By now, many of you have heard about one of my projects i’ve been heads down on… Firefox OS.  Codename’d “Boot 2 Gecko”, it’s mozilla’s project on putting together a fully Web-based OS that will take on the smartphone market.   It will support everything you would expect from a smartphone, (friend dialing, spouse messaging, internet browsing, web gaming, photo taking, video watching, and music bumping!)   Read the blogpost for more details on what and where we’re deploying to.

On the Quality front, i’ve been building up a small-but-growing team to take on this behemoth project.   The phone we’re working on will consist of 3 basic software layers: Gonk (kernal, HAL, and low-level components), Gecko (rendering engine, web APIs), and Gaia (HTML5 User interface layer).   Our test approach is to create mochitests against the DOM and API layer, and run regression tests against a Jenkins CI system.   On the UI, we will take a more traditional acceptance approach, executing testcases against Apps in an end to end scenario; and building webapps that will utilize supported B2G apis.   All this, to delivery in a very aggressive timeline, and working with multiple partners on different Quality approaches at every level.

We’ve been culturally challenged to build up a interested community of testers, but limited to our distribution of builds due to legal contracts.   However, the release engineering team was able to get Daily desktop builds created and published online for anyone to play with.  Refer to Gaia/Hacking for setup instructions.  If you’re a web developer, you can use these builds to create and test your webApp against.  If you’re looking to help do some testing, these desktop builds will also give you an immediate opportunity to play with and help us write testplans and file bugs.    We encourage anyone interested to give the desktop builds a spin (available on Mac, Windows, and Linux), and get involved with the project!

For more information on getting involved with Development and Testing, visit https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G to get started.
Update: Many are wondering why they see a “black” screen after launching the B2G Desktop build.   It’s likely because you havent set up a Gaia profile prior to launching.  here’s how you do it.  (again, refer to Gaia/hacking for better steps!)

1) For your win32/linux/osx computer, download and install a nightly “B2G Desktop” build from: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/b2g/nightly/
2) on command line, run:

•     $ git clone git://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia
•     $ make -C gaia profile
•     $ /path/to/b2g -profile gaia/profile
•      (eg. Tonys-MacBook-Air:MacOS tchung$ ./b2g -profile /Users/tchung/Desktop/DailyB2G/07172012_desktop/gaia/profile)

3) you should see content now.

 
Update 2: Building Desktop builds on Windows

There is a discussion thread started about building on windows. it’s much more complicated, and i personally have not tried. Please give it a spin and let us know how it goes!

https://groups.google.com/d/topic/mozilla.dev.b2g/ALhvaLP-WtA/discussion

Nailed It, is right.  In the month where Adobe is announcing they are discontinuing Android Flash development, Mozilla is going the opposite and has implemented Flash and recent improvements into the latest Native Android Firefox project.  Since Firefox’s for Android inception back in March 2010, the top request and comment is “We want Flash, We Want Flash!”   Why people want that buggy plugin still floors me today, but Mozilla’s heard you loud and clear.   Brad Lassey, Doug Turner, James Wilcox and team have taken creative approaches and have finally nailed down a version on Native Firefox that is performing tremendously well so far.   Yes, there are still hiccups and work to be done, but lets pause for a second and applause our brave warriors in a nightly build worth downloading.

So take out your Android phone and your beloved Flash plugin, and take today’s nightly build for a spin.   With the combination of significant panning/zooming improvements from my last post, plus a series of awesomebar and tab UI changes, Firefox is looking primer and primer each day.

As always, help us test and file bugs.  That’s the best way to give us the feedback you care about.

Grab the latest Nightly build HERE.  (remember to check “unknown sources”)

Development is already in progress, and many features have already landing.  You can find out more details in our weekly newsletter , as well as specific areas to test and focus on.    There has already been significant improvements in startup performance, responsiveness, and a much more fuller, native experience on the phone.    Native Firefox Android is estimated to launch in Q1 2012.  Here’s a nice recent writeup by Ryan Paul at Arstechnica.com

In the meantime, there is a Testday tomorrow (Friday, Nov 11th) that you can join!   We are looking for folks interested in a first look, alpha feedback, and want to share their comments and bugs around our product.   If you are a firefox user, and own an Android device, you don’t want to miss this event!

UPDATED: If you’d like to download and test:

• Check Settings > Applications > Unknown Sources [Checked]
• Download the Nightly APK builds here (http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mobile/nightly/latest-birch-android/)

This week, i’m working out of Romania and London with my colleagues Henrik, David, Matt, and Juan.  We’ll ramp up with our Romanian test team to go over some feedback from Firefox 4, as well as plan ahead for Firefox 5 and other upcoming projects.   We’ll also take some time out to celebrate a post-launch party of Firefox 4 in Cluj, as well as organize a QA meetup in London.

Here’s what’s on tap for the week:

May 2-4:

•  Meet our Romanian QA team,(Softvision), face to face for the first time.
• Go through feedback sessions on firefox/fennec postmortem talk, QA process and improvement ideas, and planning for upcoming work in Fennec, Firefox, Services, Automation, and Labs
• Celebrate the post-release of Firefox 4 at a Launch Party in Cluj!   Presentations by Matt Evans and Softvision is scheduled.

