Zen Desk
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We should start a new thread for that. A place to talk about what the best (probably free) inventory system options are.
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@scottalanmiller said:
We should start a new thread for that. A place to talk about what the best (probably free) inventory system options are.
I would like to know more about this free inventorying software.
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I find the idea very interesting as well. Want to kick off a thread?
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I am surprised that a successful open source helpdesk application has not arisen yet. Seems like it would be a "low hanging fruit" kind of project.
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@Reid-Cooper said:
I am surprised that a successful open source helpdesk application has not arisen yet. Seems like it would be a "low hanging fruit" kind of project.
Oh there are a few open source ones. I use one for our Engineering department to keep track of document requests... called Request Tracker.
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@coliver said:
Request Tracker
But how good and how popular is it? There must be reasons why people are not using it.
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I have looked at a few open source ones and they all seem to lack active support and modern interfaces.
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@Reid-Cooper said:
@coliver said:
Request Tracker
But how good and how popular is it? There must be reasons why people are not using it.
The interface really isn't modern, as @scottalanmiller mentioned. Which I find to be the case in a lot of FOSS software. However it works fairly well for what we use it for. It has much the same functionality as the Spiceworks helpdesk does, including reply-to-email ticketing, email querying, user portal, etc. Really the feature set is there but the interface leaves a bit to be desired.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I have looked at a few open source ones and they all seem to lack active support and modern interfaces.
At my last employer, we went through three open source helpdesks in the span of about 2 years. The last one we used was alright, but it was just too much, but it worked better than most of the other ones (It wsa GLPI -- http://www.glpi-project.org/spip.php?lang=en -- (Their primary language is French, I believe).
Then we found Spiceworks that did Inventory and Helpdesk (we didn't actually switch until Spiceworks hit version 6, I think. It was easy quick, and most importnatly for us, easy to customize!
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@coliver said:
The interface really isn't modern, as @scottalanmiller mentioned. Which I find to be the case in a lot of FOSS software. However it works fairly well for what we use it for. It has much the same functionality as the Spiceworks helpdesk does, including reply-to-email ticketing, email querying, user portal, etc. Really the feature set is there but the interface leaves a bit to be desired.
I think this is a lot of the reason why we see commercial helpdesk packages -- or helpdesk packages backed by a company -- because the FOSS developers are focused a lot on adding features, and not necessarily the interface.
I bet some of us could get together and code a great helpdesk with any feature we wanted... but unless we have some folks who can do graphics / website design, it would be ugly as sin. I'd be ashamed to show you some of my early stuff, lol. (Aw, heck, I'd be ashamed to show you some of my more recent stuff, lol).
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@dafyre said:
@coliver said:
The interface really isn't modern, as @scottalanmiller mentioned. Which I find to be the case in a lot of FOSS software. However it works fairly well for what we use it for. It has much the same functionality as the Spiceworks helpdesk does, including reply-to-email ticketing, email querying, user portal, etc. Really the feature set is there but the interface leaves a bit to be desired.
I think this is a lot of the reason why we see commercial helpdesk packages -- or helpdesk packages backed by a company -- because the FOSS developers are focused a lot on adding features, and not necessarily the interface.
I bet some of us could get together and code a great helpdesk with any feature we wanted... but unless we have some folks who can do graphics / website design, it would be ugly as sin. I'd be ashamed to show you some of my early stuff, lol. (Aw, heck, I'd be ashamed to show you some of my more recent stuff, lol).
I would agree with that. Something about FOSS generally doesn't attract the UX/UI people. FOSS programs are generally fantastic feature wise but their interfaces and usability leaves a lot to be desired. GIMP is a good example of this, it has all the feature and function of its competitors, but some of the design decisions are head scratching-ly odd.
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@coliver said:
GIMP is a good example of this, it has all the feature and function of its competitors, but some of the design decisions are head scratching-ly odd.
If you consider it's compettion (which it really is) as things like Paint.NET yes it has all the same features but Paint.NET (on windows) looks better (and doesn't need GTK+). Gimp isn't really a Photoshop replacement like people try to say it is. It doesn't have the same features.
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@thecreativeone91 True. For an amateur hack such as myself it'll replace PS but not for a pro.
