[sophacles]

I think it is always important to consider time-lines on stuff like this. In this field (many fields actually, but it seems especially this one), the first version of something may be revolutionary or particularly good, and then everyone copies that as obvious, making the first one seem only OK or even bad. TV-Tropes covers this effect nicely in the world of fictional television at: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny I'm not sure the timeline on FogBugz, but it wouldn't surprise me if this was a case of it.

[drharris]

FogBugz arrived when the main player on the scene was BugZilla, and capitalized on the fledgling "AJAX" craze. It was definitely a Bugzilla zapper, and it still remains a quality product to this day, gaining features and maintaining simplicity. It's a quality piece of software, but it's still "only a bug tracker". It wasn't the first of its kind, and it's definitely not the only one these days.

When I think of a rock star, I think of someone who not only produces stuff of quality, but actually changes the landscape of the industry. If FogBugs hires 40 rock star developers, I'd expect to see a lot more come out of them than products all in crowded spaces. While they are all quality products, they aren't changing the landscape of the industries involved.