Are we ready to move on this?
If so, when can it be ready, what would be the email-addresses, and
what would be the email address for non JS users?
I am. I’ll do this this afternoon (EU time) or tomorrow at most.
Joining Message
The following will be the joining instructions. Any suggestions for changes?
What’s the testing team?
It’s a group of people who commit to testing updates or releases of Qubes OS and who are willing to provide test and confirm issues, or identify particular edge cases. This is key to detect issues early on and catch them before they affect more users.
What’s the risk?
For those willing to enable the testing repositories for the current release the risk is minimal to testers because any packages end up in current anyway.
However, if security is crucial in your case, you should strictly use the stable release, not enable the testing repositories and not join the testing team.
How to join the testing team?
Request to join the testing team
- Via forum (preferred): request to join here (requires javascript and a forum account)
- Via email: send an email to
register-testing-team at forum.qubes-os.orgsaying you’d like to join (does not require javascript nor a forum account)Follow the instructions for the kind of testing you want to help with (testing updates / releases)
Report issues weekly in the appropriate category:
- If testing updates in the “4.0 Testing” category or by emailing the form
4.0-testing at forum.qubes-os.org.- if testing releases in the “4.1 Testing” category or by emailing the forum
4.1-testing at forum.qubes-os.org.You can leave the group at any time by following steps similar to the ones in
1.
Soft launch or hard launch?
Either are fine with me. We could do a soft launch Qubes-project-wise and a hard-launch on the forum, pinning the topic globally for a few weeks.
i fixed some typos in the draft message
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This isn’t right - it’s not sufficient to run 4.1 - you would
also have to enable the testing repositories. Otherwise you could
report on something that has already been identified, resolved, and the
fix be in the pipeline.
It’s important that team members update at least weekly. This should be
made explicit. (This is because some packages transition after a week.)
Also, the order is wrong.
The request to join should come first, then enable the testing
repositories.
You have also toned down the warning that I suggested.
We should explicitly say that where security is crucial, users should
use the stable release, and not enable the testing repositories.
It’s important that we use the mailing lists too, including the (soon to
be defunct) testers list.
Typo here, I think.
I agree that this underplays the risk. It’s worth noting that there are (at least) two kinds of risk: security and stability. The stability risk of testing can be quite high. Users who need their systems to be stable (e.g., can’t afford down time or lost work between backups) should not be doing any testing on those systems.
I’m also fine either way. Might get more uptake by publishing a Qubes news post and usual syndication via social media venues, or might not if all would-be participants already see it here and on qubes-testers. If you want to do it, let me know. (We could probably just use an amended version of this post with you as the author.)
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@adw @unman @michael I have edited the original post to reflect this feedback. Let me know if there’s anything that needs additional fixing.
@unman since via the email you can’t see the modified post, I’ve PMed you a copy of the current version.
The part that needs the most work probably is now the risk part. Feel free to suggest a new version. I’m out of ideas. The current version is as follows.
@michael thanks for fixing the typos. @adw, if you see typos anywhere, feel free to edit my posts straight away 
. I’m a typo producing machine 
I’m not following. I thought the whole point of our new direction was to use the forum as the mailing list. What do you mean?
A notification on the forum would not be adequate.
Announcements will need to be sent out to the mailing lists, including
the testers list.
Ah! I see. The announcement is to be sent out to the mailing lists. Makes sense. For that I guess it will be @adw’s task if you don’t mind.
I’ll let @unman decide that. I feel like announcing on the mailing lists and the forum as a pinned post will do the job well.
With no major objections to the modified joining instructions, everything ready on my side. So let’s just set a date for sending out the “email” blast and we’ll go ahead with it.
No problem. It’ll simply be a copy/paste of your message with a note stating that it’s from you.
The idea is simply to inform anyone who’s still subscribed to qubes-testers and/or who doesn’t watch the forum.
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And people who read qubes-users, qubes-devel, maybe qubes-announce, and
qubes-project.
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Hence the “and/or who doesn’t watch the forum.” All such people either watch the forum or they don’t. If they do, then they’ll see it anyway, and if they don’t, then they fall under my second category. 
It sounded like the announcement wasn’t completely done yet. Is it? If so, just provide me with a copy of the finalized announcement, and I’ll send it out for ya. (Or you could simply email the lists yourself, if you prefer.)
Some changes:
What’s the testing team?
It’s a group of users who help make Qubes better.
They commit to testing updates and releases of Qubes OS, and are willing
to provide test results, confirm issues, and identify particular edge cases.
This is key to detecting issues early on, and stop them affecting more users.
What’s the risk?
For those willing to enable the testing repositories for the current release
the risk is minimal, because the packages will end up in current anyway.
If security is crucial to you, you should use the current stable release,
not enable the testing repositories, and not join the testing team.
How to join the testing team?
- Request to join the testing team
- Via forum (preferred): request to join here (requires JavaScript and a forum account)
- Via email: send an email to
register-testing-team at forum.qubes-os.orgsaying you’d like to join (does not require JavaScript or a forum account)
- Follow the instructions for the kind of testing you want to help with (testing updates / releases)
- Report issues in the appropriate category:
- If testing updates, post in the ‘4.0 Testing’ category, or email
4.0-testing at forum.qubes-os.org. - if testing releases, post in the ‘4.1 Testing’ category, or email
4.1-testing at forum.qubes-os.org.
You can leave the group at any time by following steps similar to the ones in 1.
Packages move through the testing process quite quickly. Ideally you
would be able to update at least once a week.
When 4.1 moves toward release, we will see if we can test some of the
open issues in 4.0, and confirm they have been closed.
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Ok. @deeplow, could you update your pinned post with the final version and make it public so that I can link to it from the email announcement?
Also, don’t we need to make the whole category public?
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