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A structured note-taking app for personal use
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y agoI'm testing the web version in the phone and I can't create tags, not sure how's the testing of this
- gnatolf 3y agoThis looks robust and the example project works fine. I am low-key into these type of apps. Similar enough to Google Keep, with more privacy and (potentially, didn't really check) E2E encryption. Sharing and cooperating notes with others is a must-have, but it's unclear if there are any plans.
- eternityforest 3y agoI'm super into these apps too, but I have had less interest since trying keep. Nobody else really comes close, at least not in the FOSS space, but hopefully one of these days someone will!
- 0xyz 3y agoOf course, the development of the sharing feature is in planning
- Yodel0914 3y agoThis looks pretty nice. In the same space, personally, I'm a huge fan of Joplin. Apps for every platform I care about, and the ability to self-host the server component (which is what I do). I has some really nice features, like import/export of directories of markdown files, and sharing notebooks with other users.
- Ringz 3y agoSince Joplin's developer decided to put all Markdown files into a database and thus give up all the advantages of a flat file system, I have uninstalled Joplin. In my view, the last discussion in Joplin's forum on this topic further discredited the developer.
- burnished 3y agoThat seems an odd take given the content of the discussion: https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/why-im-leaving-joplin-for-now/17003/77 https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/why-im-leaving-joplin-for-... Especially since it looks like a solution via plugin was identified? Thanks for bringing it up though, I went for spicy programmer drama but instead found a somewhat interesting and incredibly polite disagreement. I am curious about what happened that they have such a solid opinion about acceptable use of file metadata.
- MezzoDelCammin 3y agoThanks for bringing this one up. It's almost strange to see a civilized discussion about something that clearly polarizes a lot of people in the thread. Makes me wonder exactly what kind of social dynamic results in a bunch of people actually talking through their differences, instead of the these days usual trench warfare...
- fauigerzigerk 3y ago>incredibly polite disagreement Not sure I agree. Here's one comment by the developer (laurent): "Ok, there's so much wrong in what you write about that it's hard to know where to start. I guess it would help if you had a clue about what you're talking about." https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/why-im-leaving-joplin-for-now/17003/10 https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/why-im-leaving-joplin-for-...
- wiseowise 3y agoOuch.
- laurent123456 3y agoI'm not proud of that answer but to be fair there are also more balanced views in this thread. It's also an old thread and some of what's in there is no longer relevant. For example someone recently created a prototype of the app that saves the notes to disk, and although we can't merge his work as it is, we plan to investigate and see whether it can be somehow integrated. It's one of these features that, all things being equal, we'd rather have than not have, but it's obviously not trivial to add it when the app wasn't originally designed for it.
- midtake 3y agoThe issue for me is that I don't want to run another web service just to take personal notes. I'll likely keep using Obsidian until I can find something else that is self-managed and "flat".
- 0xyz 3y agoCurrently, you can install it as a PWA app. when the web version is stable, I will develop a desktop app.
- atoav 3y agoIn which format are the notes stored? Many of us have been bitten by vendor lock in before, so we prefer our notes tobe in simple human readable formats that can also be read in 30 years when your app (more likely than not) doesn't exist anymore.
- uxp8u61q 3y agoIf you expect that your notes will still be valuable in 30 years, then you should probably migrate them to something other than a quick note taking app. If everything I wrote into onenote before eg last year disappeared right now, I wouldn't lose much sleep.
- atoav 3y agoWhy would I do that? I use only apps that use text files anyways. I am pretty confident I will be able to open them in 30 years.
- Sakos 3y agoI even have files from 20+ years ago that I can open just fine, including notes. If you use something proprietary, then yeah, it might be difficult. But that doesn't stop us from asking whether something we're interested in using now uses data formats that would be easily readable in 20-30 years.
- replygirl 3y agoi wouldn't call completely broken on mobile a beta
- happytiger 3y agoYea it’s pretty broke.
- 0xyz 3y agoSorry, It's not stable yet，but I am working on it
- cjbprime 3y agoFWIW I need a Kanban board view from a note-taking app, am using extensions which add one to Obsidian and vscode.
- 0xyz 3y agoI am working on the Kanban view now
- nivertech 3y agoWhat are your typical workflow when you use Kanban extension in Obsidian vs the one in VSCode? Do you use the former to manager personal tasks, while the latter for coding tasks?
- cjbprime 3y agoIt's actually just that I'm in the process of moving from Obsidian to vscode in general. (Lack of a mobile version of vscode is a problem though!)
- nivertech 3y agoBefore finally settling on Obsidian I tried Foam extension for VSCode. I thought Foam would be great, b/c I already wrote lots of Markdown in VSCode, but Obsidian was much better for me.
