Good evening, my name is Tyler and I am independent software developer. Yesterday I deployed the first alpha-release of TaskVault, a FOSS Getting Things Done productivity application developed with the AvaloniaUI framework in C#. Binaries have been created for Windows, Linux and Mac, however, I was not able to test the Mac version and cannot confirm whether it actually runs.
(UI and features are fairly primitive at this point, but its a start)
(additional screen shots available in repository README)
As someone who has benefitted tremendously from implementing different elements of the Getting Things Done system, I lemented the fact all best GTD apps, notably Todoist, TickTick and Nozbe for those I have used, do not feature particularly comforting policies when it comes to user data privacy. In fact, when using one of these apps, I accidentally deleted a project, and discovered I could have the development team recover the data by explaining its exact content by digging through the database.
I found this experience unsettling. In my experience as a user, a personal-project management software is like a business partner. If you can’t trust your app with the intimate details of your projects, you will be hesitant to provide it with important details about next-actions for your projects, so the relationship will be dysfunctional and the benefits conferred by its use will deteriorate.
What I wanted to find was an app that met the following requirements:
- supports basic GTD features: projects, action lists, next-actions/ tasks, inbox, etc
- available cross-platform: Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS at minimum
- end to end encryption for all projects/ lists, tasks, etc
- encryption-at-rest for locally-stored data
- open source code-base
- ability to sync data between devices
- pleasant UI/UX
Having failed to find a software application that meets these requirements, I began working on TaskVault as an effort to fill the void.
The app is quite primitive at this point, but the intention over time is to fulfill all the listed requirements and eventually expand the feature-scope to become fully competitve with existing non-FOSS alternatives. The base application will remain free-of-cost with development supported by donations from sponsors in the FOSS community. In addition, a premium server-side service will be offered for synchronizing client-side encrypted data between devices. The commercial server-side service will of course be FOSS as well.
Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you for taking the time to check out my work!
– Tyler