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Looking for a Stand-Alone Calendar App?
Chadduss asks: "I don't know about all of you but I've been looking for a good calendar application for quite sometime. I have used the Mozilla calendar extension for Thunderbird but I had problems with it several times. Enter Mozilla Sunbird. That's right, another bird! It's still only version 0.1.1 but I for one hope to see it come out on top."
I was long awaiting the unveiling of another 'bird' app to complete the collection, but then Mozilla threw consistency to the winds with the renaming of Firebird... now I don't know what to think :(
:(
On the upside, Sunbird looks like a pretty nice app, but it comes with so much baggage (basically a whole NSPR/Gecko runtime). 11 megs for a calendar app? If Mozilla is going to continue spinning off parts of their suite as individual apps, they should at least consider taking the otherwise redundant parts and keeping them in one shared directory. Of course, with hard drive space and memory being available for so cheap these days, who cares except for the pycklers like myself
I, for one, would very much like a standards compliant stand-alone calendar app. Being able to run my own online calendar is very nice as well, since I have between several computers throughout the day.
Right now it requires SOME moz product (thunderbird, firefox, or mozilla suite) to be installed to work. Bit of a crutch, but something that over time will disappear. Can't wait!
Disclaimer: I don't work for, nor am I associated with Rainlendar. For the record, I use iCal with my YzDock (OH NO APPLE'S GONNA SUE ME) dock.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Any old farts like me who are still using dialup care. :-)
Mozilla, do it for the old farts!
* And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."
What were you asking slashdot?
First Firebird, then Sunbird. Hmmm...did someone on the Mozilla core team work for GM, in particular Pontiac?
All kidding aside, I think this is a good thing because I think there are a lot of people out there using Outlook just as a calendar, which is complete overkill. Likewise, Thunderbird is a good thing because once again people are using Outlook only for email and that's overkill.
simply put, sunbird will run on windows, linux, and os x. it will run decently on all 3 platforms (thanks to XUL and the new os x pinstripe theme used in firefox and thunerbird).
people won't have the excuse of "i can't run that" or "it costs money", etc. it's quite a nice thing, actually. and the bigger plus yet is i don't have to ask people to download the entire mozilla suite + a plugin.
- tristan
I think that the mozilla developers should combine these two apps. People are looking for an outlook replacement, and both of these apps would provide this if developed together...
Also, how about applying the firefox design methodology to the overall Mozilla Suite. Make sure that the overall Suite is relatively light and graphically impressive, but keep all of the components together. I use them all anyway...
Still another idea, package Firefox, Thunderbird, nvu, and sunbird together in an online installer which downloads any of the components you select.
I'm sure some of this has been already mentioned, but hey, who wants to check Google?
In linux libertas
Anyone else here use Rainlendar? :)
I find its a VERY nice piece of software, even if it doesn't have all the fancy contacts/synching/whatever features of other calendars. Nope, its pretty much just stick notes on the days, and glance at your ToDo list. Nothing professional, but for me it works really well.
No, its not perfect... but hey, it IS open source, so you could mod it yourself if you wanted!
I'd reccomend it to anyone whos at that awkward stage between "No calendar" and "Bloated calendar". Heck, maybe even if you're already using a bloated calendar and just want something simple. Give it a whirl, it cant hurt.
No offense to the guys doing wonderful work on the Mozilla project, but there are already lots of calendar apps out there.
What people ask for in the corporate world is a full Outlook replacement. This does not exist in the F/OSS world.
Yes, I know about Ximian Connector, but that's not free or Open Source, and when you start telling customers "well, everything is free unless you want to use all of Outlook's functionality, then you have to pay..." they look at you like you're trying to con them.
Same goes with Codeweaver's Crossover Office.
It's worse when you're trying to sell Sun's Java Desktop System (which is actually quite nice, BTW) and you tell them "yeah, you have to pay for this, then you have to pay for that..." and they start asking "how much else do I have to buy to replace Windows? This is starting to sound like it's not worth it."
In the world of people fed up with MS, and having to drasticaly cut their budget, in fear for their jobs if they make a minor mistake, telling them they have to pay $60/head for people just to get Outlook funtionality doesn't go over very well.
If they dropped the price to around $10-$25... it would probably fly of the proverbial shelves.
Heck, JDS (the whole O/S) is only $50-$100/head and that's with a full year support!
Oh, and ditto to the Exchange replacements... people ARE asking for it.
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
I really liked the Calendar component on Mozilla before, but there's one thing that keeps me far far away from it and it's ilk: the TODO app. As of yet there are very few full-featured todo applications that will allow you to sort by category, view by category, list with date, category, and summary, add notes, and sync with the Palm. Evolution is the closest I've come thus far, and even it has trouble with category support for the Palm (I've managed to work around it, however). Until that point, these calendaring applications are nothing but mere toys.
Your in luck. I've been looking for something similiar and I bothered to search the web.
A grumpy editor's calendar search
Enterprise Solutions Overview
Open Source Overview
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Freshmeat is always worth a look too. The biggest problem I found was too much choice.
So far I've tried Chronos but I found that not all it's CPAN dependancies were resolvable for me. I've also tried MyCalendar.
It's nice and simple, accessible via the web, but unfortunately it's webpages are too big to fit in my cellphone's memory. My ideal solution would serve up some tight WML when necessary and possibly be accessible via Outlook for my secretary.
So, I haven't found my ideal solution yet.
If anyone has any opinion on the other web calendaring solutions, please share...
That's your opinion. You've never worked for a large company, have you? :-) There is a reason Outlook is called "groupware." It works best in large workplaces, where iCal, Mail, and AddressBook just don't do the trick. Outlook isn't really an everyday e-mail application.
Outlook doesn't really show its power until you connect it to an Exchange server. Everything on the Exchange server can be shared -- Email, Contacts, and Calendars. You may think this sucks, but once you see it in action you can appreciate it. Imagine you work in a company of 1000+ people (not even that many to prove my point, but...). Now, you or your secretary needs to schedule a meeting for 50 people. But at what time?! How do you know what is the best time for everyone?
1. Select your 50 people to invite from the global contacts list (which contains your entire company of 1000+, you can look anyone up)
2. Look at Outlook's availability chart. There is probably a better name for this, but when you schedule a meeting, it shows you a grid of people's names along the left, and times along the top. Each box is color coded as to what that person has in his/her schedule! (I.e., free, tentatively busy, busy). Just look for the colume with the most free times and you've now just picked an optimal meeting time. It doesn't say what you're doing (privacy), but shows if you're available or not. However, you can also share your calendar with, say, your department or your secretary if she edits your calendar for you. I hope this makes sense -- the only other tools that really do this out there are Lotus Notes (horrid interface) and Novell Groupwise (used it a few times; requires NetWare which is expensive). Nice part about Groupwise is that it's secure.