== Desktop Testing Program ==

For every milestone of the development release of Ubuntu, we will be providing a series of testcases for you to run in that milestone. As soon as the milestone is officially released, you will be able to complete the tests in the following two weeks (although we encourage you to run them as soon as possible, to allow enough time to developers to fix the bugs).

One of the good things about this program is that you, as testers, will be able to know every time what to test, you will be able to check the new features before anybody else, and you will gain experience on the Ubuntu development process. Also, there will be a mailing list to share your experiences, bugs and to have direct feedback from the developers.

== Setting Up Instructions ==

 1. You have to have an account in our tracking system. We are going to use it to generate data (it will be publicly available).
  1. Go to [[http://desktop.qa.ubuntu.com]].
  1. Click on "Log In" and "Create New Account"
 1. Once you're done with the tracker, add yourself to the [[https://launchpad.net/~desktop-testing-team|Desktop Testing Team]] in Launchpad and subscribe to the mailing list.
 1. Send an email to the mailing list introducing yourself.
 1. You're all set!

== Testing Instructions ==

Every milestone (see [[#Calendar|Calendar]]), we will be starting a new testing cycle. The tests will appear in the tracker and everybody is free to submit their results any time during the following two weeks. The following milestone a new cycle will start, and results will be fresh again. 

Every testing cycle, you will see the tracker ([[http://desktop.qa.ubuntu.com]]) reset. You need to click on an application to see the list of testcases:

{{attachment:applications.png}}

The list of testcases appear, with a summary on how many results have been reported:

{{attachment:list.png}}

To read the instructions on how to perform the testing, and report your result, click on any of them. The testcase view will show a form to report your result and a link to the testcase wiki, to guide you through the process:

{{attachment:testcase.png}}

== Calendar ==

|| Cycle Name || Starts || Ends ||
|| Maverick Alpha 3 || Now || August 22nd ||
|| Maverick Beta || September 2nd || September 19th ||
|| Maverick RC || September 30th || October 7th ||

== FAQ ==

=== What about Kubuntu (or Xubuntu, or...)? ===

For the moment we are starting the program for Ubuntu Desktop only. Once the program is mature, if anyone in the community of the derivatives from Ubuntu want to start a similar program, they are more than welcome.