GoDesk for Linux Users

In Dave’s post about the Windows oDesk Client, he gives us a scoop on the ins and outs of hourly work. However, it’s not exactly the same for Linux users who are working through oDesk. Here’s how it works for us *nix users.

First off, you’ll have to be sure to download the correct binary for your distro. Obviously, you’ll encounter some problems if you don’t do so. If you’re looking for source to compile for yourself, then you’re out of luck–binary is the only possible option. Next, you’ll want to make sure you have it added to the desktop or menu of your choice for easy access.

When you start up the client, you will be prompted with a sad grey square which asks for your oDesk username and password; below that, you’ll see a spot to put in the company name. Not too complicated. So, enter in your password and username. I never put in the company name and delete it if there’s anything there because you will be prompted with a drop-down menu immediately after clicking the confirmation button.

After you select the company you want to bill (be careful to select the CORRECT company name), you will be presented with another sad little grey square which says “State”, “Keys”, “Clicks”, and “Connected” at the bottom. You are now officially logging time, so keep those clicks and key-hits up.

There are three menus on the GoDesk client: File, Edit, and Help. Help gives you the “about” information for your client, Edit allows you to change your preferences, and File contains everything else that’s useful. To edit your timelog (workdiary), go to the File menu and select WorkDiary. A webpage will pop up in your browser which asks you to log in (again), and after you do so you will be brought to the web-format work diary.

Once there, you can see the time and activity for each 10-minute section. Personally, I clicked the List option (top-right of the page which has two options, “Thumbnails | List”) so that I can fill out the diary much quicker. When in there, you select the checkboxes for each 10-minute section you want to add a note to and then click the Add button at the top of the page.

After clicking Add, a small browser window will pop up, and you enter a note into there. Then, click okay, and the note will apply to all of the time sections you selected.

If you decide to take a break real quick, you can go to the File menu and select “Suspend” which will stop billing time until you tell it to start again. There will be a reminder after 2 minutes of being suspended where you just have to click a button to reconnect. If you reconnect before the 10 minutes is up and start working, all 10 minutes will be billed unless you remove them. Also, you can choose to Disconnect and then reconnect when you’re ready to start again.

That’s the general idea for the Linux client. It’s not that hard to figure out, and it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the Windows version, but it works fine for me. I’m a fan of simple interfaces anyway.

If you have any more questions about the Linux client or other oDesk features, please leave a comment and we’ll help you out!