I am so excited about the Pizza, Bugs and Fun event that is coming up that I though I would share with everyone some info to help get themselves set up and ready to participate.  There are only two main ingredients that you need.  The first is a local server environment.  The second is an SVN client.  Don't think it is too big a slice to take on.  Dig in.

Local Server Environments

A local server environment is basically a web server that you run on your local computer. Lots of people test on live web servers, but you don't have to test on a live server to participate.

WAMP - (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP)
For general information on what WAMP is you can check out their Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAMP, and you can compare different WAMP software on Wikipedia also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_WAMPs
WampServer: http://www.wampserver.com/en/download.php
You can find FAQs and Installation help here: http://www.wampserver.com/en/

MAMP - (Macintosh, Apache, Mysql, PHP)
MAMP at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAMP
MAMP by living-e AG: http://www.mamp.info/en/download.html
You can find FAQs and Installation help here: http://www.mamp.info/en/dl_info.html

XAMPP - (Multi OS, Apache, MySQL, PHP)
XAMPP Project: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
You can find FAQs and Installation help here: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/faq-xampp.html
XAMPP is available for Linux, Windows, OS X, and Solaris.

XAMPP is the one I use on both my Mac and Windows systems, but I also like WampServer on Windows.

SVN Clients

The next ingredient for excellent pizza is to have an SVN client. This will allow you to keep your testing Joomla! files up to date as changes happen.  It will also allow you to test patches easily. Wikipedia has an excellent page with information as to what SVN is and how it is used:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subversion_(software)

EasyEclipse is a good choice for Linux, OS X and Windows: http://www.easyeclipse.org/site/distributions/php.html.  Nur Aini Rakhmawati has an excellent video tutorial on using JoomlaCode SVN with EasyEclipse. Another Windows choice is TortiseSVN: http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/  It is available for download here: http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads.  You can find support manuals and FAQs on their site.  Details on how to work with the JoomlaCode repository are located on the Developer site: https://developer.joomla.org

With these tools you will now have the foundation or "crust" for your pizza.  Have fun!