May 5-6:

• Meet up with our London team (Dave and David) and get some planning work done
• Host a Mozilla QA Gathering event and talk about automation, products, and just overall meeting with our UK community.   I’ll be demo’ing some of the projects my team is working on, such as new features in Fennec, Projects in Services, and some prototypes of Web applications like Firefox Home 2.0 and Open Web Apps.
• If you’re in the area, sign up for the meetup.
• Thanks to Dave Hunt for putting this together
• Lastly, maybe stop by William and Kate’s place for some tea and crumplets.   (wishful thinking)

So if you’re either in Romania or London, please come on out cause i’d love to meet you!

Firefox Mobile 4.0 beta 1 was released last week for Android and Maemo platforms.  This is the first released beta of Mobile firefox on android, so we are looking for feedback and test coverage. How can you help?

First, download the beta here.   If you’re feeling more adventurous, skip the beta and go straight to our amazingly stable nightly builds. (grab the “fennec.apk” file)

Secondly, read Mark Finkle’s blog about the features that it comes with.  Highlights are AwesomeScreen, Integrated Sync, Badging, Sharing a site with others, and many more..

Lastly, help us test on your Android Device!   With the emergence of new Android phones coming out every week it seems, the Mobile team here is looking for more development and Test coverage across all these platforms.   Action steps:

• Visit the Firefox for Android wiki for supported devices and list of known issues.  You can also look up mobile support.
• Let us know which device you have!  Give feedback through our UserVoice forum and Firefox Input channels for feedback and bugs.  (Note: Input will be available in beta 2 directly through the options menu)
• Run our manual mobile tests!   Create an account in http://litmus.mozilla.org and run our functional tests right here.
• Finally, find us on irc.mozilla.org, #mobile channel for any real time chat.

Enjoy!

Update: Some of you are experiencing issues after installing where Firefox will start up, run for about 5 seconds, and then close and navigate back to the home page.   Please double check first if you are on a device that’s not running ARM7 architecture (non thumb instruction set).    (See supported list HERE)

If you are running an older processor like ARM6 and below, we’d still love to hear feedback on performance and usability by running a nothumb nightly build.   Go HERE for that.

Firefox Sync 1.3.1

It’s been 2 weeks now with Firefox Sync 1.3.1 up and running with new branding, new client features, and new server hardware to meet your needs.   Traffic stats from the first week of june on AMO boasts:

• 91,045 add-on downloads in the last week. (Up from ~40k/week prior to 1.3)
• 30K total, 22.5K active users in 10 days.

Since my role revolves around testing, i’d like to highlight some of the extensive work of QA, development, and Operations has collaborated in making 1.3.1 a success so far.  This is the first time we’ve invested a process into what started as a experimental firefox addon, and formulated a thorough release checklist with a dedicated test strategy.  It involved full functional client side testing, thick client load testing also involving automated sync and registration APIs, a new staging and production cluster which required migration and ldap testing, and even a little outsource testing scattered around the globe.   There were areas that we didnt get a chance to get to, and those were running full unit tests against trunk, and executing thick client sync tests across multiple profiles using the python-backed crossweave automation framework.   both of these are slated to get into 1.4 later.  But overall, the testing paid off as we’ve gone through 7 betas, 4 rc’s, and 3 weeks of server-side and configuration tweaks.

Now that we’ve shipped, we can take a breath, but get right back into the ring. in a few weeks, we hope to release Sync 1.4 that contains many bug fixes on server and client, with ambitious plans to get it integrated into mozilla trunk builds with automated tests.   If you haven’t grabbed the latest version of Sync, download it directly from Sync Home or addons.mozilla.org.  Remember, this extension also works in mobile devices like the Nokia N900, and early pre-alpha fennec builds on Android.   Full release notes are listed here.   As always, get your thoughts and comments in directly through the public weave forum.

Firefox Home

The latest news for mobile devices comes with Firefox Home, an iPhone App soon to appear in the wild.  Although this announcement is still premature until the app hits the market, a handful of us have been testing and rolling around betas to provide the best experience when version 1.0 is ready.   Firefox Home will support access to your stored bookmarks, history, and tabs in the cloud and stored them locally on your iphone or itouch.   There is built in awesomebar search capabilities, so you can resume your browsing on the go once you’ve sync’d your data down to your device.  And as always, your data is safe and local, and can be simply deleted by pushing the Wipe button in seconds.

As jay’s blog points, you can prepare for the feature by activating a Firefox Sync account on your desktop now.   More on FF Home coming later, but feel free to check out the FAQ and list of fixed bugs for more.

The new look and feel of QMO!

