Friends in testing
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Introduction
The purpose of the Friends in Testing project is to perform and report short rounds of focused systematic and exploratory testing on the OLPC build candidate during the second half in each release cycle.
Participate
We'd love your help - please join us!
Participation in the Friends in Testing project is done one week at a time. You can start any time, and there's no obligation to continue after the week is over. This makes helping with Friends in Testing particularly suited to newcomers who are curious about testing but don't have a lot of time to spare for a first mini-project to attempt.
Who can participate
In order to participate, you must have an XO with a developer key that you are okay with completely wiping out and using as a test machine during your testing sprint (you will be able to restore your XO to its original state afterwards).
Potential risks
- Your XO's software may look and feel "weird." The new build you are testing may behave differently from what you're used to (that's the point - it's a new build). Before beginning to test, you can find out the build you're running (need link), and you can reinstall your original build afterwards (need link).
- Your Journal will be erased. However, you can back up (need link for backup) and restore (need link for restore) your Journal afterwards.
- Your Activities will be erased. However, as with your Journal, you can make a customization key with the Activities you want to keep, and restore your Activity set afterwards.
- You may brick your machine. We've made every effort possible to make sure that the builds that we release for Friends in Testing will not harm your XO, and to provide you with instructions on how to restore your XO to its pre-testing state, but there is a very slim chance that something might go awry and that you won't be able to restore your XO to its pre-testing state. It's never happened before to our knowledge, but we cannot guarantee it won't ever happen. We'll do our best to be honest with you each week about the risks you might be taking. We hope that, after reading this, you'll still want to participate; we do, however, want to make sure that if you're going to help us out, you know what you might be getting yourself into.
How to participate
Here's how to participate in a particular week's sprint.
- Make sure you read and are okay with the #Potential risks.
- Get a Developer key for your XO, if your XO does not already have one.
Finally, if you have questions about this effort, please leave them in Talk:Friends in testing or browse our other testing pages.