6 ms·

Evernote to me just seemed like a worst case scenario of technology jumping the shark. Note-taking should be a simple matter, and there are good apps out there

Evernote to me just seemed like a worst case scenario of technology jumping the shark. Note-taking should be a simple matter, and there are good apps out there that make it nearly as easy as a pencil and paper. But Evernote is not one of them. I gave it a try and I felt like I was jumping through hoops and learning curves for basic things, which just seemed silly for note-taking and related tasks.

jopsen 8y ago
Also who would want vendor lock-in for their notes?
- dman 8y ago
  People who hate org-mode.
  - DocTomoe 8y ago
    When org-mode can save, organize and OCR the scans of my ten-year-archive of scanned correspondence, I will give it another try.
- robotrout 8y ago
  I would love an opensource replacement for Evernote. But it must allow me to clip images into it. Life is not always just text, and most of the programs that people claim they use to replace Evernote are text only. Evernote also allows me to embed PDFs (or any file really), which is nice, but as a minimum spec, I insist on the ability to drop in images.
  - Pxtl 8y ago
    I'm actually disappointed you cant attach arbitrary files in Google Keep.
    - sorenjan 8y ago
      You can in Onenote, with the bonus of not giving Google even more of your data. The online client seems to work really well, although I prefer the native one.
      - Pxtl 8y ago
        I used to use Evernote and had too many failed updates and corrupted databases leaving me out of wifi in the big world without my notes. Sure they'd resync once I went back online, but I keep essential things in there.
      - jemurray 8y ago
        But you can't sort your pages...
  - PenguinCoder 8y ago
    Have you tried cherrytree[0]? It can do images and rich text. I like the minimal nature when needed and the functionality for more robust content. [0]https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/#features https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/#features
    - jonathanp88 8y ago
      It has an incredibly impressive feature set for an open source application, but it seems to me too much effort has gone into bells and whistles at the expense of the basic functionality. The thing that killed it for me is that unlike every other text editor in the world, you can't apply formatting to text until after you've typed it.
  - matthewn 8y ago
    I use Turtl for this sort of thing: https://turtlapp.com/ https://turtlapp.com/
    - johntash 8y ago
      How long have you been using Turtl? I don't remember why I stopped using it, but I only used it for a few weeks the last time I tried it. I'm trying Joplin now, but maybe I'll give Turtl another shot too..
      - orthecreedence 8y ago
        Hi, creator of Turtl here. I'm hearing good things about Joplin/Omni, so I'm going to spend some quality time with those apps to try to learn from the things that they are doing well. Also, we have a new version coming out very soon, v0.7.0, that will have significant UI/performance/stability improvements. I think it's worth checking out (although obviously I'm biased).
        cecja 8y ago
        You really have to do something about your website. You get nearly no info nor simple stuff like screenshots. Is there a way to help you out in that regard?
        orthecreedence 8y ago
        Good idea! I'm planning a revamp once v0.7.0 launches in the next week or so. The website is open-source/jekyll: https://github.com/turtl/www https://github.com/turtl/www, and if you have ideas we can collaborate here: https://github.com/turtl/tracker/issues/165 https://github.com/turtl/tracker/issues/165
