there really is only one contender for me, and that's Richard Curnow's tdl [rc0.org.uk], awesome for programmers and just day to day todo lists.

If you're looking for a structured way to store your random bits of data, there'
s treeline [bellz.org], a really simple but rea
lly effective little app.

I'm not really a bells & whistles type of guy, i like my apps streamlined and effective :)

I am trying to find a simple freeware/open-source todo list manager.

Even if you don't have a Palm Pilot, Palm Desktop [palmone.com] under Windows isn't too bad. The price - FREE - is certainly right, too. It may not be the best out there, but it meets the basic requirements for a to-do list manager.

Perhaps we could be of more help to you if you would explain why the 'Old School' approach of using scratch paper is unacceptable to you. What features do you require in a to-do list that pencil and paper cannot provide?

And by low tech I mean Notepad.exe.

=)

I have experimented with free PHP to-do list software, but haven't found it easy enough to continue with.

What I use for my own to-do list is Apple's iCal, which has the ability, thanks to my $99-a-year Mac.com account, to put my list on the web and every Mac I use.

I must say, there is nothing quite so satisfying as checking the tiny "done" box next to an item on my to-do list. Sometimes I'm tempted to put trivial items on it like "take off shoes" or "read Slashdot" just so I'll have the opportunity to check off a done item.

If I don't do something I am supposed to, my wife whacks me on the back of the head. Works great!

-John.

Perfect for passwords too!

Currently, I'm back to my old-school ways of scribbling my todo's on the back of each Daily Dilbert Calendar page, which sadly means today is June 23

Switch to The Far Side [thefarside.com] - their desk calendars are much bigger and can accommodate many more notes. *grin*

I really dig Omni Outliner [omnigroup.com] from The Omni Group [omnigroup.com]. It is, of course, for OS X--My platform of choice.

They also have some teriffic charting software, OmniGraffle [omnigroup.com], that I use to do flowcharts for all of my coding. You guys all do flowcharts, right? :)

-S

We use MS Project to manage our to do lists.

Sincerely,
Duke Nukem Forever - Dev Team

Just get a cheap palm ($149 USD gets you a color screen now-a-days!) and use the todo list in it. Hotsync to backup or use the Palm Desktop also, with a UI somewhat similar to the palm. Super simple and super powerfull at the same time. <p>

I've been a student of time management practices for some time, always looking for that perfect app, that will make me super efficcient. I've read many books on the topic. There is no silver bullet. Becoming an effective time manager is more akin to making a lifestyle change.

It really boils down to self-discipline, much more than some specific methodology. I'm a fan of Covey's methodologies, but unless you really, really, really commit to it (or some other one more to your liking), you're no better off with a slick app than you are with to-do lists on the back of a Dilbert calendar page.

OmniOutliner [omnigroup.com] and OmniGraffle [omnigroup.com] work pretty sweetly for me.

Still a bit buggy, but with calendar, shared calendar support, publishing through webdav, it has the potential of being as good as iCal !

This software has completely changed my life. I use it as a TODO list, I use to to manage developers, I use it to manage myself, and I'm now using it to manage the process of renovating my house (will eventually require my contractor to use it). I will never go back to the days of using a TODO list that's bound to a particular phone, handheld, laptop, or desktop.

I find the best to do list manager is a yellow legal pad. You never have to worry about the batteries running down on it; it won't lose your data due to a system crash; accessable even when you don't have internet access; it features an intuitive user interface (dubbed a 'pen'); it's ease-of-use is well documented; and best of all it is compatable with open standards such as english, french, and japanese.

One caveat, it's not freeware; it could be as expensive as a dollar, but you'll recoup that quickly with the electricity savings.

-- Greg

I simply use a private wiki. The advantage being I can access it from work or at home or when travelling. Flexible enough to store a to-do list or store some bookmarks or whatever information you want to store. Lots of easy-to-install wiki software out there. I had previously quickly coded a simple PHP todo list but using existing wiki software is simpler and more powerful. Its not like a todo list requires some specialised software.

