Time for some testing: Beta 1 of Nextcloud 16 is here!

[system]

Originally published at: https://nextcloud.com/blog/time-for-some-testing-beta-1-of-nextcloud-16-is-here/

Yesterday we made available the first beta of Nextcloud 16, which marks our feature freeze! This release will, as always, bring a lot of improvements. And we are of course looking for help: finding and fixing bugs, finishing a lot of polishing and updating apps so they are ready when the release comes out. It is weekend and the Northern Hemisphere is wintery, so stay inside and do some testing!

As always, we want to make sure that upgrades are smooth as well as, of course, day to day usage. There is still a fair bit of polishing to do as well so we’re looking for all feedback we can get.

Nextcloud 16 beta 1 (zip)

Feature freeze?

Winter is coming! In all seriousness, ‘feature freeze’ means that we will no longer add new features, just improve and stabilize the release further. This is the stage in our development at which we release our first beta and begin to focus on polishing and bug fixing. The perfect time to get involved and help us make this release awesome!

What’s new

We can’t yet reveal what is new, but you can see for yourself by installing the beta of course. And we can use your help, we have our automated tests and it has gotten some basic smoke testing but no test scheme can replace the myriad of ways you all use Nextcloud, on NAS devices to big iron servers!

Besides testing, your help is also welcome in polishing. Small UI improvements, fixes to details – and of course bugfixes! If you are new to Nextcloud, you’re more than welcome to get involved – simply join us on github or check out this page on our website. Note that translations are very welcome too! Now is the time to translate and make sure 16 is ready for as big a number of users as possible. We have millions of users and they don’t all read English!

If you are on the beta channel, we will make beta 16 available soon, stay tuned!

[rakekniven]

Still not available on beta channel. It’s been an hour since the announcement.

[SmallOne]

“We want it now!”

[hairydog]

In general, it is best to announce events immediately after they happen, not a bit before.
The broadcast media (and social media) have got us to think that speculation and pre-announcements are news, but they are not.

Please announce things when they happen.

[rakekniven]

Have you seen my smiley?

The zip file is already present. So announcement is ok and fine.

Let’s relax a little. It’s weekend.

[Reiner_Nippes]

@SmallOne

“We want it now!”

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ReinerNippes/nextcloud/master/prepare_system.sh | /bin/bash
ansible-pull --clean --force -d ~/nextcloud16.beta1 -i 'nextcloud' -U https://github.com/ReinerNippes/nextcloud.git nextcloud.yml \
-e "next_archive=https://download.nextcloud.com/server/prereleases/nextcloud-16.0.0beta1.tar.bz2" \
-e "fqdn=<nextcloud.your-domain>" \
-e "ssl_certificate_type=selfsigned" \
-e "talk_install=false" \
-e "install_onlyoffice=false" \
-e "install_collabora=false" \
-e "dhparam_numbits=1024"

don’t wait. just test.

replace <nextcloud.your-domain> before testing.

[rakekniven]

No chance on my test instance on shared hosting

Need to wait for the web updater. Have no ftp (blocked here).

It’s been three hours since the announcement.

[rakekniven]

@rakekniven

It’s been three hours since the announcement.

@nickvergessen Are you aware of the procedure to trigger the updater?
Just had a check on my testing stage and still no update available.

[eehmke]

It’s easy to install using the download. At least when you have shell access.

[SmallOne]

@rakekniven you clearly need a test instance that isn’t on shared hosting

[amarillo]

update with zip without problems
In Transifex are all german strings translated, but in NC 16 are some English strings:

Are these strings not translatable or is Transifex more up-to-date ?

[rakekniven]

They are translatable. For every release you have a date called string freeze and branching where the ressources are not trunk/master anymore.

So the work we (the translators) are currently doing are for NC17.
For urgent fixes which should be included in NC 16 we have to file issues for backporting.

[amarillo]

@rakekniven
Thank you very much for your explanation regarding the different dates for freeze

[suguru]

Hi, I would like to know if a test plan is available, thanks!

[Wallenium]

installed via web updater without any issue. Testing now.

[SmallOne]

@suguru a test plan as in a something to follow to test it out? Or a provider that has nextcloud plans for testing?

[nickvergessen]

All translations are automatically backported to all supported branches atm.

[suguru]

Hi SmallOne,

Yes, the first one: the test plan (like a checklist etc.) to do manual QA.

Thanks!

(Attachment publickey - suguru@pm.me.asc.pgp is missing)

[rakekniven]

Hey, thanks for the information.