Interest in broader release candidate testing?

[Moonchild]

I'm wondering if there are more people who might be interested in release candidate testing of the browser to catch potential issues before publication.
At the moment we're having a small group of core community members who can do this, but if there's interest, I could expand it with people with specific interest.

A few important things in that case:

• This isn't just "early access" or an unstable build. It's only a few days before each release and is meant to catch anything critical in final builds before they go live. This won't be for on-going development issues or stuff that's not directly related to the release.
• Even though builds tested are "release-ready" builds, they are not necessarily final and should never be disseminated to others. This is an absolute critical condition for participating in release candidate testing. If you don't think you can adhere to this hard rule, don't apply. We want to avoid RC binaries floating around as "release" that might have issues.
• Technical expertise and/or long-term use of Pale Moon is pretty much a prerequisite.
• Backups of your profile are essential.
• We'd be looking for people on different operating systems we directly build for: Windows 7-11, Linux GTK2 and GTK3, MacOS and FreeBSD.
• Fairly broad testing would be beneficial, specifically around the areas of the preliminary release notes that come with release candidates.

Communication and handling around this is done through the forum, to keep things organised.

Sooo... let me know what you think?

[suzyne]

Not being a sharer of things I am asked not to, I would be interested, but these are my weak spots.

• specifically around the areas of the preliminary release notes that come with release candidates.

Sometimes, I don't really understand half the notes.

• Technical expertise and/or long-term use of Pale Moon is pretty much a 
  prerequisite.

I am more of a "works as before" or "there's a problem, but please don't ask for a log file" type of user.

Surely, I could learn the second? But having been onboard for less than a year, that's not long-term anyway.

[Moonchild]

I would be interested, but these are my weak spots.

I appreciate you wanting to help but you may indeed not be the best kind of candidate for this. If you don't really understand the release notes then it'll be hard for you to test specifically in parts/areas that have changes.

That being said, "nothing to report" after giving it a few hours of work is also good feedback. I'd be happy if that's all I get because it means the builds are good to go.

However, it is pretty much a "here are the builds and preliminary release notes" and there won't be much hand-holding otherwise, just for clarity. It's assumed you know what's expected of you.

[ron_1]

I'm willing also, but in the same boat as suzyne is, as far as my "Technical expertise" goes.

[suzyne]

I appreciate you wanting to help but you may indeed not be the best kind of candidate for this.

That's fine and I half-expected such a response. Just expressing my enthusiasm to help the Pale Moon project, which I know I can do in other ways, so happy to leave the testing to the more expert!

[RealityRipple]

My OS is currently fairly generic Win10x64; doubt I'd add anything. 2025 will be a different story.

[somdcomputerguy]

I'd really like to be a part of the helper crowd. There are a few sites that I will goto using one of my 'secondary' browsers, usually Vivaldi or Floorp, and these are a/v streaming sites and the few .gov sites that I have to use. I have no trouble reading and understanding release notes, and wouldn't mind at all trying a new or updated Pale Moon thing.

edit: and I'm on the Windows boat, 10.

[Pentium4User]

How much experience in web stuff is needed?

I don't have experience in web development.

I could run those builds on my Debian and Fedora machines.

[Moonchild]

My OS is currently fairly generic Win10x64; doubt I'd add anything.

That's fine

I'd really like to be a part of the helper crowd.

Thanks, appreciated!

How much experience in web stuff is needed?

Not much. It's primarily to understand the release notes as written and having some idea what to test/check.

Anyway, seems like there is some interest so i'll make a forum group for it and provide pre-release board access to it.
Anyone else interested can then just toss in a request to be added.

[andy80]

I can also help in testing on linux, mainly the gtk3 version on openSUSE Tumbleweed.

[Moonchild]

The "Testers" group has been created which gives access to "Pre-release communication" (community core members also have access to that) where this stuff is done.
Note that we're too late in this cycle to get testing as it's release day today and I'm publishing, but next round y'all are welcome to jump in.

[lunapalida]

SCNR - inventor is looking for gammas and I for some popcorn ;)