The development of Drupal 7 has been unique in many ways. One important milestone was the introduction of unstable releases in October 2008. After ten unstable releases we saw the first alpha release in January 2010. These releases are important because they provide an easy starting point for users for testing and for reporting issues. The more people install and test these releases, the more bugs will be found and the more stable the initial Drupal 7 release will be.

Most people that use these releases however are likely to already know their way around Drupal and to embrace most drupalisms. What greatly increases the variety of people testing Drupal 7 is the private beta testing of Acquia's Drupal Gardens. Some of these beta testers, running a total of over 1000 sites, might not even realize that Drupal Gardens runs the latest official version of Drupal 7 (currently that's Alpha 2) and that by helping test Drupal Gardens they're also testing Drupal 7. This already resulted in a bunch of Drupal 7 bug reports (which are listed on the private forums).

A wise man once said that "[i]f your primary motivation for wanting to be a beta tester is to 'try out' a product before it is released, then you are bound to be disappointed when it turns into a lot of work." Drupal Gardens however makes testing Drupal 7 easy and accessible. Some people might not even realize they're doing it.