Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Bugzilla Delivered to the Desktop

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the it's-not-a-bug-it's-a-feature dept.

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.

15 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Doesn't beat commercial apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Free or not, Bugzilla doesn't come close to the commercial bug tracking apps. Give me Tracker or Clear Quest any day. Freeware has come a long way, but practical and reliable bug tracking apps seem far away.

    Has anyone used Bugzilla so far?

    1. Re:Doesn't beat commercial apps by Alioth · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Bugzilla is both practical and reliable - and it is used on some VERY large projects (tracking hundreds of thousands of bugs).

      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.

      --
      Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
  2. For a while I did something similar for GForge... by tcopeland · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...it was a Java client that used Apache Axis and the GForge SOAP API to make a GUI client. I made a little jEdit plugin and a little JFreeChart app that showed user and project charts.

    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...

    --
    The Army reading list
  3. Trend Reversal by ZachPruckowski · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This seems backward to me. We seem to be moving towards a more internet focused life, with web based apps which are scaring MS. We're trying to do things that used to be desktop based (encyclopedias, games) on the internet (Wikipedia, flash games & MMORPGS) And then we're taking something that really should be online to the desktop?

    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 to hate Safari, Opera, and IE? Wouldn't I be glad I grabbed Firefox? What if they all die? Now I can report the bugs, thank you very much.

    If all 4 of my browsers get screwed up at the same time, I freaking quit the Internet forever. The hackers will have won.

  4. No Free Beer Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They want $99 bucks for this?!?

  5. Re:Damn! by lilmouse · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Silly boy, web interface will still work!

    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

  6. Is Bugzilla just for software development? by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've been involved in a number of large projects at work that involve the use of several staff members and the creation of large, complex financial analysis models and literally thousands of pages of text. Could a program like Deskzilla (or full-blown Bugzilla) offer me and my colleagues some basic project management tools? It would be pretty cool if it could generate some sort of report that we could show to clients if they want a status report of our progress. Any thoughts on this? I've managed very well without such software, but anything to make better use of my time would help. I've no desire to get a commercial package like MS Project...I would like to keep things open and lean. Any thoughts on this?

    --
    Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
    1. Re:Is Bugzilla just for software development? by radarsat1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sadly the main reason I couldn't convince people to use it at work (and they were seriously interested) was because I couldn't easily tell them how to customize it. They wanted a tracking system they could use for not just software, but documentation and electronics drawings too. I figured it would be pretty easy to customize for that, but they wanted to make many changes, and I just didn't have enough experience with it to say, "yes, that'll be easy!" So they went with a commercial product. Sigh.

      Well, at least I told the truth -- not that it wouldn't work for what they wanted, but that I didn't have the time or experience to go and start modifying the php. It would have been worse if they'd gone with it and then I'd be stuck PHP programming instead of developing product-related software. So I guess I think that bugzilla is really cool but I don't know why they stopped at making it a software-only related solution instead of going all the way.

      Not that it can't function as a more general solution, but it takes too much work to customize it. From what I can tell with my quick once-over. I'm sure it's not that hard, actually, but I just couldn't say for sure without actually trying, and I didn't have the time to really get into it.

  7. Already written in Java... by shadowmatter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... Just too bad it isn't an Eclipse plug-in. That would have been slick.

    - shadowmatter

  8. Re:Client/Server is so last millenium by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Have you used Bugzilla 2.20? It's quite a bit prettier.

    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.

  9. Re:Damn! by w98 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'd prefer a 'free' version, even if it were limited a little, for personal use at home ... I'd love a to-do list/bug tracking list for my own personal development, but couldn't justify a price tag if it's just for personal stuff. Just my $0.02 tho.

    --
    my geeklog
  10. Re:A conundrum by eli173 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    But how was the *first* compiler compiled?

    Just thinking about that makes me head explo[NO CARRIER].

    Go read Reflections on Trusting Trust and pay particular attention to the part about the '\v' character.

    'Course the rest of that document may reduce you to gibbering goo. ;)
  11. Good idea, but not enough there yet by TFoo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As someone who's used quite a few web-based and client-based bug trackers over the years, I'll say that Bugzilla's web interface leaves a *LOT* to be desired: you are seriously limited in the complexity of queries you can write, your sorting options are laughable, general result layout is very poor, etc etc.

    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 little (not much) better, the layout and UI is unattractive and not signifcantly more powerful than the Web UI -- plus the product is pretty slow overall and consumes a frightening amount of system resources (150M memory, 300M VM space, according to TaskMan)

    Overall, if this were a free product, I might use it: however for $99/seat it just isn't worth it right now.

  12. Did anybody notice the trademark claims??? by jefe289 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I went to the screenshot page (http://deskzilla.com/shots.html) and scrolled to the very bottom, where it says:
    Copyright © ALM Works Ltd 2004-2005 Deskzilla is not related in any way to Mozilla Organization or its employees. Bugzilla and Mozilla are trademarks owned by Netscape Communications Corporation.
    Naturally, I double checked on that one over at Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/faq. html) and found:
    The Mozilla trademarks include, among others, the names Mozilla(TM), mozilla.org®, Firefox®, Thunderbird(TM), Bugzilla(TM), Camino(TM), Sunbird(TM) and Seamonkey(TM), as well as the Mozilla logo, Firefox logo, Thunderbird logo and the red lizard logo.
    So, what gives? Surely these Deskzilla guys should have figured that one out!
  13. Re:not a free software? by tjasond · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hello, If you're interested in an alternative bug tracking tool that is open source, you should check out TrackIt. Not only does it manage bugs, but it also supports features, requirements, test cases, and much more, in addition to any user defined item types. It integrates with Subversion and CVS, as well as preliminary integration with Eclipse. Other features include a Timeline view that is also viewable via RSS, a Listing driven by HQL, Reports driven by SQL, fully customizable lookup lists, project news, a high level summary view, nightly build integration, and user customizable RSS feeds.

    Under the hood, it's implemented using Hibernate 3 and the fully AJAX enabled Java web toolkit, Echo2