Any suggestion open source support ticket system

[greg_rundlett-nRXb03v5zC6Vc3sceRu5cw at public.gmane.org (Greg Rundlett)]

On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 2:54 PM, Tom Metro <tmetro-blu-5a1Jt6qxUNc at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Dan Ritter wrote:
>> Kevin D. Clark wrote:
>>> 3: ?does RT allow somebody to define milestones and to search/report
>>> based on these?
>>
>> No, this is a ticket system more than a bug tracker. The
>> emphasis is on interaction with customers on one end and
>> engineers on the other end, without annoying either side too
>> much, and possibly putting a layer of semi-technical support
>> people in between.
>
> This is an important distinction.
>
> RT is a workable compromise between a developer-oriented tool, and a
> customer-oriented tool, but it is lacking in both areas. There are newer
> "web 2.0" issue trackers that provide a friendlier interface for
> non-technical end-users. And developers will find RT lacking, unless you
> have rather light needs in a bug tracker. Some of the deficiencies can
> be made up for through customizing RT. For example, addressing the
> question above, adding a custom field to track milestones is something
> I've seen done.
>
> Although lots of developers must find a fairly light feature set
> adequate, as a popular tool, Trac, is not much better in terms of
> developer features.

I'm also looking for the right open source bug/issue/project
management solution - and actually I have both opinions and experience
in this area.  However, I'm very eager to hear other's opinions plus
experience and also looking to stay current with developments in the
field.

I've come to the conclusion that Trac is pretty good for getting wiki,
tracker, milestones and code browsing all done quickly (which is what
a lot of people want).  But, I find that it doesn't excel at any of
these things.  In other words "practical, but not perfect".  I want
something more.  I don't mind being called a perfectionist.  I want a
tracker that can serve both developers and customers well.  I want a
wiki that can do more than just simple things and is "standard" (why I
choose MediaWiki).  I want a code browser that can handle enormous
change sets and does a very good job at RSS notification plus diffing.
(why I choose websvn -- but it's not perfect either because it doesn't
cover any other version control system.)  I haven't found a good
tracker yet.  The times I've used Bugzilla, it felt like it required
too much technical expertise or in some ways was not customizable (and
skinning/theming seems to rarely be accomplished).  I thought Eventum
was good, but later realized the code was completely procedural and
difficult to customize
(e.g.http://freephile.com/wiki/index.php/Eventum_to_TaskJuggler) .  I
have long wanted to use Drupal's tracker system, and that is finally
approaching release quality.  I have used Horde's tracker (+ browser)
in the past and although I'm not very familiar with them, I suspect
that they _are_ very capable.   I guess I was turned away by the wiki
part because it seemed like another "not invented here" syndrome, but
there too, I'll assume that Horde wiki engine (Wicked) is capable and
customizable b/c it's based on http://pear.php.net/package/Text_Wiki.
Chora (Hordde's Tracker) is at least implementing Git support right
now - which I consider to be way cool because tracking multiple vendor
sources and having disconnected project members means Subversion is a
wimpy inadequate tool..

I guess I haven't found the tracker I'm looking for yet.  I just found
a new open source option called
http://www.queplix.com/products/compare-queweb-editions/ queplix which
does some integration with eclipse.  Found it from the issue tracking
page on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_issue_tracking_systems.
I'd like to know more about flyspray (http://flyspray.org/), redmine
(http://www.redmine.org/) or mantis (http://www.mantisbt.org/), or
even Jira but I'm completely turned off on that last option by the
fact that it's a proprietary application that needs 7 other apps to
round out your software development infrastructure.

So, I hope that furthers the discussion.

~ Greg