People behind ubuntu quality: Sergio

This post is part of a series on the people behind the ubuntu quality team. Let me introduce you to Sergio who has been an amazing contributor to the ubuntu-manual-tests. He hails from South America and is empowered to help the Spanish speaking population of ubuntu participate by making technical help available in there native language.

1) Could you provide a bit of background about yourself?

Hi! My name is Sergio Andrés Meneses as you can figure it out by my nickname (SergioMeneses), I am 24 years old, I am from Cúcuta/Colombia and I belong to the LocoCouncil and the Ubuntu QA-team.

2) How did you become invovled with the Ubuntu community?

I began with Ubuntu 7.10 and my first contact was in my university, Francisco de Paula Santander University. And later I met Ubuntu-Colombian team (My LocoTeam), where I learned a lot and especialy about how to work in community.

3) What attracted you to the quality team?

I always liked to work on testing, I have been really interesting about the quality in free software or open source projects, so this was an amazing oportunity to learn and help to do Ubuntu better. But in the Raring-cycle (13.04), I was more involved with another things like: Bugs, Reports, Test-cases, Testing-applications and as always: Testing-isos. This was my first contact officially with the ubuntu QA-team.

Contributing to the manual tests project

4) What would you say to folks new to ubuntu and/or testing?

An interesting question, let me think!... If you like technology, If you like to learn a lot and you want to share with amazing people. You're place is in the Ubuntu-Community. and why do you have to be in the testing team?... because we are the best team! we are not only users or IT engineers, we are friends with jokes, having a good time and the most important thing: we work to do Ubuntu better!

5) How would you describe the community and the experience of using ubuntu?

About the community I have the right word: Friendship, wherever you see friendship is the bigger characteristic in all the teams and it makes that your contributions on ubuntu are a good run. About my experience of using ubuntu: it's the best, I use Ubuntu in computers, its performance is amazing, as programmer and sysadmin I dont have any issue with it... I always recommend it. :)

6) What would you like to see in the future for ubuntu?

There are interesting things in the future but I'm going to put emphasis on two things: the rolling release system and ubuntu-touch especially phones, and why this? - because we had a passionate discussion in several mailinglists, blogs, forums, IRC... everybody was crazy! literally. But I like to see in the future something less technical: "I would like to see more young people working in the community, especially people from LatinAmerica"

Sergio mapping out a testcase for the software center

7) Do you have a favorite experience to share from being a part of ubuntu?

While I was doing my first merged, I didn't upload my code into my personal branch but I uploaded into +junk and I didn't what was wrong. Editors Note: uploading the branch to +junk means Sergio wouldn't be able to submit it in a merge request to the project he was contributing to. In other words, he made a contribution, but got lost trying to contribute it :-)

8) What is your favorite activity or interest outside of computing (including ubuntu!)?

I really like soccer! My favorite team is Manchester United (UK), I see many soccer games on tv and sometimes I play, when I have time enough.

People behind ubuntu quality: Carla

This post is part of a series on the people behind the ubuntu quality team. Below you'll hear from Carla Sella, who has been a wonderful spirit of can-do attitude on the team. Carla hails from Italy and enjoys being the guinea pig for new ideas and kickstarting new projects and efforts on the team. She's been a wonderful contributor to our ubuntu autopilot tests project, happily helping lead the charge towards automating our favorite desktop applications.

1) Could you provide a bit of background about yourself?

My name is Carla Sella (Letozaf_), I am Italian and I was born in South Africa. I work as a System Administrator in an Italian firm. I always loved having Linux installed on my PC's as I believe that "the only limiting factor of the Linux operating system is it's user". The thing I like most about Linux is the chance to hack and learn things.
I have tried various Linux distributions in the past, both at work and at home (maybe even Ubuntu), but it was only when a friend of mine told me about Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Community that I decided to give Ubuntu a better try and installed it on my PC, and now it's on my notebook, my husbands PC, my son's notebook and as soon as I will be able to, it will be installed on my Asus Eee Pad and my phone :D.
What I like about Ubuntu is the way Canonical and the Community are trying to make Ubuntu  an operating system for everyone, easy to use and not only for a restricted number of geeks. I think this is the best way to fix bug #1. Even if Ubuntu is "easy" to use this doesn't mean you cannot open a terminal and do some hacking too. With Ubuntu you can be a "normal user" or a hacker :).

