Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
GemX - missing in action
Armando:
I've just come across a very interesting contender to do-O - it's called Chaos Intellect and looks very cool - need to test drive it for a while but it seems promising as a PIM and email app but not a lot of functionality for note taking as yet. :Thmbsup: http://www.chaossoftware.com/
-celtichare (September 19, 2007, 01:06 PM)
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Yes, looks interresting. A kind of Outlook clone. Tell us what it's like.
Beth UK:
Not sure if it is just me but after the Do-O experience I find it hard to commit to a new integrated organizer of any kind .
The trouble is in trying to determine whether software will continue to be developed/maintained/supported for a reasonable time at least. With many other types of software I can usually change product or company fairly easily. But with 'organizer' software you can end up with your whole 'organized life' embedded in a single application. Even where export is possible this can still be a huge task!
Currently I am falling back on on old combo of OneNote and EssentialPim - OneNote has impressed me recently (improving on it's earlier releases) and is network aware. EssentialPim comforts me because it 'keeps' being developed (not as fast as some might like, but steadily).
I have used Time and Chaos before - from the makers of Chaos Intellect (see Celtichare) but found it lacked the flexibility I needed. The good thing is Time and Chaos has been developed steadily for many years and they do have a proven record which IS a good thing.
Darwin:
Truth be told - I seriously regret buying Do-Organizer - I'm perfectly content with Outlook 2003, a point driven home by my experience making an experimental move to Do-Organizer. I wanted to support development of both Do-Organizer and TexNotes Pro and was interested in the notes module (Scribe) as well as the Favourites organizer, and the simple Mind Mapper. All of it has turned out to be disappointing (I *thought* I might fall in love with the e-mail client and move over completely, replacing Outlook). Sadly, none of the components is really compelling enough to have warranted the purchase and I rarely even open it up anymore.
Yes, I had the opportunity to trial it for 60 days. I didn't. Mea culpa. However, I am mightly cheesed off that I appear to have thrown money away on abandonware. Like I said, I wanted to support development - I've enjoyed TexNotes Pro for the last year - but I don't perceive supporting development as equalling tossing my money into a fire (that then goes out!). Wish I hadn't bothered. They're quite clear on their FAQ that they do not provide refunds but I feel somewhat misused, having made the purchase literally days before the forum went down. There have been no updates, no news, nothing since. Part of me wonders if I might get a response to a refund request, stating the reasons outlined above, but I doubt it. I'm certain that if I did get a reply it would run along the lines of "We're in active development so fear not. Besides, you had 60 days to try the software out, etc.,etc."
Just rambling...
Armando:
The trouble is in trying to determine whether software will continue to be developed/maintained/supported for a reasonable time at least. With many other types of software I can usually change product or company fairly easily. But with 'organizer' software you can end up with your whole 'organized life' embedded in a single application. Even where export is possible this can still be a huge task!
-Beth UK (September 19, 2007, 06:22 PM)
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This one of the reasons why I still use Outlook 2003. At least, it won't die tomorrow. My data is way too important to depend on a company's mood.
There are not that many organizer that have been (and will be) around long enough, and which provide all the functionalities I need, for me to justify moving my data and loosing some of it in the process. The only one I considered at some point were Info Select, Essential PIM, for Windows, and Kontact and evolution for Linux. But in the end I decided to stick with Outlook (and don't use Linux as much anymore...).
Now, SQLNotes might become an interesting alternative... Only time will tell!
Beth UK:
Darwin said:I wanted to support development of both Do-Organizer and TexNotes Pro
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Yes. That's one of the things that has saddened me a little about the GemX thing. There were people interested in actually developing and debugging and who would actually have (probably) put up with bugs so long as there was real and transparent motivation from the developers.
Armando said: This one of the reasons why I still use Outlook 2003. At least, it won't die tomorrow. My data is way too important to depend on a company's mood.
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Yes too! I don't use Outlook (have in the past) but at least Microsoft are likely to stick around for a while.
Trouble is 'innovation' is at the same time beautiful, yet unpredictable. In the case of Do-O there were some wonderful ideas, but a slightly random approach to implementation. For example, the 'mailer module' allowed integration with tasks and scribe (notes) but lacked some core functionality that I require in a mailing client. I made the mistake of switching all my email into the Do-O mailer and then having to reverse my decision when the cons outweighed the pluses. That in itself took away a great deal of the Do-O attractiveness. My decision to use the mail module at all was made at a time when the 'energy' at Gemx was buzzing and I kind of trusted that with customer feedback and continued development there would be changes and bug fixes.
I wonder if Gemx saw their main customer base as being Outlook users. Unfortunately corporations and business who use Outlook as de facto organizational software are also extremely slow to consider 'new' alternatives so it would have been so hard for Gemx to retrieve their development costs. I wonder, also, if the arrival of Vista and Outlook 2007 was a crunch time. Porting Do-O over to Vista (fully) came at a time when Gemx were (are?) still ironing out bugs in XP etc. We may never know...
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