A new class of software

[Richard Steinfeld]

Ever hear of "free withdrawnware?"

This is one of those cases in which the original publisher had put a
freeware application out into the world, and then withdrawn it, taking
it off every distribution site where it had resided for downloading. I
believe that we've seen a case recently involving a DVD-burning free
application from the UK.

The program that I'm messing with is called Taskey Personal v1.0. It's
from 1995, and written for Windows 3.11 and Windows 95. I had stashed it
away years ago, and just dragged it out again.

I was trying to find a simple project management program that I could
live with, and kept striking out. The most promising, Gantt Project,
refuses to allow people to work on weekends. And in my business,
weekends are going to be my prime time! It's goodware. Pity.

The other programs I tried presented insurmountable problems on my
Windows Me system. One runs in a code that'll work for another app on my
box, but not for the planner. Another uses a Borland system that became
corrupted; the fine points are virtually undocumented, even by Borland
(and I usually like Borland's snappy stuff). I'm still attempting to
locate the bits and pieces stashed by the Borland app; the doc said it'd
all be in one subdirectory, but I just found a piece in my root
directory (as in, "hey, what the hell is this?"). The issue is that
corrupted defaults were established someplace and so subsequent
re-installs wouldn't get right.

Taskey Personal was a nice, simple Gantt chart system perfect for a very
small business. Originally, the freeware was a sample for am more
powerful system (you know the drill). The program has evolved into an
organization-wide tool. With the parent firm in Australia, they've gone
international; their new office in Texas has sold the Houston school
system the package for enterprise-wide project scheduling. I wish that I
could recommend this product, but this presents a quandry because I'm
certain that the publisher doesn't want it out there. Taskey is klutzy;
controls don't adhere to the Windows standards; dates can't be reset to
"American."

The current freeware Gantt programs I tried were all for large-scale
use. Sometimes, though, the best tool is small and simple.

Richard

 

[Vegard Krog Petersen]

Ever hear of "free withdrawnware?"

This is one of those cases in which the original publisher had put a
freeware application out into the world, and then withdrawn it, taking
it off every distribution site where it had resided for downloading. I
believe that we've seen a case recently involving a DVD-burning free
application from the UK.

Not directly, but I have many times searched very hard for older
freeware version of games (solitaire & mahjongg) which has been released
by shareware authors to promote their main game. Later they have found
out that a small "non-nagging, non-intrusive" freeware version hurts
their sales and have done a very good job of totally removing it from
the net...

But I never give up and have almost always found what I'm searching for

Regards from vegard
http://vegard2.no

 

[Vegard Krog Petersen]

Ever hear of "free withdrawnware?"

This is one of those cases in which the original publisher had put a
freeware application out into the world, and then withdrawn it, taking
it off every distribution site where it had resided for downloading. I
believe that we've seen a case recently involving a DVD-burning free
application from the UK.

Not directly, but I have many times searched very hard for older
freeware version of games (solitaire & mahjongg) which has been released
by shareware authors to promote their main game. Later they have found
out that a small "non-nagging, non-intrusive" freeware version hurts
their sales and have done a very good job of totally removing it from
the net...

But I never give up and have almost always found what I'm searching for

Regards from vegard
http://vegard2.no

 

[Mel]

Ever hear of "free withdrawnware?"

This is one of those cases in which the original publisher had put a
freeware application out into the world, and then withdrawn it, taking
it off every distribution site where it had resided for downloading. I
believe that we've seen a case recently involving a DVD-burning free
application from the UK.

The program that I'm messing with is called Taskey Personal v1.0. It's
from 1995, and written for Windows 3.11 and Windows 95. I had stashed it
away years ago, and just dragged it out again.

I was trying to find a simple project management program that I could
live with, and kept striking out. The most promising, Gantt Project,
refuses to allow people to work on weekends. And in my business,
weekends are going to be my prime time! It's goodware. Pity.

The other programs I tried presented insurmountable problems on my
Windows Me system. One runs in a code that'll work for another app on my
box, but not for the planner. Another uses a Borland system that became
corrupted; the fine points are virtually undocumented, even by Borland
(and I usually like Borland's snappy stuff). I'm still attempting to
locate the bits and pieces stashed by the Borland app; the doc said it'd
all be in one subdirectory, but I just found a piece in my root
directory (as in, "hey, what the hell is this?"). The issue is that
corrupted defaults were established someplace and so subsequent
re-installs wouldn't get right.