SafeSex!

Yay Nullsoft.

http://www.nullsoft.com/free/safesex/

ToDoList [thecodeproject.com] ... currently on version 3.6.4 is a great To-Do list manager. Incidentally, the site it's offered through (TheCodeProject.com) is a great resource for Windows developers as well.

My TODO list is ~/TODO. I edit it with vim. Sometimes I grep it. When I get things done I dd that line.

I can access it anywhere with ssh.

I use this, Agendus [iambic.com] a powerful to-do list solution for a palm if you've got one.

I know you wanted a PC solution but let's face it - they all mostly suck. I need something super-portable and syncable if it's going to be my to do list for the entire day. That's why I prefer the PalmOS software.

It costs a bit of money but you know, who pays for these things anyway? Well it should be you.

apt-get install devtodo

it proved to be so good that even my wife abadoned small sheets of paper and started using it.

JPilot [jpilot.org] is an open-source, freeware organizer. You get a calendar, to do list with categories and priorities, address book, dialer, and memo pad. It is designed to sync with Palm devices. However, it can export to other calendar and address book formats (iCalendar, vCard, LDIF).

If you just want a free-as-in-beer organizer, the Palm Desktop is free for personal use on Mac or Windows.

It really depends on the sorts of tasks you are handling. If you are, for example, a builder then you will have a critical path and (hopefully ;-) strict deadlines. For something like this a calendar based task scheduler is fine. Things like KOrganizer or Plans [planscalendar.com] could be used.

If there is a great number of tasks with no critical path, for example a call center, then you will want something a little more complicated. You'll need to be able to log a task quickly, give it an urgency, tie it back to a particular caller, be able to assign it, maybe even have a searchable knowledge base. For this area things like OTRS [otrs.org] are great.

Then you could be a developer, where critical paths vary daily and tasks need to be assigned to specific modules and versions. The obvious choice here is bugzilla [bugzilla.org]

Desktop or web-based is also a consideration. You may require access from multiple locations; maybe you are an off-site engineer; so that needs to be taken into consideration too.

It's like you read my mind. Come cower before the greatness that is...JobJar! [freshmeat.net]

From the description:

Jobjar is a Small but Useful (tm) utility to manage a list of non-critical jobs to do...you know, like a job jar. You can add a job to the jar, you can remove a job, or you can just print out a job for you to do. In the grand tradition of Unix, the list is called ~/.jobjar and is a simple text file. None of your binary Windows nonsense here...no, sir! And in the grand tradition of GNU software, it's released under the GPL. What more could you possibly want?

JobJar: Because if you need more than Perl, plain text and a command line, you are a heathen and must die.

On OSX, I use iCal. Don't think anything else comes close. With the built-in WebDav functionality, it can be combined with .Mac, or OSS PHPiCalendar [sourceforge.net] which makes a great to-do/calendar package for those who like to access their information from elsewhere. Works with Mozilla Calendar [mozilla.org] and KOrganizer [kde.org] too.

On Windows, there is a shareware app called Biromsoft To-Do List [biromsoft.com]. Pretty simple and straightforward.
I recommend it for those who are looking for a listmaker without all the bells and whistles that might otherwise come with aformentioned calendar apps.

Sorry folks, you're not allowed to do TODO lists. That has been patented by Microsoft [slashdot.org].

Perhaps you should consider circumventing the patent by making a list of "Stuff I gotta remember not to forget" ?

...I was going to get around to compiling a list of them one of these days...

I put all my reminders in Emacs diary now. I usually have Emacs open (I read mail with vm) and it's pretty good about telling time and stuff. It'd be interesting to hack out a separate todo list generator that can export data to a palm pilot type device. Hmm... (Adding "investigate palm conduits in emacs" to todo list...)

I'm a big fan of the web-based software RequestTracker, affectionately known as RT.

Homepage [bestpractical.com]

It is similar to Bugzilla, except it's not software bug oriented so much as "Stuff To Do" oriented. It has a simple email gateway, it keeps track of absolutely everything, it allows you to add custom fields quite easily, it changes priorities of your events over time, and it allows you to keep track of how much time you've spent on various projects. Around my office, it's pretty key.

