3 cool productivity apps for Fedora 28

Productivity apps are especially popular on mobile devices. But when you sit down to do work, you’re often at a laptop or desktop computer. Let’s say you use a Fedora system for your platform. Can you find apps that help you get your work done? Of course! Read on for tips on apps to help you focus on your goals.

All these apps are available for free on your Fedora system. And they also respect your freedom. (Many also let you use existing services where you may have an account.)

FocusWriter

FocusWriter is simply a full screen word processor. The app makes you more productive because it covers everything else on your screen. When you use FocusWriter, you have nothing between you and your text. With this app at work, you can focus on your thoughts with fewer distractions.

Screenshot of FocusWriter

FocusWriter lets you adjust fonts, colors, and theme to best suit your preferences. It also remembers your last document and location. This feature lets you jump right back into focusing on writing without delay.

To install FocusWriter, use the Software app in your Fedora Workstation. Or run this command in a terminal using sudo:

sudo dnf install focuswriter

GNOME ToDo

This unique app is designed, as you can guess, for the GNOME desktop environment. It’s a great fit for your Fedora Workstation for that reason. ToDo has a simple purpose: it lets you make lists of things you need to get done.

Screenshot from GNOME ToDo on Fedora 28

Using ToDo, you can prioritize and schedule deadlines for all your tasks. You can also build as many tasks lists as you want. ToDo has numerous extensions for useful functions to boost your productivity. These include GNOME Shell notifications, and list management with a todo.txt file. ToDo can even interface with a Todoist or Google account if you use one. It synchronizes tasks so you can share across your devices.

To install, search for ToDo in Software, or at the command line run:

sudo dnf install gnome-todo

Zanshin

If you are a KDE using productivity fan, you may enjoy Zanshin. This organizer helps you plan your actions across multiple projects. It has a full featured interface, and lets you browse across your various tasks to see what’s most important to do next.

Screenshot of Zanshin on Fedora 28

Zanshin is extremely keyboard friendly, so you can be efficient during hacking sessions. It also integrates across numerous KDE applications as well as the Plasma Desktop. You can use it inline with KMail, KOrganizer, and KRunner.

To install, run this command:

sudo dnf install zanshin

Photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash.

Using Software

12 Comments

  1. Maybe I am old school, but I use something like common text editor like vim, for todos and text. I really don’t get idea of apps like focuswriter with deps about 60M for just cool fancy interface.

  2. Eric Phetteplace

    ToDo can even interface with a Todoist or Google account if you use one.
    Also with Gnome Online Accounts that support tasks, like Exchange servers and Office365

  3. Fernando

    I haven’t had the chance to check it myself, because I’m still on 27, but is the Todoist extension now working? Because according to this bugzilla ticket, It’s broken since Fedora 26 –> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1510239

  4. Kurt Risser

    I hope Focuswriter has more functions than you have listed. There’s nothing unusual about that feature set. Are there any word processors that cannot be maximized? Are there any that don’t support adjusting fonts, colors, and themes, or remember recent documents?

    • @Kurt: The screenshot tells more about the story. Why not give it a try and judge for yourself whether it works for you? It is fully featured but the way the interface works is somewhat unique.

  5. As an additional option, you can easily change spelling checker languages by using the LibreOffice extensions (*.oxt); Just go to the Preferences’ – spelling checker tab and add the languange extension from where you saved it for LibreOffice – cool!

  6. Nils

    Gnome Todo is really cool!
    Ran

    dnf install gnome-todo

    and got the lists synched automagically with my already configured nextcloud account.
    Nice.

  7. Leslie Satenstein

    Paul,
    I like to use a good calendar, and what is important to me is sharing access of some form such as “dropbox sharing”. It is useful to have a calendar/todo list that I can use between my desktop, cellphone and laptop.
    Its frustrating to me to be bound to only my desktop for the calendar/todo list.

    I also need a calendar/todo list with a history is option. That would be great. Using history, I might want to search to determine when I last had the car serviced, or what I paid for some service. Hopefully gnome-todo will work out well. as I try to use it to monitor my online purchases.

  8. I installed the Zanshin package, but it complains about missing KDE PIM dependencies. The package assumes there is a full KDE environment already installed.

    • Paul W Frields

      @Daniel: Try doing this first:

      sudo dnf groupinstall “KDE Plasma Workspaces”

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