With donations back up, many of you must be wondering - when is Cairo going to be released for the private alpha? Well, the answer should be obvious by now. If you head to our homepage you will see a countdown for Milestone 1. For those of you who are poor with math, the countdown is set to January 15, 2009.

We will be distributing download links via email. The alpha will last for about a month before we stop accepting bug reports.

Alpha testers will be expected to use the Cairo Reporting System during this time. Any and all bug reports are greatly appreciated and we encourage all of our testers to remain vigilant. We further request that for the benefit of the entire Cairo community, the following guidelines are respected:

1. Do not leak the alpha to those not participating. This can hurt Cairo’s development and credibility. This alpha is private for a reason.
2. Be thorough. Report any bug you find no matter how small. Every ticket will be examined.
3. Screenshots and video are not directly supported by the Cairo Team, however we know there is no way to identify leakers. We ask that testers please respect our wishes at this time.
4. Make the most of your time and have fun! Talk with other testers is encouraged.

Finally, for those of you who are not part of the alpha, don’t worry. There will be a public beta, but no date has been set yet for obvious reasons.

As of today, we have currently implemented the menubar, stacks alternative, system tray, clock/calendar, search, programs menu, and taskbar. While not feature complete, Cairo development is steady. Over the coming months, we hope to work towards a representational build of Cairo, one that contains all the features we want in our first release. These include feature complete alpha components plus the dynamic desktop system and multi-desktop system. While it may seem like we have a lot left to cover, much of the Milestone 1 build was completed in only the last month, so we are confident that progress will occur as planned.

We’d like to thank our dedicated supporters for sticking with us through the ups and downs and to welcome all the newcomers just entering the Cairo community. We appreciate having such an enthusiastic bunch and can’t wait to deliver an excited desktop replacement in the future.

Best wishes,
The Cairo Team

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