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!

Kick-starting quality for Ubuntu Touch

I wanted to write a post about the excitement of the new platform and the wonderful new challenges we face ahead of us. Now, given that this platform is being written right now from the ground up, those with a nose for quality instantly perk up. We love well tested applications, and developing with tests in mind from the start is much easier than attempting to retrofit. Seeing the first fruits of the developer effort is very exciting -- good work everyone!

So with that in mind, I started looking at some of the excellent work the core apps teams are doing with there applications. They've been working with the design community to turn the nice mockups into reality. I took the liberty of checking out and running some of the first versions of these applications. The calculator is one that stood out to me as already closing in on its specification. So armed with some of the design conversation for the calculator, I started a branch to create a set of manual tests for ubuntu touch applications, starting with the calculator. If you are interested in quality, now is the time to be involved! The applications can all be installed and run on your phone or even a ubuntu desktop.

So what can you do?

If you're a tester;

• Install the core apps from ppa:ubuntu-touch-coreapps-drivers/daily
• Run the applications, take a look at the designs, and start putting together some testcases
• Push your testcases up to the manual test repository
• As the applications mature in functionality, help test by participating in the calls for testing and cadence weeks for the platform.

If you're a developer and have questions on writing tests for your application, feel free to contact me. I would love to see not only nice unit test driven code, but also some end user tests via autopilot, and I want to make sure you as a developer have the resources to do so. In addition, we as a quality community are happy to help test with you and write some manual tests to do so for your application.

I'm helping!