Is it wise to risk on using closed source plugins with closed issue trackers?

Question

JIRA and Confluence are open-source, and as a user you do get access to the source code, meaning that if tomorrow Atlassian is teleported to another dimension, you will still be able to compile and fix the system yourself.

Also, because Atlassian has an open-issue tracker you can always see what kind of bugs are already reported and to also get an impression, good or bad, regarding on how does the company deals with these bugs or requests.

Over time I observed too many JIRA and Confluence plugins that become broken over night, obsolete or didn't had support at all.

Based on this I do have the impression that it would be a really bad idea to invest in any plugins that does not have these two requirements:

* A public issue tracker, one browsable even when you are not logged in, and where you can raise issues.
* Access to the source code for customers

I would even go so far to ask Atlassian to certify these plugins in the Marketplace and to allow us to filter out those that do not comply with this.

What do you think about it?

Note: before one of the partners will start raising the privacy question regarding support, let me remind you that the product issue tracker is not the way to get support, so there is no need for privacy (logs/configs...)

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Er, no.

JIRA and Confluence are NOT open source.  The source is closed and those of us who are entitled to it have agreed to a licence saying we cannot distribute it in any form.

Also, one of the things on the marketplace is that vendors get an "Atlassian approved" badge which has a load of criteria such as "has a public issue tracker".  Source code is a different matter though - you'd severely constrict the market if you demanded the source code from all vendors automatically.  It's something that should remain a choice for the individual author.  Sure, it would be nice if we were all that trusting, but it should be up to the author if they choose to share (And up to the end user if they refuse to use plugins they don't get the source to).  I believe that is all indicated in the marketplace listing as well.