Corey, thanks for your comments,
> Having run the testing team for a while, I can say that the wiki > really doesn't work well. Agreed. Most of it should and could be easily automated, and have a simple form/checkbox for the remainder with comment fields. The amount of time to fill out a report currently is fairly significant - something that could be done in about 3 minutes if well designed, currently takes about a half hour to an hour. > That being said, I don't know that any > sumitted reporting information is really truly useful. Laptop models > change so quickly and so does Ubuntu hardware support. For many laptops the driver often works, but it needs the right configuration information. So documenting the right configuration information needed in a central location could make large steps towards getting more laptops (especially older laptops) working 'out of the box'. > This is conflating two issues. The LaptopTestingTeam is truly for two > purposes: 1. find bugs and fix them 2. show how well a particular > model works in Ubuntu. > > There was some talk about "showing manufacturuers" that it just works, > but a wiki page really isn't going to convince them, IMHO. I used the wiki page as an example of what the current state of the information is, and also to point out that, at least from an outsiders perspective that there doesn't appear to be any current coordination on the topic. For instance the laptops listed as 'Canonical Supplied Laptops' which to me implys that these would be the best tested and supported laptops, only one of twenty has been listed as tested with Gutsy Final. Of the community supplied laptop tests, it has a slightly better percentage - but not much. > Nearly every major hardware vendor already does or will soon be > offering pre-installed Linux on their computers. While great to hear, the 99%+ of laptop users who don't own laptops with linux preinstalled, and those future laptop users who don't purchase a laptop with linux preinstalled, who will make up the vast majority of potential Ubuntu linux users for the forseeable future that is of limited utility. > And no, this kind of effort does not need the support of Canonical or > "Ubuntu upper management" (does that mean me, as I sit on the CC? I > have never thought of myself as upper management). > All you need is a > couple of people to dedicate a couple of hours emailing all the people > on the testing page, cleaning up old pages, etc. So as the individual running the testing team'if in your opinion it would only take a couple of hour' of your time (4 hours by your given estimate) - why haven't you done so? Also the current list covers about 1/2 a percent of laptops (my guesstimate based on the Corsair configurator http://www.corsair.com/configurator/ ) The desire for Canonical based coordination is multifold 1) the usefulness of an official announcement - me going 'hey lets do this' versus canonical putting out a press release has a very large differential in terms of scope 2) getting the relevant individuals to the table - while I might be able to get a number of laptop users to show up for such a testing party and maybe a few ubuntu devs and kernel devs - the other potential players would likely show up with Canonical sanctioned effort and the participation rate would be higher. Also a coordinated event with other linux vendors would be a nice PR solidarity thing 3) As you note the wiki is not a good tool for this purpose - a database and a script to help improve the testing productivity being set up in advance would greatly facilitate things. Tom M. LetterRip -- ubuntu-marketing mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-marketing
