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Automattic open sources Simplenote
- stephenr 10y agoThe client apps are open source. Without the server side component that's meaningless to me.
- jmnicolas 10y agoHow are they supposed to make money if anybody can build the same back-end and steal their customers ?
- _Codemonkeyism 10y agoI was using SimpleNote for free, I wasn't aware of a paid plan and couldn't find one one the website.
- kwonye 10y agoNo paid tier. Completely free
- benologist 10y agoWhat if there's completely free and completely open source alternatives already? "People will decide if they want to give Automattic money".
- roundhill 10y agoSimplenote is free, WordPress.com pays the bills :)
- neon_electro 10y ago> Can I host my own Simperium service? > You can mirror all your data to your own backend, but it's not yet possible to host Simperium yourself. We're open sourcing our client libraries, protocol, and a reference service implementation that will allow you to host your own service in the future. https://simperium.com/pricing/ https://simperium.com/pricing/
- nullcipher 10y agoAre simperium and simplenote related? I am confused. Both are by auttomatic it seems. Edit: looks like simperium is some data stashing service (like firebase?). And simplenote is an app built on top of simperium. Did I get that right?
- beaucollins 10y agoSimplenote is built on top of Simperium. In fact, Simperium was originally created to provide the syncing features of Simplenote and then generalized to work as a service for anyone who wants to sync structured data.
- beaucollins 10y agoI have implemented most of the Simperium server protocol in the `node-simperium` library (https://github.com/Simperium/node-simperium/pull/22 https://github.com/Simperium/node-simperium/pull/22). It's definitely a very rough work in progress but I have used it successfully to deploy my own simplenote server that works with all the clients. Simperium Server: https://github.com/beaucollins/node-simperium-server https://github.com/beaucollins/node-simperium-server It's in the proof-of-concept stage so it doesn't persist the data on the server. Protocol for reference: https://github.com/Simperium/simperium-protocol/blob/master/SYNCING.md https://github.com/Simperium/simperium-protocol/blob/master/...
- Human_USB 10y agoI really wish it had an offline mode. This would make an kick-ass NVALT replacement.
- beaucollins 10y agoWhat exactly do you mean by offline mode? No syncing to "the cloud" at all?
- im_dario 10y agoI undestand "offline mode" as to be able to edit a note without connection and sync later. I use (and pay) Evernote because of this. You can edit and create notes while disconnected.
- beaucollins 10y agoSimplenote does this. These are exactly the features Simperium provides.
- chanux 10y agoI was introduced to simplenote via nvpy[1]. Found nvpy looking for a Notational Velocity clone for Linux. I use native clients for simplenote on Mac and Android. It's pretty good. [1] https://github.com/cpbotha/nvpy https://github.com/cpbotha/nvpy
- yborg 10y agoYou might take a look at Quiver if you are Mac based. http://happenapps.com/#quiver http://happenapps.com/#quiver This was covered previously here on HN.
- 1123581321 10y agoI don't understand. I frequently use Simplenote offline and sync without issue when online. Do you mean that you want to use it without initial account setup?
- devindotcom 10y ago
- cocktailpeanuts 10y agoUnless I misunderstand, this looks pretty much one-way street for me. What's in it for developers? The server's not open source, all this is is just a wrapper around their proprietary api.
- beaucollins 10y agoThe API is "open", the source code for the server running the simperium.com syncing service is not. As far as I know, open sourcing the server is something Simperium wishes to do when it's feasible. Simperium Syncing Protocol: https://github.com/Simperium/simperium-protocol/blob/master/SYNCING.md https://github.com/Simperium/simperium-protocol/blob/master/...
- cocktailpeanuts 10y agoI understand that, but I am talking about now. There's no point (other than marketing and free labor purposes, which is what I'm criticizing) in open sourcing their client app when the server is not open source. What purpose does it serve? I mean, how do you expect to use this code other than hooking up to Simplenote? I remember this company called Layer, they "open sourced" their "messaging UI framework", and I first thought it was something like JSQMessageViewController where you can just take the library and really build your own chat app, but turns out it's just a shell to connect to their layer.com server. Again, what's the point? I can't help but wonder what's going on in these people's minds when I think of all the time they would have taken to clean up code and prepare to announce their open source.
- Retra 10y agoSomeone might feel inclined to implement their own server that is compatible with the client.
- cocktailpeanuts 10y agoSomeone that motivated would be better off building their own client as well. In case of Simplenote, server is the most important part, client is just a thin wrapper.
- ubercow 10y agoI hope this means that an actual developer API is coming soon. Their developer page[1] still says "The current version of the Simperium API does not allow for 3rd party development of Simplenote apps at this time." I'd love to have something like "Append to a Note" in IFTTT that behaves like the "Append to text file in Dropbox". 1: https://simplenote.com/developers/ https://simplenote.com/developers/
- chmars 10y agoI hope that is not bad news, i.e., I ope that open sourcing the Simplenote client does not means less love from Automattic for the software. Search in the Mac version for example has had issues for a long time …
- MBCook 10y agoDoes anyone else thing the company is Automatic (the bluetooth car dongle) every time they see this company's name?
- richrad 10y agoThe opposite for me – Automattic's been around so long I thought calling the car dongle "Automatic" was a pretty bad call.
- hellcow 10y agoSimplenote was my favorite note taking app until it lost notes of mine a few years back. I decided to give them another chance recently--hoping that these syncing issues had been cleared up--and Simplenote lost even more notes. It hasn't been dependable at all in my experience, and that's a shame because I love the interface and its focus on simplicity. I'm excited that parts of it are going open-source. Hopefully the server will be made open so some of these core issues can be addressed.
- devindotcom 10y agoJust as a counter data point, I've never lost a note and it's been very dependable for me for at least 5 years or so. Still makes me nervous though now and then. But if you're worried about it you can set it up so that it keeps a local copy of your note library as well, just in case.
- lylejohnson 10y ago"Ditto". Longtime user (of the iOS app) and have never lost a note that I can recall.
- great_kraken 10y agoSame here, I would regularly have sync issues. Sometimes I'd see it happen while I was actually in the process of writing still.
- kwonye 10y agoSorry to hear! Next time you run into an issue, please don't hesitate to contact support/file an issue on Github.
- photomatt 10y agoDefinitely something we haven't heard lately. Every version of every note is saved, so if something goes wrong with a bad client you can always log into the web interface and look up the history. If it ever happens again contact support and we can look into the specifics.
- ksec 10y agoWould be nice if the Landing page actually include some screen shots, so i know what sort of App it is, instead of describing it with words and I have to dig all the info up in the blog section.