832114 - Remove the "Hardware" and "OS" fields from the UI

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 579089

(bugzilla.mozilla.org :: User Interface, defect)

Description

[Chris Jones [:cjones] inactive; ni?/f?/r? if you need me]

(I'm guessing we can't remove these from the DB, so aiming at UI only.)

These have basically zilch usefulness in practice.  I only notice them when someone gets in a crusading mood and floods my inbox with hundreds of emails "correcting" HW/OS flags.

Comment 1

[:glob ✱]

the hardware/os fields are actively used by quite a few products, so this needs to be on a per-product basis.  and even within a product, i know of developers who make heavy use of this field (eg. filtering on osx specific issues).

rather than removing this field, i think it makes more sense to fix default values.
eg. bug 579089


note: for bugs raised via the guided bug entry, we already have a per-product "detect platform" toggle.  https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/extensions/GuidedBugEntry/web/js/products.js has the dirt there.

if there's a product you'd like to have hardware detection disabled (b2g?) let us know.

Comment 2

[Chris Jones [:cjones] inactive; ni?/f?/r? if you need me]

(In reply to Byron Jones ‹:glob› from comment #1)
> the hardware/os fields are actively used by quite a few products

Which, ooc?  I honestly haven't ever seen these flags put to good use, but I only have a small bz front yard that I stay in.

> note: for bugs raised via the guided bug entry, we already have a
> per-product "detect platform" toggle. 
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/extensions/GuidedBugEntry/web/js/products.js
> has the dirt there.
> 
> if there's a product you'd like to have hardware detection disabled (b2g?)
> let us know.

Well, this isn't particularly helpful, but for any product from which I receive bugmail, I don't want to see OS/HW :).  So that would be Core and b2g.  I have no idea what the decision process would look like for doing that though.

Comment 3

[:glob ✱]

(In reply to Chris Jones [:cjones] [:warhammer] from comment #2)
> (In reply to Byron Jones ‹:glob› from comment #1)
> > the hardware/os fields are actively used by quite a few products
> 
> Which, ooc?  I honestly haven't ever seen these flags put to good use, but I
> only have a small bz front yard that I stay in.

there's a reasonable discussion over in bug 579089.  tier3 platforms use them, and the fact that you're getting emails for people correcting the values is a strong indicator they are used in those products.

> Well, this isn't particularly helpful, but for any product from which I
> receive bugmail, I don't want to see OS/HW :).  So that would be Core and
> b2g.

understood, however if we remove hw/os from core, how do you propose we track hw/os specific issues?  i don't think it makes sense to replace the hw/os fields with keywords/whiteboard/whatever, as you're just changing the fieldname and not addressing the issue.

imho the crux of the problem is the hw/os fields are used to track both the reporter's configuration, and the hw/os a bug manifests on.  i've commented on bug 579089.

Comment 4

[David Lawrence [:dkl]]

I think this request is best satisified with the changes proposed in bug 579089 so duping there.