This is the thread I've been waiting for for two years. THANK YOU!
I've tried about 90% of all the products you mention in your review, and while you only mentioned some and described the use of others, I must say that I could never befriend RTM as much as you. It's interface just doesn't speak to my soul. I don't like how it splits everything up into separate lists, dividing them up by tabs. I'd like to see everything on the same screen and be able to drag and drop and move stuff around, not to mention, use labels and tags the way GMail uses them. I guess you already can do the latter, but something about the tabbed interface really bothers me in RTM. I've known RTM since it's early beta stage. I was right there with it from the day it was born, so I know it well, and while I loved the design and the people behind it from the start, somehow it's magical in a special way, to me. Once I start using it, the UI drives me away, but once I'm gone from it, I keep coming back, that is, until I decide the back and forth isn't worth my time. The UI is incredibly pretty. The graphics artwork is awesome as is the implementation of AJAX on all fronts.. I suppose what doesn't really convince me is the LOGIC of the interface structuring. Guess my brain's just not wired that way.
I've been looking at and testing all sorts of PIMs for as long as I can remember, never finding the right one. And boy have I tried a lot of them.. is there any chance you saw all the hype about Active Desktop Calendar (hype = great reviews), then tried it out, and just thought to yourself.. HUH? If so, that's what happened to me.
I've never tried MLO and always meant to, but I had no idea it could be such a serious player in the life organization software market.. I thought it was just some small player in one corner of the web, something not many people know about, even less use. Guess I'm wrong!
I also tried WikiPad and found the concept behind it intriguing but found the interface super intrusive.. in a way that just hit me in the face like a brick when I opened it. Do you remember all the saved "notes" on the left? Wow. I opened it up and I was just like.. "Ooooook.. I gotta look at this later. This is gonna take a WHILE". Ultimately, that's where it failed for me.
I'm surprised Google hasn't given us some kind of to-do list solution.. well, they gave us Calendar, and it's great, especially because it integrates with GMail.. but you know what I mean
Today I'll try MLO. I'll let you know how it went. Anyway.. thanks a ton for an excellent mini-review