Smoke Test

About 2 weeks ago I received an XO Laptop (http://one.laptop.org/) as part of an assignment for my Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software course.  We will be working and developing with these laptops for the rest of this semester.  To ensure that my laptop was not broken or malfunctioning in any way, I performed a "smoke test" on the laptop.

I could make a huge list of all of the tasks I had to perform to complete this smoke test, or you could just read them all here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Smoke_test/10.1.x/1_hour_smoke_test .  The test is estimated to take under an hour, but I think my own test cut it pretty close.  For the most part, everything worked and went well, but I did start to have some trouble once the tasks for the test moved outside of simply opening apps on the XO.

I had to put the tasks that required interacting with another XO on hold for a little later because I had to wait for my friend from class to sync up with me.  The other tasks that really gave me trouble were the one's involving using my external computer and a USB to transfer data and install new things onto the XO.  My friend also had difficulty with this assignment and he put in twice the effort because he initially tried installing the programs without a USB.  I tried to get the test done as quickly and by the book as possible, but ultimately we both had trouble with these tasks.  Specifically, getting external apps to install onto the XO was a problem, and there were other little things like some decreased quality in video and problems with getting images to copy that I noticed.

Overall the smoke test went pretty well and I can confidently say that my XO is fully functional and should not burst into flames any time soon.  The test was reassuring and not overly difficult.  Most of the tasks involved opening apps and making sure the components of the laptop all worked and gave proper feedback.  Another important aspect of the tests was to make sure that the laptop saved all the data that it was supposed to especially in the journal app.  The other tasks were centered around getting the XO to connect to hotspots and other XO's in the "Neighborhood".  The last large collection of tasks helped ensure that the XO could install new things even from external sources.

It's interesting to see all of the things that the XO is capable of doing.  For example, I liked testing the audio, video, and pictures, as well as how the XO copies and saves things.  I also thought the tests for installing Sudoku and the library bundle were helpful to show me how to transfer things to the laptop that are not natively there.  I would definitely recommend that anyone wishing to develop for an XO perform some kind of test like this to not only ensure that their laptop works, but also because tests like this really help familiarize the user/developer with the laptop.  Now I am more than ready to develop something awesome for the XO!