2) How did you become invovled with the Ubuntu community?

I got involved in Ubuntu when a friend of mine, that is in the Italian Ubuntu Community, told me about the Ubuntu Community and how to contribute to Ubuntu.

3) What attracted you to the quality team?

The fact that I love Linux as you can learn a lot using it, joining the quality team is really cool and gives you the chance not only to learn a lot about Ubuntu and Linux, but also to try all the new features and "play" with them helping test Ubuntu before it's released.
You can do a lot of things from writing test cases to automatic testing, you just have to choose what you prefer doing best. Helping developers fix bugs you find is really cool as it makes you feel part of the Ubuntu world. And best of all you get to know a lot of interesting people from all over the world and you can exchange knowledge and improve your skills while helping test the latest Ubuntu release.

4) What would you say to folks new to ubuntu and/or testing?

Come and join the fun!
If you are a sort of a hacker and like to play around with Linux, you are in the right place. You can learn a lot and help Ubuntu while having fun.If you are not a hacker but a "normal" user, come an join too, you can also help by carrying out the easiest tests. There is place for everyone wanting to help Ubuntu work better and have less bugs. So stop complaining about the bugs and start helping to fix them :p.

Testing ubuntu on ARM with a pandaboard

5) How would you describe the community and the experience of using ubuntu?

The community is friendly, collaborating, fun, looking forward to the future and gives you the chance to improve yourself.
When I went to UDS-R back in October/November 2012 I got to know a lot of fantastic persons I had just known on IRC or by mail, they were all very kind and couldn't believe the warm welcome I received from everyone. Using Ubuntu is both user-friendly and hacky. I have been using Ubuntu for quite a long time now and  the improvements that have been made since then are incredible. It has changed a lot and is, to my opinion, the easiest and the most user-friendly  Linux distribution around.

6) What would you like to see in the future for ubuntu?

I wish Ubuntu will have the majority market share :p.

7) Do you have a favorite experience to share from being a part of ubuntu?

I have a lot of nice experiences, but maybe the favorite ones are testing Ubuntu 12.10 kernel on 12.04 userspace, hacking Autopilot with Nicholas, and trying out Umockdev with my camera on Shotwell with Martin.

8) What is your favorite activity or interest outside of computing (including ubuntu!)?

I love traveling, I like visiting places and seeing different cultures, how they live and how the places look like.
Most of all I like staying with my 7 year Son.

Meet the Ubuntu Quality Community!

I'm happy to announce a little blog mini-series, conspicuously entitled "People behind Ubuntu Quality". The next several posts will bring to you a set of interviews conducted with some ubuntu quality members. The interviews show the diversity in our team and work, along with the shared passion and interest we have.

Over the next several posts, you'll get a chance to virtually "meet" a few of the team members and witness the passion and diversity the team offers. Remember, we want you too! If you are curious to share in the excitement, have a passion to learn something, or have knowledge or skills that could help, please consider joining us. Now is an excellent time to learn the ropes, engage yourself and help ensure quality in the next Ubuntu release, Saucy Salamander!

Testing Ubuntu Touch Images (now with raring!)

Consider this text your giant disclaimer. Just a reminder these images are not intended for end-users; please don't go flashing your device thinking you'll have a replacement for android. These images are intended for developers, enthusiasts and testers who want to help. If this describes you, please read on!

I'm happy to announce the ubuntu touch images are now available for testing on the isotracker. And further, the images are now raring based! As such, the ubuntu touch team is asking for folks to try out the new images on there devices and ensure they are no regressions or other issues.

There are 4 product listings representing each of the officially supported devices; grouper (nexus 7), maguro (galaxy nexus), mako (nexus 4), and manta (nexus 10). You can help by installing the new images following the installation instructions, and then reporting your results on the isotracker. If your device has never run a developer preview image for ubuntu touch, you might need to read and follow the steps on the touch wiki first.

