What's the basis of this objection to a web-based dev management system?
Beyond "the core developers want to stick to email", I think there is a good reason that we should stick primarily to email for project management: Bugzilla and similar systems are "point to point", whereas a mailing list is multicast[1]. When someone submits a patch or a bug report to a mailing list, any of the developers can see the report, discuss it, and contribute to resolving it. More often than not, a web-based interface like Bugzilla leads to a single "bug master", who does most of this work by themselves. Besides the fact we don't have such a person, it would also mean that knowledge of bugs/patches and the discussion about resolving issues is distributed among a smaller pool of people.
There is definitely room for improvement; submitted patches do occasionally fall through the cracks, for example. I would personally be interested in a "bug-tracking system" that is closer to a shared email archive. Individuals would send mail to a mailing list and other people would reply and eventually resolve the thread, as happens now. The process would be slightly more formalized: there would be a way to specify a few commands via email to close/open/resolve/etc. reports, and some kind of interface (perhaps web-based) for viewing unresolved issues, searching through issues, etc. But the point is that the current system works well; this would just be a slight formalization of existing procedures (we don't *want* a revolutionary change, nor do we need one). I think the administrative overhead wouldn't be too high, either.
I'm not sure which existing systems fit this model (suggestions are welcome) -- email needs to be the primary interface, not an afterthought (as is often the case). Perhaps RT would work, I'm not sure.
-Neil
[1] Hat-tip to Andrew Morton's keynote at LCA, which made this point effectively.
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