Bugzilla: Philosophy

[Michael Thomas]

We seem to be trying to define exactly what bugzilla is or does. Is it
a bug tracker, is it a development tool, is it etc..

It would seem to me that it is a open ended collection tool at the
core. That is what it does right? Collect a bug report and record
comments pertaining to. Sure it also categorizes, prioritizes, files,
sorts... Sure it does more. But it could operate at that level at its
most basic. Everything else is add-on.The word "Bug" could be swapped
out with issue, or any number of other words or phrases to identify a
single or group of individuals needs.

The extension system that has been/is being implemented makes this
feel more apparent. It can now or has, the potential to integrate with
hundreds of third party applications and systems. That means it can
serve any numbers of roles or even all of them with the same instance.
While preventing scope creep is all well an good I would not want to
start outright tossing or discouraging someones ideas because it
didn't meet a specific ideal. Make it an extension. Perhaps provide a
area to submit extensions for general consumption? Other than the
core.

Unless the goal is the become Microsoft...

Gerv's "To help people fix bugs in software." I think meets that the
best, it does not define how it helps, merely that the ability is
there.

/end comment on only a small part of the overall "Philosophy" conversation