Is there a simple (kinda) task manager for Linux?

June 3, 2008 9:45 AM

Linux + EEE + Chaotic Projects = ????? Project Manager. What should I try?

I have a 700 series 4G Surf Eee that I am using as a PDA plus. I like the thing (very portable, long battery life, easy to get accessories). I t has almost everything I want. But what I need is some kind of easy to use project manager.

My employer responds to RFPs (Request for Proposals) that can vary from really quick and simple to the monstoruosly complex. Most of the time the sales person and I work out the RFP needs and work that plan...Until we talk to the client and start all over as new data comes in. In order to keep to the tight timelines I have, I often try to figure out who I need to call, what needs to be done, and how the sales person needs to present our proposal. That means drafting out at least some tasks for the project. But after revisions, or Q&A sessions, or merely phone calls to the RFP company, most of those plans get rearranged. Therefore I need a better way to keep track these decidedly transient projects, allow me to toss entire trains of thought, and can make sure I don't sit around blowing bubbles when work needs to progress.

I would like the software to work on Xandros or Debian, allow me to keep soemthing like nested todos, allow me to strikethrough entries as well as delete or check off entries, and keep notes on either project or tasks as data changes, and classify projects as either active, passive, or dead. I have tried Baskets (didn't like it), use Evolution now, and would like something that would be locally installed. Ideas? Need more details?

posted by Koffeeman to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Todoist is wonderful, and does all of this, but has no offline mode at the moment. Users are pushing for one though, and I'd say it's likely soon.

(I have the exact same setup and predicament.)
posted by phrontist at 9:59 AM on June 3, 2008

Perhaps GnoTime might fit the bill?
posted by txsebastien at 12:30 PM on June 3, 2008

You might want to try Tasque, which works on- and offline and also integrates with Remember The Milk (which is probably the best webbased task-manager).
posted by richardh at 5:05 AM on June 4, 2008

Freemind?
Not sure about installing it on the EEE's Xandros, but it's available as a .deb pkg. (Also in Windows and OSX versions, all of them free.)
Diagrams of branching/nested items, each taggable/check-offable, etc, each can be a hyperlink. Made your diagram, but new changes come in? items/branches can be cut/pasted anywhere else on the tree, turned into root items, etc. Diagram can then be exported to an image (several formats, like PDF) or as HTML; HTML can be converted to Word, which turns the various branches/subs into an outline format with headings/bulleted items.
Not so much a To-Do, as a "map out this complex project, showing all of the steps and who's responsible for what" tool.
posted by bartleby at 1:20 PM on June 4, 2008