Bugzilla: Open Source Bug-Tracking System - General Overview
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First of all, let’s clarify the basic concepts of Bugzilla. Bugzilla is the server side of the application. As soon as it is functioning and placed in action, customers and/or users can use Bugzilla by visiting the URL address where Bugzilla's user interface can be reached. Basically, the client-side can be any half-decent web browser.
Since this article presents the entire system, we are going to emphasize the server side as well. It should be noted that the Bugzilla server is free and cross-platform. It has the following requirements: Perl 5.8.0 or higher with Linux or at least 5.8.1 with Windows; a database engine (preferably MySQL, PostreSQL, etc.); a fully functional web server (preferably Apache); necessary Perl modules; and an MTA (mail transfer agent, it should be send-mail compatible). And of course, the Bugzilla server application!
Now comes the tough part. Everything ought to be configured appropriately for Bugzilla to work properly. Thankfully, the official documentation is really thorough and detailed. You can always find the user guide for the latest Bugzilla version directly from the official website.
A few more things should be said about Bugzilla. It is always under heavy and active development. It has a dedicated team of professionals that aims to deliver top-notch service. And most importantly, the product is constantly improving since it is being used at more than 824+ companies, of which many are prestigious corporations.
You can check out the up-to-date installation list of Bugzilla at this page. As you can see, within the high-profile companies and organizations we can find NASA, Nokia, Yahoo!, the New York Times, AT&T, NATO, and many more… along with the following free software projects: the Mozilla Foundation, Linux Kernel, Gnome, KDE, Open Office, Eclipse, and various Linux distros such as Gentoo, Red Hat, Mandriva, and Novell.
Due to the above impressive list we can say that Bugzilla is a tried-and-proven bug and/or issue tracking system sporting an enormous list of features that many alternate commercial issue-tracking solutions simply don’t offer. For the entire compilation of features and functions, head over to this page; here, we’ll just name a few.
First of all, the core architecture of Bugzilla offers amazing database performance, allowing an overzealous amount of data flow. It is very highly scalable. Developers paid attention to the detail when designing its overall security and privacy; they also didn't forget about confidentiality protection. User administration, along with security policies, user profiles, and everything involved with that is very advanced.
Altogether it should be said that Bugzilla's only possible drawbacks are in terms of maintenance and installation. Its setup isn’t that easy, though the official manual does an amazing job explaining the required know-how, and let’s not forget the intense amount of knowledge that is spread all over the Web. It lacks a bit on the user interface side, too. However, it is very usable and performs spectacularly well; that’s a fact.
Bugzilla's intense amount of features makes up for its few shortcomings. But hey, what can we do about them? Chances are that the system administrators of your company, organization, or institution won’t have a hard time grasping how it works, and once they do, they can handle the administration every time. It is highly customizable, and each function is thoroughly and vastly explained.
Next: General Overview, Continued >>
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