Hello Aniket (and all), Long-time lurker here. I too am a student, and would love to be working on this. However, FoxBoron's comments on the thread seem to me to be pretty on-point and pragmatic with regards to the logistics aspect of it. Another issue I have is the limited number of areas within Arch that make good "GSoC-friendly" projects. If we were to consider this idea we would need to come up with a good Idea List <https://google.github.io/gsocguides/mentor/defining-a-project-ideas-list> for potential candidates. Comparing to the GSoC projects of other Linux distributions (Fedora, Debian, openSUSE) most of them seem to be stuff like UI redesigns, Android app makeovers or something that explores some previously unimplemented idea (P2P network booting over BitTorrent in Debian). Most of these don't even apply to Arch because of our KISS philosophy. Besides FoxBoron's reproducible builds idea, and other improvements to the build system, I can't really think of other improvements. Most of the ideas I can think of are community tools (a CLI tool to make creating packages easier). We could possibly extend the umbrella to include community tools as well, but we still need mentors who're willing to part with their time and energy. It would be really great if others chimed in and shared your thoughts about possible ideas or criticisms. On Fri, 1 Feb 2019 at 22:52, Aniket Pradhan <aniket17133@iiitd.ac.in> wrote:

Hello Everyone!

I am Aniket Pradhan, a student.

Please refer to this < https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/al0v84/participation_of_arch_lin...

...

Reddit thread I had raised earlier and was recommended to ask here.

I was wondering if the Arch organization is willing to take part in this year's GSoC and if there are any developers who would like to participate and mentor students through the GSoC program? As discussed by FoxBoron (in the Reddit thread), the mentorship is not reimbursed and will be time-consuming (a bummer).

However, we can have some really cool projects related to Arch for the GSoC. Like something related to Pacman, or anything else related to Arch (I don't really know where to draw the line between community-driven tools/software and official Arch software).

The GSoC will provide exposure to the students and will also help the organization in the final run. The students will also get to learn more about Arch and how it works. There are other numerous benefits which I am missing.

I am really interested in Arch, and really want to contribute to it. I am currently maintaining a few packages on the AUR, and would like to do more.

-- Thanks

Regards Aniket Pradhan Byld | Cyborg Member ECE Undergrad | IIIT Delhi http://home.iiitd.edu.in/~aniket17133/