I really wouldn't be comparing extremely technical software like frameworks and source versioning systems to a frontal software like an issue tracker. To put things in context, building web-based applications is what my company does and I believe we're somewhat proficient at it. I have no clue where to start on building a revisioning system and I have some clue where to start on a framework but I wouldn't consider myself an expert on all the aspects.
With a frontal (ie, user facing) application such as an issue-tracker, most of the challenge is solving the user experience. All the issue trackers we went over had very bad to somewhat below average user experience. I guess since it is aimed at a rather technical industry at its core, most companies don't pay much heed to this.
In all fairness, I think user experience is the biggest strength of my company. We do care about the usability and visual appeal of our products, and all of us have a lot experience and opinions on the subject. So when it comes to it, I do believe that we can do better than fogbugz or trac in this respect. We have used those systems and we know what problems we need to solve. Also, it's not like we are inventing the wheel here - just building on tried and true processes and just improving the flow of use, the orientation and visibility of information and so forth.
We will probably do something with this tracker once it's mature enough - either release it as an open-source or create a hosted version of it (possibly both - a`la wordpress). We will probably want to rinse it through more projects and clients to get a more complete product out of it. If you have your own beef with current trackers, I would love to hear it.
Issue tracker project?
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