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Public Bug Tracking and Open-Source Policy
Observer writes "Bugs in software are nothing new, but when they're discussed in the open, how do open source projects adapt policy? A major regression in the Gnome project's session manager has seen some major distributions choose to refuse to follow the update rather than drop a major feature. Between Gnome's public bug tracker and similar trackers from distributions which released (and still distribute) the buggy version, months of debate provide an interesting case-study in the way front-line users and developers interact for better or for worse. What lessons can be learned here for release planning, bug triage, and marketing for a major open source project?"
Hear, hear. At work I maintain a internal fork of an open source library we use. Not because I enjoy forking: because the guy with write access to the library's repository started a major refactor 18 months ago in trunk and still hasn't finished it; the subset he uses works, but we use some of the more advanced stuff which he hasn't fixed yet. I can't just take a snapshot before the refactor because then I miss loads of bugfixes.
Keep in mind that the end-user will not be exposed to those internal discussions, although they take place in public, open forums.
Huh? If they're public and open, the end use can see them. What are you talking about?
My emphasis.