The newly redone Quality.mozilla.org (aka QMO), has just rolled out and got a newer and cleaner facelift to the site.   Spearheaded by our very own Aakash Desai and the contribution of work and ideas from many others, we hope version 2.0 of the site will encourage more exposure and usage of those who have an interest in what Mozilla products testing means.   If you are already familiar with the previous version of QMO, you should feel right at home while navigating through the site.   Here are some of the highlights of the site, described in the mozilla.dev.quality post by Aakash:

• An introduction to Mozilla QA video
• WordPress CMS
• Landing pages for Mozilla Product Teams
• Simplified Document Tree view
• Planet QA blog feed
• Shortcuts to Twitter / Facebook / RSS feeds

And of course, we continue to reorganize documentation, maintain QA events in the calendar view, and of course you can interact directly in the #qa irc channel directly via mibbit.   So give it a trial run and let us know what you think!

Firefox Sync 1.3b5 (formerly known as “Weave 1.3b5″) has been baking out in the experimental build world for awhile, and a lot of great progress has been done.   For those that were early weave adopters, you’ll find a lot has changed everywhere, from the server to the client.

Some of these changes include:

• Rebranded as Firefox Sync
• New facelift to the weave client UI
• Improved response time with sync
• Bookmark backup before initial sync
• New production server clusters built to handle larger loads
• Support on Fennec devices
• Many others.  See release notes

Firefox Sync 1.3 Final is going to be highly publicized and encouraged for daily usage.  We’re hoping to release this month, but there’s still a lot of testing of the client and server that we could use feedback on.   If you’re interested, here are quick ways you can get involved:

• Download the latest Firefox Sync here.   Click “Experimental Version” in the green bar
• Create and sync your bookmarks, history, passwords, tabs, and preferences.  You can follow a more complete testplan here.
• Report bugs through the weave forum or through Bugzilla.
• Finally, follow us in irc.mozilla.org, #labs for conversation and questions!

As always, contact me: tchung@mozilla.com,,  if you would like to get involved with Mozilla Products Testing and Firefox Sync!

1. It felt like ~150 attendees
2. Folks were asked to write a topic on a sheet of paper if they want to lead the session, and give a quick summary before posting it on a big sheet of butcher paper next to a timeslot and room number
3. Each session was an hour, and people would just pop in anywhere they wanted
4. 2 of my 4 sessions i went to, the session leader was late. However, it didnt matter much in this setting, because a session leader really wasn’t necessary so someone would just start talking and others would hop in
5. The list of topics were all themed around open source participation, leadership, governance, and evangelism
6. Some sessions were an hour, some were 45 mins, some were 30 mins. There was no time breaks in between, so i was a little awkward when some sessions ended earlier than others, and people would be walking in and out, hallway noises, distractions.
7. It was a free event, so anyone and everyone could attend
8. The day ended with everyone introducing themselves in a room. Given 150 folks taking turns with a mic, the whole intro thing only took 8 minutes! Impressive.

More specifically on the topics.   Here’s a summary of the ones i attended.

Tools Session: (notes) Folks here shared about the different type of community tools they use to promote, encourage community participation.  Many ranged from social networking tools like twitter and facebook, different newsgroup and forums, yahoo piping, bugzilla, meetbot, meetup.com, and other tools.   Then talked about future tools and what would we like to have.  Gerv brought up how mozilla is going toward a Community CRM, where all anyone that has ever contributed to the mozilla community, can include their profile information to this db, that everyone in the world can search.  It’s perfect for what a global community should look for.

Trademarks vs. Community: (notes)  This discussion was an interesting learning experience on how the open source companies deal with trademarks.  It was interesting to me how each country deals with trademarks differently, and how there can be severe repercussions if there are violations.  One big example that spawned most of the time was over Mozilla’s trademark ownership of “Firefox”, which Debian took and rebranded to “Iceweasel” over a series of controversial actions.   Not just firefox product, but debians own version of thunderbird and sunbird.   Read more about the history here.   Although there were about 30 in the room, most of the discussion revolved around 4-5 people, many of them working for their foundation or lawyers.   I dont recall walking out of there really learning anything new.
Letting go of Leadership: (no notes)    This was the last session of my day, and i recall it was mainly on discussion on whats the best way to step back from dictating a project when trying to embrace new community members that step up.  People discussed ways to let go of projects, and entrusting people that have proven they could take over an assignment.  Some examples of folks leading came at the expense of a dying project, and was put in a position to step up or no one else would.   There was talk of different types of reward systems, and how we come to appreciate and pay recognition to those that achieved success.   A lot of leading by example, and put your money where your mouth is, to show the community you ware working with them and not just pointing fingers or holding back.

In summary, i think i like the idea of unconferencing, and listening more to what people think in this case. Yes, there’s a lot of opinions and people can easily sidetrack, but its hearing from those that aren’t necessary topic experts where i sometimes find myself learning more. It was a nice experience and i hope to attend more of these in the future.   May even try to incorporate this “free style” of leading groups and discussions at our Mozilla monthly meetups.

Part 1:
Mozilla QA and the Tools We Use (1 of 5)

Part 2:
Mozilla QA and the Tools We Use (2 of 5)

Part 3:
Mozilla QA and the Tools We Use (3 of 5)

Part 4:
Mozilla QA and the Tools We Use (4 of 5)

Part 5:
Mozilla QA and the Tools We Use (5 of 5)