Hi,

We've launched a new project called "taster".

The goal of this group is to test and give feedback on three kind of things :
* Alpha, Beta, RC of Mandriva Linux
* Occasional contributions to the current STABLE release (not cooker)
including the -uc kernel, live CDs, like the Xfce-one, etc...
* Write and tests use cases for the STABLE release. It's somewhat
similar to what testzilla used to be, but we'll now use the forum
instead of bugzilla which will probably gather and involve more
people.

Yes, the whole group is a french initiative and it will stay like this
for now (because we found out a lot of testers don't pratice English
very well but are willing to test things and are motivated). The good
thing for you guys (I mean contributors to cooker) is that this group
will include people called "remonteurs" whose role is to communicate
with you about the tests in english and by using bugzilla (as much as
possible, in some cases it's not the appropriate place). They're
supposed to have enough knowledge to investigate reports with you.

The other "limitation" (which can actually be seen as a strong point)
is that all tests will be restricted to the stable release. Why ?
Because for cooker, there's already the cooker mailing list, no need
for another, new group. People talking french can already talk about
cooker in the "cooker" forum
(http://forum.mandriva.com/viewforum.php?f=125). On top of that, we're
a small group and this helps reducing the scope (and mail traffic) of
the project. But nothing prevents "remonteurs" from trying to
reproduce problems on cooker and report the bug on cooker.

Now, suppose you release a new fantastic contribution for the stable
release, but you don't know where to advertise for it. Until now, your
only option was to send a mail to cooker and pray for some people
using the stable distro to read your mail. Now, you know you have a
group who can test your contribution. How do you do ? Just follow the
same procedure : send a mail to cooker. Some guys within taster often
read cooker (called "annonceurs") and advertise internally when new
tests can be done for the stable release.

You'll get a better picture of the internal organization by having a
look at this website : http://www.mandrivafr.org/trac/taster/ (yes, in
french... but the three pictures are easy to understand).

I truly hope this group will help to build a better distro and improve
overall quality !