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I see lots of note taking/personal knowledge info management apps being announced and criticized on HN, but I think it's great that we are exploring the space.

by tra3 5y ago

I see lots of note taking/personal knowledge info management apps being announced and criticized on HN, but I think it's great that we are exploring the space. Eventually, things will probably whittle down to a handful of successful options, a la survival of the fittest. I wonder if there's an example of a software category that went through something like that?

smasher164 5y ago
I'm still looking for an Apple Notes-equivalent that I can comfortably use on Linux. It's been the hardest part about switching away from MacOS. A cross-platform app that launches instantly, syncs notes, has search functionality, and works on mobile is something I think we're missing.
- dmd 5y ago
  Is this sarcasm? I honestly can't tell. This space is utterly saturated already.
  - smasher164 5y ago
    It's not sarcasm. I've looked pretty hard for the right app and haven't found one that meets all of those requirements. If it's that saturated, then what would you suggest?
    - nonesuchluck 5y ago
      I use Automattic's Simplenote. I pin the web app in a Firefox tab, avoiding the Electron app. The Android and iOS apps are both great tho. Live sync is perfect, you can publish read-only links to notes (like pastebin), and it has basic Markdown support but basically no other frills.
      - smasher164 5y ago
        I’ve been using iCloud notes by pinning a tab, but the search is pretty slow. Does Simplenote fare better here?
        nonesuchluck 5y ago
        Has live search, it's as quick as you can type.
    - dmd 5y ago
      Google Keep, Microsoft OneNote, Notion, Obsidian, Simplenote, Bear, Joplin, Notable, Inkdrop, Supernotes, DevonThink, Craft, Standard Notes, Notability, Roam, Nimbus, Notejoy ... these are just the ones I could think of without even searching. Personally I'm pretty happy with Apple Notes, though Bear is a close runner up.
      - james-redwood 5y ago
        Missing NotesNook but otherwise good list. Anytype is in beta and there’s of course just ordinary text files ;)
      - smasher164 5y ago
        All of those either require a paid subscription for syncing/storage, don't support mobile & linux, or are electron-based and take a long time to start up. I'm not sure why they don't go the Syncthing route of offering peer-to-peer note syncing.
- hikilopei 5y ago
  I use for that Write from StylusLab. You have to sync the files yourself but I appreciate the fact that they are just .svg files that I can read later on with any program instead of some propietary format. It's still not Notes/One Note equivalent (I'm in your same boat) but it's the closer thing I've found to use with my Android and Linux.
dkarl 5y ago
> I think it's great that we are exploring the space I am 100% agreed on this. I have used Evernote for many years and really hate the curse of commercial software that forces them to constantly fiddle and break things that their customers have come to rely on. Nevertheless, despite not loving it, I touch Evernote multiple times per hour almost every hour throughout my work day. I need a mobile app and quick sync between different apps, and that will be hard for an open-source effort or a one-person startup to achieve. I wonder if an open-source app could be built on top of a paid commercial sync service; I would gladly pay for that.
- armoredkitten 5y ago
  I switched from Evernote to Joplin a year or two ago, and it has been a great experience. Joplin is much more markdown-centric, so it doesn't fully replace all of Evernote's features, but it does have good support for multiple organizational schemes, including notebooks (i.e., folders) and tags, which I appreciate. They have both mobile and desktop apps, and even a CLI. And it's built to sync over any number of cloud services, including Dropbox, Google Drive, or Nextcloud. Anyway, I recommend checking it out to see if it meets your use case. It's been a while, but I believe it has the ability to import from Evernote, or at least read from whatever export format Evernote provides, something like that.
  - stavros 5y ago
    I use Joplin too and love it. I even made an exporter for it so I can export my notes to a website, and deployed them to notes.stavros.io.
georgesequeira 5y ago
I think that task/project management is also starting to go through that with Clubhouse, Linear, Height, Notion/Coda/Knowledge-bases (trying to solve it). I would not be surprised to hear that there are a couple in "Stealth" as well.
DarylZero 5y ago
> Eventually, things will probably whittle down to a handful of successful options, a la survival of the fittest. Doubt it. Most people aren't trying out a lot of these things. There's always going to be more people who come up with their own ideas of how to take notes, making new note-taking applications. They will reinvent each others' ideas again and again, maybe some _ideas_ will somehow persist and become pervasive, but always there will be new note-taking apps with every generation.

