Lubuntu 20.04 LTS release time is approaching fast. The Lubuntu team is still hard at work with the final polishing of our Focal Fossa, or 18th release of Lubuntu, and our first LTS release (fourth overall) with the new LXQt desktop.
On April 2nd, we’ll be releasing the beta release of Lubuntu 20.04 LTS, with new features already fixed including user interface and documentation.
Between April 2nd and April 23rd, all efforts will be focused on testing our product before final release, and of course fixing any bugs found during those tests.
From April 2nd to April 8th, we’ll be having a “Ubuntu Testing Week”, where we strongly encourage you to download the daily ISO image, and give it a try. Of course you’re welcome to do this anytime.
There are a variety of ways that you can help test the release, including trying out the various live session and install test cases from the ISO tracker, which take less than 30 minutes to complete (eg. Alan Pope’s look at Lubuntu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOCWwLwN7xE)
You can test without changing your system by running it in a VM (Virtual Machine) with software like VMWare Player, Virtualbox or Gnome Boxes, or running it in the live session from a USB or DVD, so you can also test if your hardware works correctly. We encourage those that are willing, to install it either in a VM or on physical hardware and use it continuously for a few days, as more bugs can be reported this way (video: how to report a bug).
Please test applications that you regularly use, so you can identify bugs and regressions (changes introduced which break functionality) that should be reported. New ISO files are built everyday, and you should always test with the most up-to-date ISO. If you have bandwidth quota limits; tools like zsync can reduce the bandwidth required to refresh your ISO rather than re-download it all.
If you need help with any of this, please just ask us using your favorite support resource (see https://lubuntu.me/links/ or https://discourse.lubuntu.me/), but also available is live chat on IRC (#ubuntu-quality) or telegram (UbuntuTesters). For guidelines we suggest you read our wiki page.
We’ll love all the spare time anyone can provide, to help test our upcoming Lubuntu 20.04 LTS release, and make this the best Lubuntu release ever. If you’ve finished testing our release, and still have spare time, the other Ubuntu flavors would benefit from your time and testing.
