Bugzilla @ MySQL Conference - booth report

[Max Kanat-Alexander]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 11:41:37 +0100 Gervase Markham <gerv at mozilla.org>
wrote:
> I know it's a small sample size, but did you ask if this was a recent
> viewpoint, or one they had got a few years ago?

	Most people with complaints hadn't used Bugzilla in a long
time, since before 2.18.

> On the support list, I've been noticing most of the installation
> questions come from Windows users. Do other people sense that too?

	Yes, and that's mostly because we come from a Linux background.
That is, to us it's natural to install a bunch of dependencies like
MySQL, Apache, and perl, because those will probably already be on our
systems anyway and if they're not, they're available through the
package manager.

	On Windows, though, you have to install everything yourself,
and although that process is something a Windows user is used to,
they're not necessarily used to the command line and text-file
configuration.

	Also, we require an SMTP server on Windows, and we don't
support SMTP Auth. So that causes a lot more support questions.

> You may be right. I'm not sure the Bugzilla project gains overall by
> having its developers spend time on outreach. We won't grow the
> community sufficiently to offset the lost time and, even if it does
> grow, the lead time on those new members becoming helpful developers
> would be long.

	I think it could be worth it at a larger conference like OSCON,
where there are lots of people to talk to. MySQLConf was a very small,
very slow conference. (The focus seemed to be the sessions, not really
the Exhibit Hall.)

	Also, with the size of our team, even ONE extra contributor for
two days of sitting around at a booth would be worth it.

	-Max
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