Taskey Personal was a nice, simple Gantt chart system perfect for a very
small business. Originally, the freeware was a sample for am more
powerful system (you know the drill). The program has evolved into an
organization-wide tool. With the parent firm in Australia, they've gone
international; their new office in Texas has sold the Houston school
system the package for enterprise-wide project scheduling. I wish that I
could recommend this product, but this presents a quandry because I'm
certain that the publisher doesn't want it out there. Taskey is klutzy;
controls don't adhere to the Windows standards; dates can't be reset to
"American."

The current freeware Gantt programs I tried were all for large-scale
use. Sometimes, though, the best tool is small and simple.

Richard

Version 1.5 add significant improvements such as:

(snip)

Date Format
The date format for each user can now be specified from a choice
of DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, and YYYY/MM/DD.

(snip)

 

[Richard Steinfeld]

Version 1.5 add significant improvements such as:

(snip)

Date Format
The date format for each user can now be specified from a choice
of DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, and YYYY/MM/DD.

(snip)

Now, you've got my attention, Mel!
Freeware? Where'd you find this? Can I download it?

Richard

 

[Terry]

I was trying to find a simple project management program that I could
live with, and kept striking out. The most promising, Gantt Project,
refuses to allow people to work on weekends. And in my business,
weekends are going to be my prime time! It's goodware. Pity.

I believe you can configure gantt project as to what days are
included. I'm not where I have this installed to test, but this screen
shot:

http://ganttproject.sourceforge.net/pictures-2.0/ScreenShot3.png

seems to confirm my memory.

Terry

 

[Richard Steinfeld]

Version 1.5 add significant improvements such as:

(snip)

Date Format
The date format for each user can now be specified from a choice
of DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, and YYYY/MM/DD.

Mel, you didn't indicate where you found this statement or provide any
other info, so I searched on the quote and found it referred to Taskey
_Team._ This is industrial-strength workgroup trialware that sells for
over $1,000. I was talking about Taskey _Personal._ I've never found
any free version other than the 1.0 I'm using right now. 1.0 is a fairly
simple personal project planner, with only three screen modes: the Gantt
chart, a characteristics screen for each task, and a quirky notepad.

I did come up with a 2.0 Taskey Personal, with a shareware price of
$100. The reviewer back in '97 was critical of restricted date entry. Go
here:
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayArchive.pl?/97/7/rtaskeya.dat.htm.
This was much more elaborate than 1.0, being listed as a Personal
Information Manager (PIM). Note that v2.0 was shareware, not freeware.

Regardless, unfortunately, these are both OT for this freeware group.
Being unfamiliar with the distinctions between the versions, you
probably overlooked this.

It's possible that if the bugs were ironed out, I might like 2.0 so much
that I'd find the price of $100 a good investment for myself. But, like
V1.0, I've seen not much to indicate that there was any development to
smooth the routh edges. It seems that the publisher went whole-hog into
the groupware, and forgot the "small is beautiful" folks.

Richard

 

[Mel]

Mel, you didn't indicate where you found this statement or provide any
other info, so I searched on the quote and found it referred to Taskey
_Team._ This is industrial-strength workgroup trialware that sells for
over $1,000. I was talking about Taskey _Personal._ I've never found
any free version other than the 1.0 I'm using right now. 1.0 is a fairly
simple personal project planner, with only three screen modes: the Gantt
chart, a characteristics screen for each task, and a quirky notepad.

I did come up with a 2.0 Taskey Personal, with a shareware price of
$100. The reviewer back in '97 was critical of restricted date entry. Go
here:
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayArchive.pl?/97/7/rtaskeya.dat.htm.
This was much more elaborate than 1.0, being listed as a Personal
Information Manager (PIM). Note that v2.0 was shareware, not freeware.

Regardless, unfortunately, these are both OT for this freeware group.
Being unfamiliar with the distinctions between the versions, you
probably overlooked this.

It's possible that if the bugs were ironed out, I might like 2.0 so much
that I'd find the price of $100 a good investment for myself. But, like
V1.0, I've seen not much to indicate that there was any development to
smooth the routh edges. It seems that the publisher went whole-hog into
the groupware, and forgot the "small is beautiful" folks.

Richard

Lik u said the folks at taskey did a pretty gud job at removin taskey
personal from the web.

 

[Richard Steinfeld]

Lik u said the folks at taskey did a pretty gud job at removin taskey
personal from the web.

Ach! What a drag. It was so close to being one of those great
littlewares, like Calendar Magic. I know this is OT, but there are days
when I'm a fan of honest, friendly shareware (like the classic
PC-Write). I don't understand why companies put out something like this
and then just sit on it (the ECCO personal information manager is
another case, but at least, we can still download it from the pub). The
freeware could actually win over potential clients for their gorilla
apps. I mean, it's advertising.

Dunno

Richard