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Before I started my final project in the MSc Development Management (TU874) I decided that I will do it completely in a open source environment. For that reason I borrowed a small laptop from work (although I am on the hunt of mini notebook) and installed Ubuntu Hardy (8.04).
There were a few glitches to make the wireless, video card and sound work (acer computers are not the easiest to get on linux but it’s not a big drama either). Actually the only thing that seems to come and go is the microphone. I made it work at some point but then something went wrong and now it’s dead. I don’t need it for the project so it still suits me well.
Here is the bundle of tools which I use for the project:
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy)
Firefox 3 browser
Zotero 1.0.7 add-on for Firefox for the bibliography and also project diary. It serves me as one-point resource management tool. There I keep all literature source, all my thought and notes and also links to the other programs files.
OpenOffice.org – office suite – almost as good as MS Office. It is a wonderful piece of free software
Planner Project Management – use it effectively manage time and human resources. I list my to do tasks, deadlines and I can see whether I can meet them based on the resources allocation.
FreeMind – a good mind mapping software, which I previously used under Windows. It’s excellent to organise your thoughts; notes taking when reading articles; all purpose mapping tool.

That’s about it.
I can highly recommend this setup as it is very powerful, yet free of charge!
A.

I have been using Planner for my TU874 development management project and it has been a great tool. I have had however hard time with the toolbar as the most important buttons do not fit on the 10″ screen of my Samsung NC10.

There was built-in way to modify it so I decided to tweak a little the files. Here is a brief HowTo:

1. Things to know

• the files containing the info to modify are located here: /usr/share/planner/ui
• back up your files before you change them

2. To change a file, open it as root (I use the second method that adds an optoin uinder the right-click menu). Find the strig toolbar and delete/change position of the toolbars the way you like it. Save.

3. For my purpose I only modified the main window file to remove the buttons i never use (new,open,print,printpreview). Here is how it looks now:

<toolbar           name=”ToolBar”>
<toolitem        action=”FileSave”/>
<separator/>
<toolitem        action=”EditUndo”/>
<toolitem        action=”EditRedo”/>
</toolbar>

4. You can modify how each page looks in Plannerby modifying the respective .ui file.

Good luck