No Tracks for Me
March 6th, 2007 | by GTD Wannabe |2007-03-07 15:59 Update: I’ve been smacked a couple of times for the apparent harshness with respect to Tracks, which I discuss in this post. Please keep in mind that I really *want* to like Tracks, but I am held back by the fact that (in my opinion) you need to be an uber-geek in order to get it running *well* on your own machine. The original intention of this post was to thank Brett over at the CrankingWidgets blog for taking the time to figure out Tracks and for posting his impressions. Based on his review, I was able to not spend days trying to figure out how to get Tracks running for me. That’s all I was trying to say, more of a “Thanks for that review, it saved me a whack of time” rather than “Tracks, you suck”. Again, I really do want to like Tracks. I’m really pleased with what I see at GTD Tracks, but I’m (a) not interested in an online only solution and (b) not willing to pay for the privilege of an online only solution. That said, read the rest of the post, at your own peril, and perhaps with a grain of salt. And please, no more smacking.
Ever since I first heard about Tracks for GTD (built on Ruby on Rails), I’ve been wanting to try it out. I don’t know why. Maybe because it’s designed for Getting Things Done specifically. Maybe because the screenshots look awesome. Maybe because last year I had heard good things about it on various blogs, newsgroups, etc. Maybe just because their web page is so sweet looking.
I’ve always been put off by the fact that you need to use a webserver (don’t know how to do that yet), and need some SQL on your machine (again, not in my skill set yet).
However, a couple of weeks ago, I discovered a great walkthrough on how to install tracks on a Windows machine. It looked doable. Plus, there were a few “plug-ins” that I discovered that were right up my alley, such as a Ruby command line script to add a next action from the command line, or a Perl script to do the same thing.
I was so excited about the concept that I decided to create a new project (in my someday/maybe category) to see if I could install the whole Tracks deal – webserver, sql, ruby, etc.
Fortunately, I came to my senses before I invested a huge amount of time learning new skills that I don’t really need right now. How did that happen? Well, I read a great post by Brett over at the Cranking Widgets blog. In it, he discusses how he’s been trying out Tracks, and his initial impressions of it. After reading his post, I know now that Tracks will not be right for me. The fact that creating a new NA on a new project takes several clicks, with time lags in between each one, would drive me crazy. Plus no way to sort projects? What’s the point? And never mind the fact that I think installation would be a beast (my commentary, not Brett’s). Some of his complaints are addressed in the comments at the end of the post, but not enough to convince me to try it.
Well, that’s one project that will get pulled off the list. Or maybe I’ll just bury it on the someday/maybe list for another year or so, and then see where Tracks is then.
I would most definitely like to thank Brett for spending the time reviewing Tracks, so I didn’t have to :) And if you’re not a regular reader of Cranking Widgets – check it out – it’s one of my new favs.
9 Responses to “No Tracks for Me”
By on Mar 6, 2007 | Reply
I appreciate your kind words – thank you :)
As far as Tracks is concerned, many of my issues have been alleviated by moving my data to GTD Tracks where they’re running a newer version of the app in a much better environment.
While I’m definitely in the market for something better (and actually very seriously entertaining the notion of hacking something out myself), it will do in the interim.
Cheers!
By on Mar 6, 2007 | Reply
I use Tracks regularly, and it works great for me. I had the same problem initially, about setting it up, but then found some hosted versions (I use tracks.tra.in) and they work great.
Tracks is the most perfect GTD solution so far, IMO. And I’ve tried a lot. See My GTD implementation for more.
It doesn’t move slow for me. It works very smoothly. And adding a next action is very quick. I am able to sort my projects as well.
By on Mar 6, 2007 | Reply
I’d suggest trying it before reviewing it next time. Honest, that’ll make for a much more useful article.
By on Mar 7, 2007 | Reply
Have been using Tracks (svn trunk version) and got to say that most feature issues that are pointed out have been ironed out already. Do take a look at the comment left by Luke, one of the Tracks developers
By on Mar 7, 2007 | Reply
If you want to be able to insert and reorder projects easily, just try Nozbe and you’d be surprised how easy GTD can be.
I built Nozbe because I got frustrated by these “6 clicks to create new actions” web applications.
By on Mar 7, 2007 | Reply
Thanks to Brett for the link to GTD Tracks. I played with that, and I like what I see. Damn, I just *knew* that I would want to use Tracks. Unfortunately, an online GTD system just won’t work for me – I have to be offline.
Which leads me to Handy: I wasn’t reviewing it, I was thinking Brett for saving me from having to figure out the esoterics of installing it. I’m a self-admitted geek but was daunted by the concept of having to figure out my own server, plus an SQL installation, just to get my eyeballs on the application itself.
Now that I’ve seen GTD Tracks, I can definitely see the advantages of it, and yes, it looks amazing. I especially like the fact that you can defer a next action – very nice.
I think the sad part is that it’s a technology that is not accessible to a lot of us. I don’t even know that an “svn trunk version” and couldn’t even follow most of the comments in Brett’s original post. So the problem is not with the GTD Track application itself, it’s in how to get it to the masses. Make it so that I can install an offline, fast, version, with a minimum of searching online for help, and I’ll check it out, again.
By on Mar 7, 2007 | Reply
>>Make it so that I can install an offline, fast, version, with a minimum of searching online for help, and I’ll check it out, again.
It’s in our enhancements backlog.
Cheers from NYC,
Luke
Tracks committer
P.S. Your main post is pretty negative on Tracks. Perhaps you’d consider updating it in light of the new experiences you’ve had, so that other people can make a better decision.
By on Mar 7, 2007 | Reply
@Luke: thanks for the feedback. I’ve put a disclaimer at the top of the post. And I’m definitely looking to the day I can use Tracks, on my own machine, with a minimum of fuss :)
By on Mar 8, 2007 | Reply
@wannabe: no more smacking, promise! :)
Usability is often a challenge for open source projects. I hope Tracks can figure out how to break that mold.
Cheers from NYC,
Luke (Tracks comitter)