Yes, yes, we know... it needs more documentation. ;) We'll be putting out a very complete set of docs for the version after 1.6. In the mean time, getresults has graciously volunteered to put some better documentation together for the current version, so it's in the works.
In the mean time, check the wiki: http://osticket.com/wiki(http://osticket.com/wiki)
Customer login page? - customers can enter their ticket numbers right on the main page, or click the 'Ticket Status' link and do the same thing. There aren't conventional user accounts, per say, at this point, with usernames, passwords, etc. (though there will be in the future) It's all based on ticket ID+email.
add an internal note (hidden from customer) to a ticket via email No.
can you make all users (helpers?) get email on ANY change to ANY ticket, regardless if they own the system You can send alerts for most things to all department members, but alerting everyone to everything, no, waste of resources, that.
is the notion of owning a ticket exists in osTicket and does locking a ticket revoke any other user from replying to the ticket - No. It simply means that while someone else is viewing a ticket, it can't be edited/responded to/updated by anyone else. It's to prevent two people from editing the same ticket, at the same time. Tickets can be assigned to staff, but anyone within the ticket's department (and admins) can access it.
I wouldn't say osTicket is 'email oriented' any more than any other ticketing system is. It's certainly not meant to be used entirely via email. It is a web-based ticket system with email support, for things like sending out replies and notices and message alerts. For the convenience of the end-user (i.e. your customers) it will accept new tickets and ticket responses via email.
