4 ms·

There is no app yet to rival Apple notes in start up time & sync speed & stability. Even if they sadly don't offer an Android version of their app. Seems like

There is no app yet to rival Apple notes in start up time & sync speed & stability. Even if they sadly don't offer an Android version of their app. Seems like most of these apps focus on features instead of getting thes basics right. If I have thought I want to jot it down and continue, not wait a bunch of seconds or more to get going.

lefixx 3y ago
Obsidian + syncthing seems to work fast and reliable enough
- burgerrito 3y ago
  Not really, as much as I like the app, the app start up time both on mobile and desktop is pretty bad, probably around 10 seconds, or more.
  - rchaud 3y ago
    Earlier versions of Obsidian seemed faster. I've started using Markor for on the go note taking, and setting the obsidian folder as the save destination.
CaptainOfCoit 3y ago
Obsidian opens in sub 0.5 seconds on my iPhone 12 mini, I have about 500 notes in my Obsidian vault. Seems to be the same speed as Apple Notes. Google Keep opens in about a second on my phone, so seems to be the slowest of them all. But I'm sure there are plenty of notes apps out there that also opens in sub 0.5 seconds, right?
- eviks 3y ago
  Check cold and hot starts to the first typed symbol (not just seeing the screen), then it's easier to notice the difference
  - CaptainOfCoit 3y ago
    I was counting until I see the last opened document, which is also when the document is ready to be written to. So it's still 0.5 seconds, the same as for Apple Notes.
    - eviks 3y ago
      > until I see the last opened document, which is also when the document is ready to be written to This is not true, many apps (or maybe it's an OS thing) retain an image that is not functional, you should count until you actually type any symbol and see it appear in the app. This also differs between switching to a recently opened app (hot) and an app that's been closed/unloaded from memory, both of which matter for instant note taking.
      - CaptainOfCoit 3y ago
        No, I'm not switching between apps. I'm closing it properly, lock the phone, unlock it and reopen the app. There is a ~0.2 seconds sync in the beginning, then the document appear and if I tap in the document then write a character, it appears in the document. About half a second before I can tap in the document and get a cursor after cold start. If I wait ~3 seconds after typing I can see that the change has been persisted to the sync servers and it appears in my Obsidian desktop application.
        eviks 3y ago
        The locking is not relevant, it doesn't change whether your app remains hot/in memory or offloaded (maybe after a while, but not in itself), neither is switching between apps or opening an app from your home screen, so not sure what you mean by closing "properly" And for hot start you shouldn't even need to tap in the document if you edited it before, the keyboard will already be opened, so the measurement is "time start, tap the app icon, tap any key, see a character appear, time end". This is a common workflow for app switching and copy&pasting from/to note app/other apps, so here even half-second delays are noticeable, and where Apple Notes shines (and only very few apps match that, but not Obsidian) Then the cold start is where using other apps forced note app to be unloaded (or after a phone restart or "force swiping up closing" the app (think it has the same effect), here the performance difference between Notes and Obsidian is even more noticeable
- freetonik 3y ago
  Are you using Obsidian's native sync?
  - CaptainOfCoit 3y ago
    Yup
eviks 3y ago
Have you checked Simplenote? Think that starts as fast as the Apple notes. Then a couple of more I don't remember, though it's indeed not very common
- jiriro 3y ago
  You cannot insert images (or any other non-text object like a PDF) in Simplenote as you can in Apple Notes. Simplenote can only link external images.
  - eviks 3y ago
    You also can't edit Apple Notes outside of Apple and the whole export/import/interoperability story is bad. But then we were talking about startup times...
bachmeier 3y ago
Does Apple notes have good performance on Linux?
- rchaud 3y ago
  light as a feather, you won't even know it's there /s
rchaud 3y ago
There is, it's called Markor. Absolutely light-speed app for Markdown notes as well as support for custom templates, Emacs style todo.txt formats, and a button for entering timestamps (very useful for me, as I prefer to have one note file for each week, and timestamp my entries. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gsantner.markor/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gsantner.markor/
rubymamis 3y ago
I built Plume (currently pre-beta) which outperforms Apple Notes at loading large files 4x. You can see a comparison chart here: get-plume.com

