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Re: OT: Opensource Helpdesk App?



on Mon, Apr 01, 2002, Michael Marziani (michaelm@kw.com) wrote:
> Hey folks,
> 
> I know this a good group of sysadmins hence my reason for asking this OT
> question in this forum.  I am currently researching helpdesk solutions
> for my IT dept and we are trying to find a free app.  A very basic
> helpdesk will do:
> 
> user authentication
> enter tickets
> assign tickets
> ticket categories (i.e. user support, server admin, etc) priority levels
> searchability reporting (optional) SQL backend
> 
> Now, before I get flamed and told to search freshmeat, I've already done
> that and come up with quite a few free helpdesk applications.  The
> problem is just that.  I'd rather not weed through them all myself if
> someone else has already done this.  If anyone can recommend a package
> that they have used or heard about being good, I would much appreciate
> it.
> 
> Thanks for any help!

I've investigated this, haven't installed a system yet, but my many
Freshmeat / Sourceforge sources boiled down to a small handful when
language, licensing, and development status were taken into account:

  - RT (Request Tracker):  Perl, GPL, active.  
  - GNATS:  C, GPL, active.
  - Bugzilla:  C, GPL, active.

Functionality is grossly comperable for all three tools, and largely
cover the criteria you mention.

Honorable mention:  BlueTail Ticket Tracker, despite being written in
Erlang (may be a good language, but we've no competence in it) and
questionable dev status.  Debian's bugtracking system is robust but
lacks a web-based front-end.

Other contenders were non-free (KeyStone, PHPTroubleTicket), PHP
(ProManager), or apparently static or immature (WebTTS, PeST).  When you
consider that Bugzilla is a bit of a monster, the choice seems to slide
to RT and GNATS.  

My own inclination is to head toward RT.

Peace.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com>           http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
   What doesn't kill you makes you stranger.

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