by tra3 5y ago

smasher164 5y ago

I'm still looking for an Apple Notes-equivalent that I can comfortably use on Linux. It's been the hardest part about switching away from MacOS. A cross-platform app that launches instantly, syncs notes, has search functionality, and works on mobile is something I think we're missing.

dmd 5y ago
Is this sarcasm? I honestly can't tell. This space is utterly saturated already.
- smasher164 5y ago
  It's not sarcasm. I've looked pretty hard for the right app and haven't found one that meets all of those requirements. If it's that saturated, then what would you suggest?
  - nonesuchluck 5y ago
    I use Automattic's Simplenote. I pin the web app in a Firefox tab, avoiding the Electron app. The Android and iOS apps are both great tho. Live sync is perfect, you can publish read-only links to notes (like pastebin), and it has basic Markdown support but basically no other frills.
    - smasher164 5y ago
      I’ve been using iCloud notes by pinning a tab, but the search is pretty slow. Does Simplenote fare better here?
      - nonesuchluck 5y ago
        Has live search, it's as quick as you can type.
  - dmd 5y ago
    Google Keep, Microsoft OneNote, Notion, Obsidian, Simplenote, Bear, Joplin, Notable, Inkdrop, Supernotes, DevonThink, Craft, Standard Notes, Notability, Roam, Nimbus, Notejoy ... these are just the ones I could think of without even searching. Personally I'm pretty happy with Apple Notes, though Bear is a close runner up.
    - james-redwood 5y ago
      Missing NotesNook but otherwise good list. Anytype is in beta and there’s of course just ordinary text files ;)
    - smasher164 5y ago
      All of those either require a paid subscription for syncing/storage, don't support mobile & linux, or are electron-based and take a long time to start up. I'm not sure why they don't go the Syncthing route of offering peer-to-peer note syncing.
hikilopei 5y ago
I use for that Write from StylusLab. You have to sync the files yourself but I appreciate the fact that they are just .svg files that I can read later on with any program instead of some propietary format. It's still not Notes/One Note equivalent (I'm in your same boat) but it's the closer thing I've found to use with my Android and Linux.

dkarl 5y ago

> I think it's great that we are exploring the space I am 100% agreed on this. I have used Evernote for many years and really hate the curse of commercial software that forces them to constantly fiddle and break things that their customers have come to rely on. Nevertheless, despite not loving it, I touch Evernote multiple times per hour almost every hour throughout my work day. I need a mobile app and quick sync between different apps, and that will be hard for an open-source effort or a one-person startup to achieve. I wonder if an open-source app could be built on top of a paid commercial sync service; I would gladly pay for that.

armoredkitten 5y ago
I switched from Evernote to Joplin a year or two ago, and it has been a great experience. Joplin is much more markdown-centric, so it doesn't fully replace all of Evernote's features, but it does have good support for multiple organizational schemes, including notebooks (i.e., folders) and tags, which I appreciate. They have both mobile and desktop apps, and even a CLI. And it's built to sync over any number of cloud services, including Dropbox, Google Drive, or Nextcloud. Anyway, I recommend checking it out to see if it meets your use case. It's been a while, but I believe it has the ability to import from Evernote, or at least read from whatever export format Evernote provides, something like that.
- stavros 5y ago
  I use Joplin too and love it. I even made an exporter for it so I can export my notes to a website, and deployed them to notes.stavros.io.

georgesequeira 5y ago

I think that task/project management is also starting to go through that with Clubhouse, Linear, Height, Notion/Coda/Knowledge-bases (trying to solve it). I would not be surprised to hear that there are a couple in "Stealth" as well.

DarylZero 5y ago

> Eventually, things will probably whittle down to a handful of successful options, a la survival of the fittest. Doubt it. Most people aren't trying out a lot of these things. There's always going to be more people who come up with their own ideas of how to take notes, making new note-taking applications. They will reinvent each others' ideas again and again, maybe some _ideas_ will somehow persist and become pervasive, but always there will be new note-taking apps with every generation.