I'm looking for a program to use as a calendar.
The first observation that I would make is that Google apps would be perfect except for two things: it is online, and it is online. The first difficulty I have with Google Calendar is that because it is online I would not be able to make use of it when I'm not online.
The second difficulty that I have is that because it is online, I need to use a browser to access it, which means I have to have Google Calendar open somewhere on my browser. Given the state of, well, my browsers state is not a good thing. I could use a "lesser" browser dedicated to the job ( like Konqueror or Midori ), but I'm not sure they are up to it. I could do what I do for Zap2it and tvlistings create a separate account but that would prevent any sound during an alarm.
My setup is a small desktop, running Debian testing, and a laptop running Ubuntu Lucid, sometimes Vista. In the future I plan on getting a tablet running Android ( ICS ) or later. I need to sync across all these platforms. On the linux machines I am running KDE 4.whatever. I don't object to a Gnome-based ( GTK ) applications but I know there are programs in both camps which start up enough parts that it is like you are running two DE's. I would like to avoid that.
As for the application itself, there are several things I'm looking for. The ability to set alarms, a daily view, a weekly view and a monthly view. I would like to group events so that I can display only some of the groups at once. Free floating events ( Events which are open-ended on time. ) would be nice. So would a more interactive GUI. ( As opposed to some application that just prints the day of the month. )
Someway to thoroughly sync across Linux, Android, and Vista. I guess if it can sync to google calendar that would take care of things.
Finally a way of scripting events would also be nice, though I think if I can sync with Google Calendar, gcalcli would do the trick.
Best Answer
Thunderbird+Lightning is a great choice of calendar application, but these will allow you to view and use the calendar, not sync it.
I would suggest these two sync options which are independent of Google :
Run a self-hosted Radicale CalDav server. It's faily simple to set-up and Debian packages are available.
Use the SyncKolab Thunderbird extension, which can sync your calendar across a shared IMAP email account.