        severine 8y ago
        Wow, never heard of it, looks great! I've seen this thread[1], any updates or plans on entering F-Droid? Also, what is the minimum Android version supported? [1] https://www.f-droid.org/forums/topic/turtl/ https://www.f-droid.org/forums/topic/turtl/
  - kilroy123 8y ago
    Joplin looks promising. Can even import from Evernote. I'm going to give it a try. https://joplin.cozic.net/ https://joplin.cozic.net/
    - laurent123456 8y ago
      (Joplin's dev here) Can confirm that Joplin can embed images - you can copy and paste an image directly by pressing Ctrl+V in a note, or attach them. It's also possible to attach any other file, PDF, etc. and open it in an external viewer on mobile or desktop. Evernote import is also supported and as far as I can tell works well for many users. If you find any glitch or issue though, feedback is welcome. The app is still under development with, at the moment, a focus on bug fixing and improving the desktop and mobile usability.
      - austinjp 8y ago
        This looks great, I'm going to try it out. Thanks for building it.
      - sharmi 8y ago
        Joplin is the only alternative to evernote that has a webclipper. Happily made the switch. Thank you very much.
  - ndespres 8y ago
    Evernote had such a feature- Skitch was their program which integrated screenshots and allowed for marking them up, indexing the text inside the image, and filing them alongside or within my other notes. But they killed it and I'm not sure why. It still works but is buggy and unsupported now.
  - ghostwreck 8y ago
    Standard Notes supports secure file attachment now and is open source. Meets all of my note taking needs: https://standardnotes.org/ https://standardnotes.org/
- hellofunk 8y ago
  It's worked perfectly well for the Omni group.
foobarbazetc 8y ago
This really isn’t why Evernote is dying. The product as a concept is fine and has a lot of users. The problem is the people running it now don’t have the passion for it. And a bunch of core employees either got fired or left since Phil left.
- gomox 8y ago
  The problem is if you raise 300M for a note taking app you need to come up with some plausible way for your company to be worth 3B. There is such thing as raising too much.
  - bonestamp2 8y ago
    I think they also shot themselves in the foot many years ago when they had a lot of heat... they were too expensive. If they were cheaper and converted more passionate users into paying customers back then, those people wouldn't have looked for alternatives, of which there are many.
    - rmason 8y ago
      Evernote did one thing extremely well. I remember being in the Valley a few years back and saw this huge Evernote building from the freeway. I was stunned, this entire building for my simple note taking app! What happened in a quest for growth is they bloated the product. It was no longer a simple elegant note taking app anymore. Evernote from the outside appears rudderless. The founders gone and it's clear that the MBA's running the place not only don't have a passion for the product - I'm willing to bet they don't regularly use it. I'm still convinced with the right leader it can be salvaged because so far there hasn't been a compelling product to seize its market.
      - prepend 8y ago
        It will be salvaged when a single person buys it and runs it steady state for like $1/user/year or something.
tolien 8y ago
> Note-taking should be a simple matter And yet EN on a number of occasions had (probably still has) sync bugs that lost either parts of notes or entire notes.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

