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Bugzilla Delivered to the Desktop 157
sereda writes "Deskzilla released their desktop client for the Bugzilla bug tracking system today. The Deskzilla system promises to deliver features for greater productivity and improved working environment for the users of Bugzilla." There are also a few screenshots posted on their site.
Damn! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Damn! (Score:2, Insightful)
Wow, that's recursive. Submitting bugs on a bug tracking system. What if there are bugs in the bug tracking system? Wait, I'm going in circles...
Ummm... (Score:1)
Obligatory (Score:2, Informative)
recursion (n.) See recursion
Re:Damn! (Score:5, Interesting)
This is actually really really interesting. I can totally see the value this would have for a company that uses Bugzilla as the bug-tracking software. The tree structure would be really handy in certain situations, and for a company, the $99 pricetag is a drop in the bucket. It's not something I would want everyone to use, but for some people who use bugzilla very often for management, this would be handy.
The offline bit is really great - if you need to go to a client, and want to take the buglist along with you, you're pretty screwed. But if you have this, there's a local copy you carry around, and it seamlessly integrates...very nice. Very very nice.
--LWM
Re:Damn! (Score:2)
Re:Damn! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Damn! (Score:4, Informative)
--LWM
But... (Score:2, Informative)
local copy of buglist = security concern (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:local copy of buglist = security concern (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, but if there is such sensitive information in your Bugzilla, then the user would have access to it whether or not they use deskzilla. Or, contrariwise, if they don't have access to it without deskzilla, they won't have access with it.
Think of Deskzilla (in this situation) as a way of copying the text from Bugzilla to a spreadsheet, except it's really really fast, and you don't have to do it yourself.
If you're not using de
Re:Damn! (Score:2)
Just what I need! (Score:3, Funny)
(Not as bad as my parents who have half their screen taken up by all the spyware crap running in the Tray).
If it's just what I need why does it crash more? (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, if you have WinXP and try to run games on a wireless laptop, it can sometimes take up to ten minutes to close out all the task tray icons they clutter it with, shut off all processes, and finally run the game.
Which will then promptly crash and then you have to bring back up all the wireless services so you can - finally - report the bug to bugzilla on the desktop task tray icon
Trend Reversal (Score:2, Interesting)
Task tray icon #147!
Yeah, that's life for packrats. And aren't we all like this? I mean, do I really need 4 web browsers? Yes, dang it, I do. What if AOL decides
Re:Trend Reversal (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Trend Reversal (Score:2)
A conundrum (Score:3, Funny)
Re:A conundrum (Score:1)
Re:A conundrum (Score:2)
Re:A conundrum (Score:2)
The benefit is aggregation of information. Sure you can do it on a webpage, but there are limitations. Take the newest Google Desktop. It integrates all your browser bookmarks, your Outlook/Gmail emails, photos on your hard drive, and searching of your drive contents, just to name a few things. And then it displays them concisely. You certainly couldn't handle the desktop side of information in a web version of the same thi
Re:A conundrum (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A conundrum (Score:1)
Internet Instincts (Score:3, Funny)
I take it you're at work right now?
Re:A conundrum (Score:3, Insightful)
One man's laziness is another's efficiency. If you've got users who are more efficient with a desktop app than they are with a web app, then give 'em the desktop. Assuming that "time is money" in your organization, then if you save time, you save money. Also, giving your users the impression that you care about how they prefer to work
Re:A conundrum (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A conundrum (Score:2)
Re:A conundrum (Score:4, Funny)
Just thinking about that makes me head explo[NO CARRIER].
Re:A conundrum (Score:5, Interesting)
Go read Reflections on Trusting Trust [acm.org] and pay particular attention to the part about the '\v' character.
'Course the rest of that document may reduce you to gibbering goo.
Re:A conundrum (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A conundrum (Score:3, Informative)
Jeremy
Re:A conundrum (Score:2)
Now a days, I'm pretty sure the initial compilers are generated using a cross compiler. E.g. you get your gcc compiler on x86 to use the right instruction set and then cross compi
Re:A conundrum (Score:2)
Then you get the OS advanced enough that it can actually run GCC itself, then you use the cross-compiler to generate a native-compiler.
Of course, sometimes, for some reason, people have to compile a cross-compiler for an arch that they're not compiling on. They call this a canadian cross-compile. For example, (you build (a PowerPC gcc binary which (cross-compiles fo
Re:A conundrum (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, and we did this at midnight, outside, in late january in the middle of Minnesota, barefoot, and we loved it.
Re:A conundrum (Score:2)
Re:A conundrum (Score:1, Funny)
Doesn't beat commercial apps (Score:2, Interesting)
Has anyone used Bugzilla so far?
Re:Doesn't beat commercial apps (Score:5, Interesting)
We use it to track not just bugs, but feature requests and issues for our IT department. It fits what we need very well. The nearest commercial offering is unjustifiably expensive and is a lot less flexible than Bugzilla. It's always a question of the right tool for the right job - but for what we do (and what many projects out there do), Bugzilla fits perfectly - reliably and practically.
