For those anxiously awaiting the official release, I suggest you spend your time kicking the tires in every way possible.
Correct me if I’m mistaken, but the way you get Discourse set up and installed right now - with roughly 30 minutes of fairly straight forward Docker config - is exactly how it will work in 1.0 as well. So either by yourself or with the help of your more tech-savvy accomplice you can dive into the howto’s and:
- Install Discourse on a VPS like DigitalOcean (there’s usually enough free credit floating around that you can get the first month for free)
- Get to know the backend panel
- Make sure e-mail is working properly
- Make sure invites are working properly
- Test the converter script if needed
- Test theming
- Configure logins
- Try install some plugins
- Figure out domain set-up
- Figure out CDN
- Test backups
- Test multisite
- Set up Discourse for development
- Make your own simple plugin
There are so many golden nuggets in Discourse, I’d wager you probably won’t be aware of them all by the time Stable is ready.