[lubuntu-users] consistent QA help really needed

[Walter Lapchynski]

Howdy folks,

Lubuntu really needs you right now.

Lubuntu has, as long as I've been involved with it, always been involved
in every single milestone release, including the alphas. We have been
adamant about this, even when other flavours don't. This goes quite
against the current opinion among the Ubuntu Release Team to get rid of
milestones altogether. 

With that said, I'm sure you can imagine what a shocking occurance it
was to find that we did not have sufficient testing to release Beta 1
this week.

I admit that there were some extenuating circumstances, including some
really annoying new bugs affecting us alone (including [one][1] that
fundamentally cripples the installation process at an early stage), but
this also shines the light on the fact that we really are in need of
help.

Lubuntu has always been a small team. That's never really changed.
Circumstances in the lives of core team members have resulted in a
little less activity on their part. In general, this wouldn't be too
much of an issue. We've weathered similar storms, but we need people to
finish this cycle successfully given the aforementioned extenuating
circumstances.

That said, I have a humble request: maybe just an hour of your time a
week?

I recognize that some activities require a degree of skill that many
people don't have, but even the most casual user can make a significant
difference in QA. 

Testing, as it affects us mostly, involves following a set of predefined
steps towards installing a system. If you don't have spare hardware,
this can be done on a virtual machine (this is easier than it might
sound). This can be done daily to keep track of overall quality. Look
for bugs that have already been reported. Even just confirming a bug
report can make a huge difference, let alone adding more information.
Filing a new bug is also huge. Marking a testcase (that's what we call
one set of install steps) as succesful or unsuccesful can be equally
valid.

Similarly, looking through existing bugs and confirming them can be
really useful. Not to mention even dealing with older bugs that don't
affect the development cycle. Even invalidating one of these older ones
can cut down on the overall workload.

I guess what I'm saying is that you don't need to be a developer. You
don't need to make a job out of contributing to Lubuntu. Just a little
bit of your time would make a difference.

What do you all think? If that's not convincing enough, what hurdles do
you face that perhaps the team could help with? Are you interested but
don't know what we're talking about? We will happily provide free
training.

Your thoughts on these matters would be most appreciated and our
gratitude for your help will be abundant.

Thanks in advance,

Walter

[1]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1754174
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