Joe Ganley

I've been looking for an electronic way to track my to-do lists, tasks, and projects. None of the online services I've tried does quite what I want, and anyway I prefer to keep the data locally. This morning I had the revelation that what I wanted was almost identical to the functionality of a bug-tracking system. I could use Bugzilla! I've used it as a client for years, but never tried to install it myself. Here is how the installation instructions begin:

Install Perl.
Install a Database Engine.
Install a Webserver.

And anyway, it isn't clear whether it works on Windows. Fail.

It seemed that a smart business model for commercial bug-tracking software would be to give away single-user licenses for personal use. And indeed, AxoSoft does this. However, I installed it, and it is incredibly complicated. I didn't look at it long enough to determine whether it just has way more functionality than I need, or is poorly engineered, but certainly its interface is overwhelmingly complex for the simple things I need to do.

I'd love to try FogBugz for this purpose, but even a single-user license is $200. I wouldn't mind paying, but that's far too much for what I need.

So, I keep looking. I might have to write something myself.

Labels: lists, organization, software, todo

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Joe Ganley	I make software and sometimes other things.

Due to Blogger's termination of support for FTP, this blog is no longer active. It is possible that some links from here, particularly those within the site, are now broken. If you encounter one of those, your best bet is to go to the new front page and hunt for it from there. Most, but not all, of the blog's posts are on this page; the archives are here.
To do lists, continued
My search for a means of tracking tasks continues. In the cloud, I tried out Remember the Milk, Ta-da List, Todoist, and Toodledo. Of these, Toodledo is my favorite, but ultimately I wasn't happy with it either, and in any event I really wanted a local app rather than a web-based solution, because I want my data kept locally and I want to be able to use it when I'm offline. In the app world, I tried the Jira bug-tracking system, which is free for personal use, but it is far heavier-weight than I need for this purpose. I tried AxoSoft OnTime and FruitfulTime TaskManager, but didn't really care for either of those. Things looks really nice, but it's Mac-only. My current favorite is Tudumo. It's simple and well-designed, and while it isn't quite perfect, I have few complaints. I like that it is designed with simplicity as a primary goal, it is GTD-friendly, it is reasonably priced (though not free), it has a generous 60-day trial period, and it gives me full control over my data (it will export CSV). If I end up sticking with it, I'll make a later post about how I think it could be improved. Labels: lists, organization, software, todo Comments (0)
To do lists
I've been looking for an electronic way to track my to-do lists, tasks, and projects. None of the online services I've tried does quite what I want, and anyway I prefer to keep the data locally. This morning I had the revelation that what I wanted was almost identical to the functionality of a bug-tracking system. I could use Bugzilla! I've used it as a client for years, but never tried to install it myself. Here is how the installation instructions begin: Install Perl. Install a Database Engine. Install a Webserver. And anyway, it isn't clear whether it works on Windows. Fail. It seemed that a smart business model for commercial bug-tracking software would be to give away single-user licenses for personal use. And indeed, AxoSoft does this. However, I installed it, and it is incredibly complicated. I didn't look at it long enough to determine whether it just has way more functionality than I need, or is poorly engineered, but certainly its interface is overwhelmingly complex for the simple things I need to do. I'd love to try FogBugz for this purpose, but even a single-user license is $200. I wouldn't mind paying, but that's far too much for what I need. So, I keep looking. I might have to write something myself. Labels: lists, organization, software, todo Comments (0)