Nextcloud 16 Release Candidate 1 is here, help test!

We are getting closer and closer to a final Nextcloud 16 release! We fixed just 11 more issues since beta 3 and thus the time of the first release candidate is here. We call you all to help finishing up!

Help out now!

There’s a lot of work still to be done. First, of course: testing! We are at a point where we can’t find any serious issues anymore. That’s just a “works for me” which really needs more than our automated and manual testing: it needs you to help out and make sure it also works for you!

Our internal testing has revealed problems, those problems have been resolved and we can’t find serious problems anymore. But Nextcloud is used in many more ways than we realistically can test: on all kinds of devices, using a crazy variety of web servers, PHP versions, databases and so on. Testing might seem simple:

install Nextcloud, try it. If it works, release it!

If only it was that simple… Every piece in the stack below Nextcloud, from Linux kernels to PHP, webserver, caching server, database and so on – they call can create problems that we have to work around. But then we have to know about those problems and that is where you all come in. Test Nextcloud. In YOUR environment, the way you use it. Only then can we be sure it will work for you when we release!

We can also use help triaging and retesting issues as well as reviewing code and getting it ready for merging. A few dozen issues and pull requests are still open!

Last but not least, we’d like to get this release as polished as possible. We made a list of small issues at our last contributor week – find it here and pick one to fix!

Swag for bugs!

As upgrading is the most critical operation with a new release, we’re offering anyone who finds a bug in the upgrade process from Nextcloud 15 to Nextcloud 16 some swag! obviously any bug report is welcome, not only those about upgrading, but an upgrade bug earns you cookies. We don’t know what kind yet, maybe some of our cool “who owns your data” stickers but maybe we’ll just bake cookies and sent them out!

You can download the Nextcloud 16 RC.zip file directly here or find it in the ‘Get Involved’ section (bottom right) on our install page.

And remember: if you’re brave enough to upgrade a production system, be sure to at least make a database backup!