And extensively (Score:2)
Try doing *that* with closed source bug tracker!
--LWM
Re:Doesn't beat commercial apps (Score:2)
bugzilla does work, it's relatively stable, but it's very bleah-inducing. sort of like the bugtracker of choice for curmudgeons
for almost all projects i prefer mantis [mantisbt.org]. it's much lighter and the interface is much more straightforward.
Re:Doesn't beat commercial apps (Score:2)
Did I miss something? (Score:3, Insightful)
We went from decentralized, to centralized back to decentralized...... now back?
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:2)
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:2)
It would sure seem like BugZi
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:2)
I could see a thick client being easier to use, but how is it easier to maintain? In your example, you still have three installs vs. one.
Aside from the deskzilla systray app, I don't see anything in the screenshots that couldn't be done with AJAX.
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:2)
As for why smart/thick clients, if your app is hosted entirely local, for a smart/thick client you need a desktop client and a data source. For a web based client, you would need the data source, a web server, and the web application. Setting up and maintaining a webserver and web app is significantly more involved then having 3 guys run a setup.exe for some gener
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:2)
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:3, Informative)
Seriously, what is fatter than a bloody web browser? I've never understood why I'm expected to prefer web interfaces to other things. Especially when the web interfaces suck as badly as they do.
Well, I haven't used Bugzilla, but I've used many others which my employer doubtlessly paid megabucks for, and which were clearly made and marketed as practical jokes. By unusability experts.
We went from decentralized, to centralized back to decentralized..
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:2)
For a while I did something similar for GForge... (Score:4, Interesting)
I wasn't really using the GUI client very much, though, so I ran out of interest. But if something like that was available that could talk to the SourceForge servers, I'd buy it...
Desktop?! (Score:2)
No Free Beer Here (Score:2, Interesting)
Client/Server is so last millenium (Score:5, Insightful)
Bugzilla is still one of those first-generation looking web apps that was designed (in the visual sense) by programmers, and you can tell. From my experience, most programmers are very bad at making user interfaces (myself included) and really it's a job that should be left to web designers (a subset of graphic designers). Compare bugzilla's interface to say, gmail, and you can see there is just no comparison.
Sure, the usability may be there, but if it's just awkward to use and hard on the eyes, people won't like it. Oh, and apparently they'll revert to developing old client/server style interfaces for it.
Re:Client/Server is so last millenium (Score:1, Interesting)
Their aversion to javascript is now solved by greasemonkey, so there's less querying the server and the difficulty is customizing your site is greatly reduced by the amount of CSS used. Periodic reminders are settable on a per-user basis now too. All in all, I like it a lot more (it's been about a week). The only thing missing in my opinion is dated deadlines; they're in 2.21 which is moving along nicely.
Re:Client/Server is so last millenium (Score:2)
Yeah, until I need to report a bug with my laptop suspend/resume functionality, and what do you know, but I'm on the road and don't have Internet connectivity at the moment.
A local application has value.
Re:Client/Server is so last millenium (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Client/Server is so last millenium (Score:2)
A well-written app would let me queue changes for bugs while offline, and then upload them when I'm connected again. Bugzilla has an email interface, doesn't it? Put a usable interface on that.
The killer feature here is working offline (Score:5, Insightful)
But that's not the point here. It looks like this product just connects to an existing Bugzilla database, so you get to keep all of the web based access you crave, but your frequent users can augment that with a rich client interface.
If you work with bugzilla all the time, there are features that a web interface just can't give you. The biggest one: being able to work with Bugzilla offline (bug database behind a firewall, for instance). The ability to do bug triage from a coffee shop instead of the office could easily justify the price tag.
Of course, it has to acutally install and run first.
Re:Client/Server is so last millenium (Score:2)
Have you ever heard of FogBugz [fogcreek.com]? It solves many of the appearance and usability problems you were talking about. I have used it previously, and it worked very well for my company. It is also very easy on the eyes and has a clean interface (though it is not free). I am curious how this tool compares to Bugzilla since my experience with it is extremely limited. Is the ease-of-use of FogBugz worth the price? Are there major features missing here that Bugzilla lacks?
Re:Client/Server is so last millenium (Score:2)
sounds like you should try mantis [mantisbt.org].
License (Score:2)
Re:License (Score:5, Informative)
For everyone else, it's purely commercial [deskzilla.com]. All your $99 are belong to them!
Costs $99 per license (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Costs $99 per license (Score:2)
Re:Costs $99 per license (Score:1)
What does "Costs $99 per license" have to do with being open-source? Just because something is open source it does not mean that someone can't charge fees for it.
Re:Costs $99 per license (Score:2)
Re:Costs $99 per license (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Costs $99 per license (Score:2)
Smart Clients (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Smart Clients (Score:2)
Is Bugzilla just for software development? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Is Bugzilla just for software development? (Score:1, Informative)
It's not as suitable for actually collaborating on content - that would work better with some Wiki software.
