Comment 75 for bug 361205

teledyn wrote:
> Markling, we feel your pain but please understand that this is
> opensource; there is no such thing as a "production release" it is ALL
> beta-testing; you and I and Chris are all of us the QA dept, the Dev
> Shop and the Consumer, rolled into one -- we're all in this together.
> that's the whole point ;)
>
> fortunately, these days, with semi-intelligent package managers like
> apt, it is relatively easy to remove and re-install (and roll-back)
> individual packages, esp something like trackerd that has few
> dependencies, so the danger to your workstation is minimal, although
> yes, it will cost a bit of your time.
>
> but that is the point of opensource; each of us contributes what we can
> and together we make the magic happen :)
>

I have been contributing Ubuntu bug reports for a while, but probably
less usefully than I could and certainly with some fear regarding
testing packages. I would like to help more but I don't know how to
(safely).

Is there a straightforward guide to the processes, issues and pitfalls
that may be encountered? For example, how and when should I switch to
the 'testing' release of Ubuntu; what is a PPA and how do I use it? What
'tips and tricks' should we be aware of?

Like many others out there I want to help fix these issues - things then
work better for us, after all - but I simply lack the necessary
background and experience, and want to minimize the risk of
catastrophically breaking something in my learning attempts.