alpha adopter program
Status: proposed for v0.2.0-alpha
Owner: maintainer to assign
Tracking: #302
Purpose
wootc's automated and first-party hardware tests answer whether the installer works in controlled environments. The alpha adopter program answers a different question: can a Windows user who did not build wootc complete the journey, understand its trust boundaries, return to Windows, and report a failure without private follow-up?
This is an evidence gate, not a growth campaign. Recruitment remains small until recovery, uninstall, and reporting have been exercised by people outside the project.
Entry conditions
Recruitment starts only after all of the following are true:
- the structured field-report template in #215 is available;
- the current tagged alpha and its checksums are linked from the participant brief;
- the unsigned-binary and SmartScreen warning is shown before download;
- the manual-testing protocol includes Windows return and uninstall checks;
- one named maintainer owns intake and acknowledges new reports within two working days.
Cohort and recruitment
Recruit five consenting testers who are not wootc contributors. Prefer a mix of Windows 10 and 11, hardware vendors, Secure Boot states, and comfort levels. At least two participants should describe themselves as non-technical Linux users, matching the project's stated audience.
Use one declared recruitment channel first (for example the tunaOS Matrix room). Record only the channel and invitation count; do not publish participant identities. Do not broaden recruitment until the first five reports have been triaged.
Participant journey
Each tester receives the same short brief and follows the public documentation:
- Download and verify the current tagged alpha.
- Launch it and record any trust or SmartScreen blocker.
- Attempt installation and first Linux login.
- Reboot back into Windows.
- Re-enter Linux using the documented management path.
- Uninstall and verify that Windows boot behavior is restored.
- Submit the structured report whether the journey passed or failed.
Testers must be told to stop rather than improvise when the documented path no longer matches the screen. That mismatch is an adoption finding.
Evidence ledger
Maintain an issue comment or milestone table with one anonymous row per participant:
| Field | Allowed values |
|---|---|
| Invitation | accepted / declined / no response |
| Download | reached / blocked |
| Launch | reached / trust-blocked / other-blocked |
| Linux first login | reached / not reached |
| Windows return | verified / failed / not attempted |
| Uninstall restoration | verified / failed / not attempted |
| Outcome | passed / product defect / docs defect / environment / abandoned |
| Follow-up | linked issue or none |
Publish aggregate counts only. Do not collect names, email addresses, recovery keys, machine serial numbers, logs containing account names, or telemetry from the installed system. Participants choose what to attach to their report after reviewing it.
Exit criteria
The external-adoption portion of the real-hardware gate is satisfied when:
- five external testers have accepted an invitation;
- at least three independently complete first login, Windows return, and uninstall restoration;
- every unsuccessful journey has a blocker category and a linked issue when the cause is in wootc or its documentation;
- no unresolved data-loss or recovery blocker remains; and
- the maintainer records a proceed, repeat, or stop decision with the aggregate ledger linked from milestone #210.
These criteria complement the three first-party hardware runs in #216; they do not replace them.
Beta handoff
After the cohort, summarize the highest-frequency blocker, the largest funnel drop, and any audience mismatch. Use those results to revise the Beta gate and public adoption guidance before increasing recruitment or promising broad Windows-user readiness.