lefixx 3y ago

Obsidian + syncthing seems to work fast and reliable enough

burgerrito 3y ago
Not really, as much as I like the app, the app start up time both on mobile and desktop is pretty bad, probably around 10 seconds, or more.
- rchaud 3y ago
  Earlier versions of Obsidian seemed faster. I've started using Markor for on the go note taking, and setting the obsidian folder as the save destination.

CaptainOfCoit 3y ago

Obsidian opens in sub 0.5 seconds on my iPhone 12 mini, I have about 500 notes in my Obsidian vault. Seems to be the same speed as Apple Notes. Google Keep opens in about a second on my phone, so seems to be the slowest of them all. But I'm sure there are plenty of notes apps out there that also opens in sub 0.5 seconds, right?

eviks 3y ago
Check cold and hot starts to the first typed symbol (not just seeing the screen), then it's easier to notice the difference
- CaptainOfCoit 3y ago
  I was counting until I see the last opened document, which is also when the document is ready to be written to. So it's still 0.5 seconds, the same as for Apple Notes.
  - eviks 3y ago
    > until I see the last opened document, which is also when the document is ready to be written to This is not true, many apps (or maybe it's an OS thing) retain an image that is not functional, you should count until you actually type any symbol and see it appear in the app. This also differs between switching to a recently opened app (hot) and an app that's been closed/unloaded from memory, both of which matter for instant note taking.
    - CaptainOfCoit 3y ago
      No, I'm not switching between apps. I'm closing it properly, lock the phone, unlock it and reopen the app. There is a ~0.2 seconds sync in the beginning, then the document appear and if I tap in the document then write a character, it appears in the document. About half a second before I can tap in the document and get a cursor after cold start. If I wait ~3 seconds after typing I can see that the change has been persisted to the sync servers and it appears in my Obsidian desktop application.
      - eviks 3y ago
        The locking is not relevant, it doesn't change whether your app remains hot/in memory or offloaded (maybe after a while, but not in itself), neither is switching between apps or opening an app from your home screen, so not sure what you mean by closing "properly" And for hot start you shouldn't even need to tap in the document if you edited it before, the keyboard will already be opened, so the measurement is "time start, tap the app icon, tap any key, see a character appear, time end". This is a common workflow for app switching and copy&pasting from/to note app/other apps, so here even half-second delays are noticeable, and where Apple Notes shines (and only very few apps match that, but not Obsidian) Then the cold start is where using other apps forced note app to be unloaded (or after a phone restart or "force swiping up closing" the app (think it has the same effect), here the performance difference between Notes and Obsidian is even more noticeable
freetonik 3y ago
Are you using Obsidian's native sync?
- CaptainOfCoit 3y ago
  Yup

eviks 3y ago

Have you checked Simplenote? Think that starts as fast as the Apple notes. Then a couple of more I don't remember, though it's indeed not very common

jiriro 3y ago
You cannot insert images (or any other non-text object like a PDF) in Simplenote as you can in Apple Notes. Simplenote can only link external images.
- eviks 3y ago
  You also can't edit Apple Notes outside of Apple and the whole export/import/interoperability story is bad. But then we were talking about startup times...

bachmeier 3y ago

Does Apple notes have good performance on Linux?

rchaud 3y ago
light as a feather, you won't even know it's there /s

rchaud 3y ago

There is, it's called Markor. Absolutely light-speed app for Markdown notes as well as support for custom templates, Emacs style todo.txt formats, and a button for entering timestamps (very useful for me, as I prefer to have one note file for each week, and timestamp my entries. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gsantner.markor/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gsantner.markor/

rubymamis 3y ago

I built Plume (currently pre-beta) which outperforms Apple Notes at loading large files 4x. You can see a comparison chart here: get-plume.com