Mozilla wants software testers to pound on Software Update until it cries, and will reward those who find undiscovered show-stoppers.
“Thanks, fixed. Looks like we’re going to have to schedule another dawn execution,” Alex Bishop wrote in MozillaZine in response to a post about a broken link to the call for Software Update testers. That’s a bit surprising coming from Mozilla; we always thought it was Microsoft that had the wall-mounted auto-cannons and floor drains near the developers’ cubicles.
All kidding aside (and we are joking, everyone knows Apple has the plastic sheet-covered floors), Mozilla wants testers to do their worst to Software Update, in anticipation of the next beta release of both the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird email package.
“If you identify a blocker or stop-ship bug software update bug,” Mozilla QA posts, “you will get a Firefox tshirt!” The site notes the QA team will be the final arbiters of who gets a tshirt or not, so testers will have to keep track of reported bugs and previously documented issues.
Firefox had been steadily gaining in market share each month until July, when it slipped a bit against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. That could be due to a variety of summer-related reasons, and many will be be looking for the next update from NetApplications to see if Firefox bounced back or not.
Until then, testers can do what they can to make the next Firefox version better. But whatever you do, don’t get on Alex Bishop’s bad side.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
