Do you use Xubuntu to get things done? To e-mail, browse the internet, fill in your tax return, write your novel? To share photos with your family, to calculate the cost of your next big holiday? To blog, draw, learn, teach? To code like a ninja or design like Picasso? Do you use Xubuntu because it suits your needs, and like it enough to care about it?
Then the Xubuntu community needs your help to make Xubuntu better, faster, and easier.
New versions of Xubuntu are developed by the Xubuntu development team. Developers deal with the complicated task of writing updates to your favourite software, but then this all needs to be checked to see if it works for the many, many different ways in which the end user (that’s you) could possibly use it – i.e. which combination of computer, apps, printer, monitor and assorted hardware you will be using.
So, Xubuntu really, really needs you, whatever your experience, to join in and help.
Luckily, helping is really easy. You just try out the daily ISO‘s live session and install the current development version in a virtual machine or on physical hardware. And when anything goes wrong, or is not quite as you expected, or where you would like it to work differently, report back to the community.
This is called ‘testing’ or ‘QA’ (Quality Assurance). You won’t get paid a bean, but you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you helped everyone else in the community – and of course, as an end user, you are helping yourself too.
Testing occurs throughout each 6 month ‘Release Cycle‘, but more rigorously during testing weeks, so you can start anytime. It’s easy to join the community on IRC or telegram and help Xubuntu – just have a quick look at the wiki pages for new testers, watch these useful videos (video 1, video 2), and get testing! For more in-depth details, see the QA section of the Contributor Documentation.