haikuports/).
59
60### Contributing to our infrastructure
61See [Infrastructure](https://github.com/haiku/infrastructure/).
62