Bugzilla Delivered to the Desktop

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.

Comments

Damn!

[mctk]

The installation crashed. Better report that. ...wait a second...

Re:Damn!

[lilmouse]

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

Re:Damn!

[lilmouse]

They offer free download for people in opensource development, and you can also use the "bleeding edge" version for free.

--LWM

Just what I need!

[Work Account]

Task tray icon #147!

(Not as bad as my parents who have half their screen taken up by all the spyware crap running in the Tray).

A conundrum

[Anonymous Coward]

Now here's a head scratcher. I'd presume that the Bugzilla team uses Bugzilla to track its own bugs. Now, what happens when there's a bug that renders certain features of Bugzilla unusable? The team wouldn't able to use Bugzilla to track the bug that is causing the Bugzilla software to be buggy. What happens then?

Re:A conundrum

[koh]

They use an older, stable version of Bugzilla to track issues in newer releases. Just like gcc folks use the current version of gcc to compile the next one. No magic here.

Re:A conundrum

[nanop]

From the deskzilla site, it seems that the benefits may include:

• Hierarchical project structure and nested queries allow you to apply consistent and orderly approach to issue tracking by creating an issue breakdown structure
• Issue counters give you the immediate picture of the state of your project;
• Local database that acts as a cache for issues allows for quick and customizable database search;
• User interface enhancements such as Threaded Comments View help working with issues;
• Offline availability allows you to work with issues any time, regardless of the availability of Bugzilla server or the Internet.

Think of it as using an IMAP client (Evolution, Thunderbird, etc...) instead of a web-based mail system such as gmail or hotmail. It's not laziness that drives this, but rather efficiency. Less time waiting for a webpage to load could correlate with increased productivity.

Yes, I'm suggesting we need a SlashDesk app. That would increase my productivity 10-fold.

Re:A conundrum

[blackmonday]

But how was the *first* compiler compiled?

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

Re:A conundrum

[eli173]

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. ;)

Re:A conundrum

[jallen02]

It wasn't compiled. It was hand written in machine code. When I first learned machine code and we had to write things in machine code on the little virtual machines we had I was starting to think of assembly as an easy to use language. Heh. That is when you know you are at the bottom of the barrel ;) (It was actually pretty fun).

Jeremy

Re:A conundrum

[scovetta]

We did the same thing, except we didn't have computers, we had to write machine code literally "by hand". Co-workers would take turns playing different registers and the manager would be the CPU chugging along. It took us a while to compile, but we were men.

Oh, and we did this at midnight, outside, in late january in the middle of Minnesota, barefoot, and we loved it.

Did I miss something?

[flatass]

I thought we were moving away from fat client technology. So let me get this straight:

We went from decentralized, to centralized back to decentralized...... now back?

Re:Did I miss something?

[DrWhizBang]

You sound surprised. Software is the same as fashion. Put it in the closet, wait long enough, and it will come back in again.

Re:Did I miss something?

[jgrahn]

I thought we were moving away from fat client technology.

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...... now back?

Centralization is orthogonal to the browser/local application issue. As a user, if there is a single, central database and a single, non-programmable interface, I'm screwed.

For a while I did something similar for GForge...

[tcopeland]

...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...

Client/Server is so last millenium

[gregmac]

If bugzilla actually was a nice looking, easy to use application this probably wouldn't be necessary. Web-based is the way to go. Updating is as simple as updating once on the server -- you don't have to worry about a whole ton of client versions floating around.

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.

Costs $99 per license

[bradbeattie]

Note that Deskzilla, unlike Bugzilla, is not open-source.

Smart Clients

[The Bungi]

Call them 'smart clients' or 'fat clients' or whatever, but AJAX or not these babies are starting to make a comeback. The proliferation of web services and simple, secure client stacks to talk to them in whatever language one happens to use (C#, VB, Python, Perl, Ruby) simply make a far better solution than spankfangled 'rich' browser apps that are, for all their coolness, still difficult hacks. The desktop is still the best environment for creating useable apps. Give me a fast, stable widget library over crappy slow spaghetti JavaScript any day.

Is Bugzilla just for software development?

[Rude Turnip]

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?

Re:License

[Anonymous Coward]

For open source projects its offered as freeware. You need to send an email to opensource@deskzilla.com with your name, project's name & URL, and Bugzilla URL of the project for a freebie key.Then you may proceed to download the proggie.

For everyone else, it's purely commercial. All your $99 are belong to them!

Wow. Exactly backwards.

[MirthScout]

We've been evaluating a few request/bug/issue tracking products.

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?

Already written in Java...

[shadowmatter]

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

- shadowmatter

Re:Already written in Java...

[bot]

Here are a couple of eclipse plugins for bugzilla- buglist and the unimaginatively titled Bugzilla integration plugin for eclipse

Re:And the point is...?

[Slack3r78]

Honestly, Bugzilla's web interface is awful. Sure, it does what it's supposed to, but that doesn't negate the fact that it's confusing and intimidating to many users. Personally, I could see a desktop front end being great for an in-house help desk. The backend's already there and solid, this just provides (what appears to be) a friendlier interface.

Re:Wow. Exactly backwards.

[LordKazan]

For ease of use and offline usage

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!

The killer feature here is working offline

[Anonymous Coward]

Several comments in this thread point out that web-based interfaces are mandatory for a bug tracking system, which is absolutely true. If you *require* a client to use the system, well, there go half of your potential users.

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. :)

Internet Instincts

[Auraiken]

That would increase my productivity 10-fold.

I take it you're at work right now?

Thick vs. Thin, the age old question

[brett77]

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!"

While we're at it

[williepete25]

Lets build a slashdot desktop client. Then I can /. offline. willie

Re:Doesn't beat commercial apps

[Alioth]

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.