jopsen 8y ago

Also who would want vendor lock-in for their notes?

dman 8y ago
People who hate org-mode.
- DocTomoe 8y ago
  When org-mode can save, organize and OCR the scans of my ten-year-archive of scanned correspondence, I will give it another try.
robotrout 8y ago
I would love an opensource replacement for Evernote. But it must allow me to clip images into it. Life is not always just text, and most of the programs that people claim they use to replace Evernote are text only. Evernote also allows me to embed PDFs (or any file really), which is nice, but as a minimum spec, I insist on the ability to drop in images.
- Pxtl 8y ago
  I'm actually disappointed you cant attach arbitrary files in Google Keep.
  - sorenjan 8y ago
    You can in Onenote, with the bonus of not giving Google even more of your data. The online client seems to work really well, although I prefer the native one.
    - Pxtl 8y ago
      I used to use Evernote and had too many failed updates and corrupted databases leaving me out of wifi in the big world without my notes. Sure they'd resync once I went back online, but I keep essential things in there.
    - jemurray 8y ago
      But you can't sort your pages...
- PenguinCoder 8y ago
  Have you tried cherrytree[0]? It can do images and rich text. I like the minimal nature when needed and the functionality for more robust content. [0]https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/#features https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/#features
  - jonathanp88 8y ago
    It has an incredibly impressive feature set for an open source application, but it seems to me too much effort has gone into bells and whistles at the expense of the basic functionality. The thing that killed it for me is that unlike every other text editor in the world, you can't apply formatting to text until after you've typed it.
- matthewn 8y ago
  I use Turtl for this sort of thing: https://turtlapp.com/ https://turtlapp.com/
  - johntash 8y ago
    How long have you been using Turtl? I don't remember why I stopped using it, but I only used it for a few weeks the last time I tried it. I'm trying Joplin now, but maybe I'll give Turtl another shot too..
    - orthecreedence 8y ago
      Hi, creator of Turtl here. I'm hearing good things about Joplin/Omni, so I'm going to spend some quality time with those apps to try to learn from the things that they are doing well. Also, we have a new version coming out very soon, v0.7.0, that will have significant UI/performance/stability improvements. I think it's worth checking out (although obviously I'm biased).
      - cecja 8y ago
        You really have to do something about your website. You get nearly no info nor simple stuff like screenshots. Is there a way to help you out in that regard?
        orthecreedence 8y ago
        Good idea! I'm planning a revamp once v0.7.0 launches in the next week or so. The website is open-source/jekyll: https://github.com/turtl/www https://github.com/turtl/www, and if you have ideas we can collaborate here: https://github.com/turtl/tracker/issues/165 https://github.com/turtl/tracker/issues/165
      - severine 8y ago
        Wow, never heard of it, looks great! I've seen this thread[1], any updates or plans on entering F-Droid? Also, what is the minimum Android version supported? [1] https://www.f-droid.org/forums/topic/turtl/ https://www.f-droid.org/forums/topic/turtl/
- kilroy123 8y ago
  Joplin looks promising. Can even import from Evernote. I'm going to give it a try. https://joplin.cozic.net/ https://joplin.cozic.net/
  - laurent123456 8y ago
    (Joplin's dev here) Can confirm that Joplin can embed images - you can copy and paste an image directly by pressing Ctrl+V in a note, or attach them. It's also possible to attach any other file, PDF, etc. and open it in an external viewer on mobile or desktop. Evernote import is also supported and as far as I can tell works well for many users. If you find any glitch or issue though, feedback is welcome. The app is still under development with, at the moment, a focus on bug fixing and improving the desktop and mobile usability.
    - austinjp 8y ago
      This looks great, I'm going to try it out. Thanks for building it.
    - sharmi 8y ago
      Joplin is the only alternative to evernote that has a webclipper. Happily made the switch. Thank you very much.
- ndespres 8y ago
  Evernote had such a feature- Skitch was their program which integrated screenshots and allowed for marking them up, indexing the text inside the image, and filing them alongside or within my other notes. But they killed it and I'm not sure why. It still works but is buggy and unsupported now.
- ghostwreck 8y ago
  Standard Notes supports secure file attachment now and is open source. Meets all of my note taking needs: https://standardnotes.org/ https://standardnotes.org/
hellofunk 8y ago
It's worked perfectly well for the Omni group.

foobarbazetc 8y ago

This really isn’t why Evernote is dying. The product as a concept is fine and has a lot of users. The problem is the people running it now don’t have the passion for it. And a bunch of core employees either got fired or left since Phil left.

gomox 8y ago
The problem is if you raise 300M for a note taking app you need to come up with some plausible way for your company to be worth 3B. There is such thing as raising too much.
- bonestamp2 8y ago
  I think they also shot themselves in the foot many years ago when they had a lot of heat... they were too expensive. If they were cheaper and converted more passionate users into paying customers back then, those people wouldn't have looked for alternatives, of which there are many.
  - rmason 8y ago
    Evernote did one thing extremely well. I remember being in the Valley a few years back and saw this huge Evernote building from the freeway. I was stunned, this entire building for my simple note taking app! What happened in a quest for growth is they bloated the product. It was no longer a simple elegant note taking app anymore. Evernote from the outside appears rudderless. The founders gone and it's clear that the MBA's running the place not only don't have a passion for the product - I'm willing to bet they don't regularly use it. I'm still convinced with the right leader it can be salvaged because so far there hasn't been a compelling product to seize its market.
    - prepend 8y ago
      It will be salvaged when a single person buys it and runs it steady state for like $1/user/year or something.

tolien 8y ago

> Note-taking should be a simple matter And yet EN on a number of occasions had (probably still has) sync bugs that lost either parts of notes or entire notes.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]