The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

Mantis

Looks like SourceGear is cooking up their own bug tracking system, Mantis which will integrate into Vault. A little competition for FogBugz?

It also appears they are giving away $5k for pretty'in up their webpages.

(I hope their single user version include Mantis!)

Walker, Texas Ranger
Sunday, May 16, 2004

Is this open-source Mantis bug tracker?

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mantisbt/

or a code-name for closed-source project?

dir at badblue com
Sunday, May 16, 2004

http://www.ericsink.com - explains more.

Walker, Texas Ranger
Sunday, May 16, 2004

Yes, Mantis is just a code name I believe.

Walker, Texas Ranger
Sunday, May 16, 2004

I have an Eric sink in my bathroom, with the Farrah faucet.

Officer Robert Barone
Sunday, May 16, 2004

Since many people here indicated there micht be a large overlap between the Sourcegear and Fog Creek audiences, the logical conclusion by Sourcegear:

"Smart companies try to commoditize their products' complements."

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html

Maybe we could see a Foggear or Sourcecreek in the future :-).

Just me (Sir to you)
Monday, May 17, 2004

Talk about confusing. What a dumb idea to code-name your product after an existing product in the same exact field! I mean, maybe I should develop a new photo manipulation program and code name it Photoshop?

Elephant
Monday, May 17, 2004

why is it a dumb idea if it makes it easier for you to remember ..... instead of yet another acronym!!!

Prakash S
Monday, May 17, 2004

Yet Another Five Letter Acronym - YAFLA! www.yafla.com

Monday, May 17, 2004

This is confusing. Sounds like they are porting Mantis to .NET.

christopher baus (www.baus.net)
Monday, May 17, 2004

We chose Mantis as our code name before we knew about the open source project using that name. Like I said on my blog, the final product name will NOT be "Mantis".

Joel, feel free to delete this thread. Your discussion board isn't the place to talk about this.

Eric Sink
Monday, May 17, 2004

Good job you did your market research first ;-)

Mantis is a popular and well respected bug tracker.

oops
Monday, May 17, 2004

I use the OpenSource Mantis. It isn't bad. It does what you need if don't want complex workflows, or tight version control integration. I'm pretty happy with it.

christopher baus (www.baus.net)
Monday, May 17, 2004

Mantis is what I recommend to any department that has no budget and needs a bugtracker. Personally I always like MS's Raid and comercially, if there is a budget (and not to kiss ass), I like fog bugz.

Mantis though is easy to customize if you need to. The biggest downside that I've seen is that the OS project seems to be limping along on one leg as active development seems to occur only about once a year.

Elephant
Tuesday, May 18, 2004