-jag

If you have access to a *NIX machine, or use one for your daily work, then what I do may work for you.

I simply use the at scheduler to schedule an email to remind me on specific days. I have a rule set up to automatically flag the messages and to ensure they won't end up in my Junk Mail folder.

Something simple like:
at "6/21/2004 19:00" mail -s "TODO: TAKE OUT THE TRASH" [userid]

Of all the apps on my Mac, the one I'm in the most is Mail.

Free. Simple. Searchable (using my mail program). Not perfect, but it works.

There are some very interesting pieces of software out there that combine task management with personal information databases -- places to store bits of information collected from documents, web pages, and so on. Some go far beyond the information organizing capabilities of Outlook and other standard personal information managers (PIMs).

One such piece of software is a cult-hit, Zoot [zootsoftware.com]. See reviews here [theatlantic.com] and here [llrx.com]. Find out more at the Yahoo Group for it [yahoo.com], which also happens to have excellent lists [yahoo.com] of other excellent but often underappreciated PIM software.

Also consider web-based task managers like Yahoo Calendar [yahoo.com]. The advantage is that they are easily accessible from anywhere and there's no need for backups. Yahoo task management also syncs with a lot of other stuff, I think.

I wanted to have something similar, but one of my prioirities was global accessibility. I tried notebooks, daytimers, postits, etc, but invariably it would always be at home when I was at work, or vice versa, or left behind when I travel.

So my first step was an online note tool called NoteToSelf [sf.net] that I use to keep all those interesting articles, recommendations for movies, homework assignments, job descriptions, consumer ratings, etc. I wrote it in PHP and love it. It's pretty primative as I haven't put any extra work into it since I got it functional. But it's great for me and I use it throughout the day.

My next step is the to-do list. As an interim, I just use a note in NoteToSelf to keep the tasks, but really want something with priorities and reminders. So I've looked at various ones, and I think I'm going to integrate Horde's [horde.org] Kronolith [horde.org] for calendaring and Nag [horde.org] for task lists. They're all PHP and MySQL so I can integrate or tweak as much as I feel like.. With those 3 things I think I have most of my "PIM" needs met and accessible from any internet-connected device around. I've been mulling over a PDA, but only to act as an offline copy of those 3 apps, and not for their own native PDA apps.

I love OmniOutliner [omnigroup.com] for OS X. I also used hnb [sourceforge.net] (Hierarchical Notebook) which is a commandline outliner, for awhile. Otherwise vi/emacs/notepad.exe/whatever is great.

As an anonymous coward has mentioned, Progect [sf.net] is a good one for palm. This is very close to pen-and-paper simplicity (as are most of the best PalmOS software). It's the only thing that threatens my use of paper todo lists. Yet it sports:

• flexible hierarchical organization. In fact, I end up using it as a general purpose outlining tool as well (are there even any good ones under Linux, outside of a word processor?)
• manual sorting (I really hate trying to sort by meaningless arbitrary "priority" numbers like in just about every other PIM sw)
• several simple forms of progress & completion reporting

HandyShopper [freewarepalm.com] is another good one for tracking non-hierarchical things that have costs and quantities associated with them. It does nice things like let you tally up totals, as well as maybe schedule recurring need-to-do/buy items. It's bizarre that it doesn't really have a desktop equivalent yet :/

For the Linux desktop, you might want to take a look at MrProject [codefactory.se], a nice Project clone that's part of GnomeOffice. I've only played with it a little bit under Mandrake, but it looks fairly competent when you want to add hierarchical schedule and resource loading data to your task list. Sadly, there's little else that I've seen that comes anywhere close, and I've been searching for one fairly recently for a project management class I took last semester. Oddly enough, I don't even like MS Project for doing this kind of thing, it just doesn't give me enough flexibility in rearranging things, scheduling parallel activities, automatically sequencing constrained resources, etc.