Re: No Issue Tracker - Say it Ain't So!

On 09/29/2015 10:55 AM, Steve Crawford wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 7:16 AM, David Fetter <david(at)fetter(dot)org
> <mailto:david(at)fetter(dot)org>> wrote:
>
> ...What we're not fine with is depending on a proprietary system, no
> matter what type of license, as infrastructure...
>
>
> Exactly. Which is why I was warning about latching onto features only
> available in the closed enterprise version.
>
>
>

Like Tom, I more or less promised myself not to get terribly involved in
this discussion. Oh, well.

I'm not a fan of the "free sample" model of software. What happens when
you want a feature that's in the not-free edition of the software? I
think gitlab simply doesn't suit us for a number of reasons, and that
seems to be the emerging consensus.

The only viable possibilities seem to me to be bugzilla and debbugs.
Both are dedicated trackers, unquestionably open source, have long
pedigrees, are very likely to stay around, and are or can be integrated
with email systems. I have not personally used debbugs, so I favour
bugzilla simply on the ground of familiarity, but I know other people
dislike it. I will tell a small story about it - about 14 years ago I
was given responsibility for an extra team following a corporate merger.
They had been using a proprietary bug tracker while we had been using
bugzilla. We decided to switch them to bugzilla so they sould integrate
with the tem from the company I had been working for, and they bitched
and moaned about it something fierce. Later the company decided to
standardize on the proprietary system, and the same people bitched and
moaned far more loudly at being made to give up bugzilla, which they
found much more friendly. And in those days it wasn't as nice or capable
as it is now.

cheers

andrew