Open Source GPL Groupware Options

December 2, 2005 12:14 AM

What open source groupware package to use?

I've been surverying the numerous GPL PM and intranet packages out there and figure someone has probably done this analysis already. I've looked at OpengroupWare.org, Dotproject, PHProjekt, Tutos, PHPCollab, and others.

Anybody have favorites or peeves? I'm looking for a system to manage my small business as I hire an assistant and work with contractors. Bonus points for Gannt output.

posted by ao4047 to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Just to clarify; when you say "groupware" do you really mean "project management software"? To me (and, I suspect, the industry at large--although I could be wrong) the term "groupware" refers to any suite of integrated mail, calendar, and tasks system (such as Exchange, GroupWise, Horde's suite, etc.) whereas the projects you've cited are more for individual project management...
posted by chota at 6:26 AM on December 2, 2005

This is question that I wish I had an answer to. I've installed and evaluated all of those that you list and they all fall short for various reasons. I used PHPCollab (and its variant NetOffice) the most but gave up due to its inflexibility and frustrating user interface. I always seem to fall back to using MS-Project but I hate the file-based paradigm were you end up passing the project file around as an email attachment and everyone has ten different versions of the same file.

I think that in general, the most important criterion for all of these would be a large active community and development team. It sucks to be using an open-source product that has no community to answer questions and never gets updated.
posted by octothorpe at 7:15 AM on December 2, 2005

Response by poster: I don't need the email component but Task and Calendar would be great. Doesn't have to to sync to Outlook.
posted by ao4047 at 7:53 AM on December 2, 2005