Is testing challenging?
Very. Well, it can be exhausting. It's a very deliberate and repetitive process. It's at least an hour a day but I'll often use the live instances for as long as four to six hours - testing things out.
I go through every application, every day... Well, I have a manifest of what changes, so I don't always do that. But, plan on an hour for testing in a VM and testing again on bare metal.
I don't fix packages. I mean, I could but I don't feel that comfortable with my rusty programming. Instead, I narrow it down as much as possible.
Today, I filed a trivial bug. I do mean trivial... Here's a link:
Bug #1961349 “uneven tooltips in the application menu” : Bugs : lxqt-session package : Ubuntu
This is a fairly trivial visual bug. As you mouse-over items in the application menu, the tooltips are inconsistent in their placement. This is in the 22.04 daily - but also exist in 20.04.3. It is most notable when you've moved the mouse down and then back up - but it's sometimes visually...
bugs.launchpad.net
It may not look like it, but hours have gone into that bug report. I don't swamp them with data, however. I simply state where I've tested it and confirmed it. I've confirmed it with other people as well.
It's not done, either. That'll get filed upstream (as we've already deduced it's not something we're in charge of) after more people have confirmed it.
And that's a trivial bug... Others take much longer to test...
Eventually, it'll be triaged as low priority but a fix will likely come from above, make it into Debian, make it into Lubuntu, and get tested by me to see if it's really gone.
But, that's what I do. I find those things - trivial or not - and do so by way of diligent testing. It's a pretty big time sink but I don't mind. Someone has to do it.
What it's Like To Beta-test Linux, Specifically Lubuntu • Linux Tips
You may not think so, but everyone can meaningfully help their favorite distro. Someone has to beta-test Linux, and most everyone can do so. Here's how you can help.
linux-tips.us