It also doesn't really have anything that deals with timeframes and timelines.
I've heard good things about http://www.edgewall.com/trac/ [edgewall.com].
Re:Is Bugzilla just for software development? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well,
Re:Is Bugzilla just for software development? (Score:2, Informative)
Isn't bugzilla written in Perl? Oh yeah, I remember the pain getting the dependency graphing to work local
Re:Is Bugzilla just for software development? (Score:2)
Deskzilla vs bugxula (Score:1)
Even though that Deskzilla is a cooler piece of software.
PS Are thier other pieces of software that are like deskzill but are freeee.
Re:Deskzilla vs bugxula (Score:2)
Re:Deskzilla vs bugxula (Score:2)
That is the crux of it all.
You run into this at the office. You run into this with open source projects. It can be very, very frustrating.
Wow. Exactly backwards. (Score:3, Insightful)
The first thing I tell the vendors is that I'm not interested in client side software. I want it to be fully usable from most modern web browsers on most common OSs. This makes it accessible by any of our users without the need to install additional software on their computer (and we don't have to worry about updating it when a new version is released).
Bugzilla is already a web application. I can't fathom why would anybody waste so much time making a client version that most sane administrators wouldn't want?
Re:Wow. Exactly backwards. (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally I like the appearance of this application and I think it would be _MUCH_ easier to use than the actual web interface - and the offline usage ability is a wonderful feature
It's nice that they offer free copies to members of established OSS projects
if they get $99/copy for this i should write one for trac!
Re:Wow. Exactly backwards. (Score:2)
This is something that the client can use if the client wants to; it adds extra functionality, and is only for users who want what it gives. It doesn't stop anyone from using the traditional web-based approach - indeed, if you want to use flags, you've still got to use the web.
--LWM
Re:I dont agree. (Score:2)
I am well aware that there are nice features programmed into the new bugzilla client. I've seen neato features added to the clients of other vendors problem tracking tools too. I also note that in all of those cases you end up with users of one OS able to use those features while users of another OS cannot. Then I have multiple different groups of users to support.
I prefer the vendor of tool I c
Already written in Java... (Score:5, Interesting)
- shadowmatter
Re:Already written in Java... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Already written in Java... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Already written in Java... (Score:2)
Or they could have released it as an Eclipse RCP application. This way third parties could add additional functionality, or even alternative views. For example, a graphical view showing the tree of all bugs/features blocked by a given bug. Or a diff view of patches that fix a bug.
Good idea, but not enough there yet (Score:2, Interesting)
So I was prety excited when I saw this post - I downloaded the product and immediately tried it out. Unfortunately this product doesn't really add much: sorting is unimproved, the query builder is a lit
Re:Good idea, but not enough there yet (Score:2)
Re:Good idea, but not enough there yet (Score:2)
sounds like you might want to look at mantis [mantisbt.org].
Thick vs. Thin, the age old question (Score:3, Insightful)
Lets see, first came the client/server applications and all was well! Well, not exactly first, but for the purpose of this discussion I'll say client/server came first. Companies grew faster than tech services could scale-out servers and management shouted "Oh no! This monolithic application will not scale!"
Then came the browser with all the promises of client side scripting and the developers shouted "I can do anything in a browser using sweet javascript code that you old client/server developers can do in a thick client! It will scale to tens of thousands!!"
2 years go by as developers embed thousands of lines of sweet javascript code to accomplish what you can do in a thick client in maybe 100 lines (I'm exaggerating here).
Management shouts "Oh no, my thin web application is taking 10 seconds to load as it parses 50K lines of sweet (now a spaghetti mess) javascript code!"
The new age of developer shouts "I can accomplish everything your antiquated web application can do, using XML web services while still providing a thin client with increased functionality in half the development time! Not to mention the application will be self updating so you will never need to support older versions of the application!"
And managment shouts "WTF!"
Does Bugzilla have an ODBC/SQL interface? (Score:2)
Since our admins set up a couple of convenient SQL Views on our DevTrack database, I've been able to very easily access our issue/bug tracking system via Query Analyzer and Excel. Excel is awesome as I can quickly look at how things are going with things like pivot tables, or just formating the data in a way that is useful to me and the team. I can then forward the spreads
Re:Does Bugzilla have an ODBC/SQL interface? (Score:2)
I did this in order to point Access to the bugs database, in order to create some decent looking bug r
Re:Does Bugzilla have an ODBC/SQL interface? (Score:2)
Excel's on OSX, too.
Did anybody notice the trademark claims??? (Score:2, Interesting)
Naturally, I double checked on that one over at Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/faq. html [mozilla.org]) and found:
While we're at it (Score:3, Funny)
Re:And the point is...? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes it's awful but.... (Score:2)
Re:Yes it's awful but.... (Score:2)
a lot of the bugzillas I use (redhat, gnu) are very creaky and slow -- dunno if that's due to bugzilla or just huge databases on underpowered hardware though. but the bugzilla interface on top of that just makes me go blah.
Re:not a free software? (Score:2, Interesting)