There are handy links for download and bug information at the top of the testcases to help you out. If you do find a bug, please use the instructions to report it and add it to your result. Never used the tracker before? Take a look at this handy guide or watch the youtube version.

Once all the kinks and potential issues are worked out (your feedback requested!) the raring based images will become the default, and moving forward, the team will continue to provide daily images and participate in testing milestones as part of the 's' cycle.

As always please contact me if you run into issues, or have a question.
Thank you in advance for your help, and happy testing everyone!

Filling the Gaps

I wanted to post briefly about the work that has been going on at the end of the cycle in the ubuntu quality team. Yes, we're testing the final images! Yes, it's been a wild ride that is nearing the finish! Yes, you can help contribute results! (And as we'll see below, you can help write tools too!)

But more than all of that, several team members have stepped out of there comfort zones and went to work on one of the testing tools we as a team utilize. The tool is called "Testdrive" and is written in python. Now, one of the great things I love to espouse on about with QA is the opportunity to work on many different things. There are needs to fit all interests, and if you are willing, the capability to learn.

In this instance, there is an opportunity to learn a little python and to work with a new team to help keep a testing tool alive. I'm happy to see that the same tool that was rendered broken in January by updates is now alive and well, with brand new contributors, fresh patches and even a release! Many thanks to smartboyhw, noskcaj, SergioMeneses, phillw, and the others who have reached out to ensure the tool that ships in raring still works. Thanks as well to the testdrive development team for engaging with us, reviewing merge proposals, and helping to ensure testdrive still works.

I look forward to a bright feature of new and improved testing tools. Specifically to those who contributed patches, with your new coding abilities, I can't wait to see what will happen next cycle! *wink, wink*

Beta Testing Extraordinaire with Ubuntu Quality

The quality team invites you to a testing event for the final beta iso images. We'll be providing real-time help (IRC, or even one on one video hangouts if needed), encouraging you to download the final beta images, install, upgrade and test them out with us. You only need yourself, a machine (virtual or real!) and a bit of willingness to learn. We'll even be broadcasting for part of the event on ubuntuonair. So here's the details you need to know:

Tuesday April 2nd, 2013

• 1800 UTC - 2200 UTC 
• Quality team members are dedicated to hanging out in #ubuntu-quality executing testcases and helping answer questions
•  2000 UTC: 
• We'll be streaming live on ubuntuonair doing live testing demos and offering help
• Basic iso test install
• More exotic examples -- netboot, server, non-english
• Your requests!

Interested? Great, mark the time and date on your calendar and check out the tutorial here to get a leg up on what you'll be doing during the event.


Can't make the 4 four window? Don't worry! Give testing a whirl anyways, and feel free to ask on #ubuntu-quality, and our mailing list for help.

See you on Tuesday!

Call for Testing: Smart Scopes

As discussed and planned, Smart Scopes have landed! Unity 7 too is landing, with many more features around getting 100 scopes installed, privacy, and dash improvements. For details on what Unity 7 is bringing, check out this post.

In support of the Unity changes, the Unity development team is asking for some extra testing on these specific features. So, we've updated and added a new testcase to our unity suite for these smart scopes. Pay attention to the cases marked mandatory and optional. The testcases relating to the smart scopes have all been marked as mandatory, and are the essential tests to run. That said, it doesn't hurt to run through the optional cases if you have time. We don't like regressions either :-)

So, here's what you need to know!

Never done a call for testing before? Read/Watch this first!; Call for testing walkthrough

Install the new unity from a ppa; Installation Instructions
 
Load the testcases and select one; Unity 7 Testing

Read the testcase, perform the actions listed and record your results.

If you run into any issues, please file a bug

Finally, please note the changelogs and build status found on the tracker, as well as any known bugs while testing. New builds will continue to trickle in over the next few days with new changes coming in. I'd encourage you to test and then re-test later in the week to follow-up on bugs you find, or test the new things that land.

As always please contact me if you run into issues, or have a question.
Thank you in advance for your help, and happy testing everyone!