- rubymamis 3y agoI’m working on a new block editor that will have Kanban board supprt within your note[1]. I already made a Kanban board for my previous note-taking app but it’s in a different view[2][3]. [1] https://www.get-plume.com/ https://www.get-plume.com/ [2] https://rubymamistvalove.com/notes/kanban.mp4 https://rubymamistvalove.com/notes/kanban.mp4 [3] https://www.get-notes.com/ https://www.get-notes.com/
- tovej 3y agoJoplin's kanban plugin is quite nice: https://github.com/joplin/plugin-kanban https://github.com/joplin/plugin-kanban
- saint11 3y agoThis has definitely caught my attention. The fact that it's a web app that allows me to self-host it makes this a strong contender against Obsidian. Looks great too!
- astound473 3y agoThis looks really similar to Logseq, are the notable differences?
- simonbw 3y agoFor me it seems like the Previous Day and Next Day buttons have an off-by-one error. Next day keeps me on the same day and Previous Day takes me back 2 days.
- dathos 3y agoIt’s even worse for me, already the first load is full of UI errors. - The splash screen asking me to install as PWA or to go to the web app is not hiding the app. Overlapping the text and confusing me - The buttons for the days don’t work - The calendar selector is not working either
- nesarkvechnep 3y agoWelcome to Node! This is one of the least buggy “apps”.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- zero0529 3y agoDoes it keep my folder structure and files as plain md? This is the biggest reason I still use obsidian. There is no vendor locking.
- vunderba 3y agoNice going. I've gone through quite the list of note taking tools from a bunch of unorganized text files, to Microsoft OneNote, to Evernote before it became a total pile of molten garbage, Logseq, and finally settled on Obsidian. There's a healthy ecosystem of plug-ins, searching is highly performant, all of my files are just structured in folders as markdown files so there's zero vendor lock-in, has a very good mobile app, and I use git for easy sync / versioning. The only downside is that it's not open source.
- szszrk 3y agoWhat you disliked about Logseq? Are you good at self-organizing (were you before)? While the initial experience is super confusing and I barely knew what that tool is supposed to do, later on it turned out to be the first tool that helped me keep some structure in my notes. I love note taking but I'm horrible at it, chaotic and inconsistent. Daily notes plus the way logseq easily links articles gave me some decent notes. I even left those to my colleagues when I switched jobs and even plain markdown files were useful for them.
- bayindirh 3y agoLogseq is "Everything plus the kitchen sink" when compared to Obsidian out of the box. For me, I already have a daily planning and project management tool, and it's called Pagico. What I needed is a note taking application. Simple, down to earth, knowledge base. A successor to Zim wiki, I may say. That thing is Obsidian. I tried to resist to moving it for so long because it's closed source, but it creates value and extracts structure and knowledge from your Markdown files, locally and super-fast, without bogging you down. Also, logseq's webpage is very ambiguous. Tons of promises, no screenshots, you enter the live demo, it looks like a simple web page. In short, Logseq feels too big, feels too hard to start with, and demands too much at the first impression. If failed to get me, and I failed to get it.
- arbitrandomuser 3y agoI hate it that all their explanations are videos and not articles I can read
- DeathArrow 3y agoIs there a free, cross platform note taking app (mobile, PC, Mac) that allows you to save on cloud and sync?
- bobmaxup 3y agoJoplin
- anticrymactic 3y agoObsidian + Syncthing
- poulpy123 3y agoI found syncthing lost severals of my changes . I settled on the live sync plugin and for the moment it works nicely
- Brajeshwar 3y agoHow did Syncthing lost your changes? Are you talking about versions or the sync? I'm gradually transitioning to Syncthing for a lot of stuffs and I want to be prepared.
- poulpy123 3y agoI lost changes that I made on one device. To be fair it was probably a mistake on my side, but I didn't notice how it happened so I prefered look elsewhere for a sync solution for obsidian.
- remram 3y agoThanks for the pointer! https://github.com/vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync https://github.com/vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync: self-hostable sync via CouchDB, MIT license, supports the visual conflict resolver and end-to-end encryption.
- 3y ago
- codingpanga 3y agoThis is nice. But, how this is different from Joplin? Any comparison?
- baq 3y agoI've been using Dendron on vscode with some success: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dendron.dendron https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dendron....
- Citizen_Lame 3y ago[flagged]
- tarcon 3y agoDon't put any real data in the hosted demo. The database credentials are leaked in the .env file.
- mdaniel 3y agoI especially enjoyed the header saying ".env is .gitignored" https://github.com/penxio/penx/blob/main/.env#L1 https://github.com/penxio/penx/blob/main/.env#L1
- sphars 3y agoApparently that's for development, the deployed production version is using a separate database: https://github.com/penxio/penx/issues/20#issuecomment-1867700944 https://github.com/penxio/penx/issues/20#issuecomment-186770...
- account-5 3y agoUnless I'm missing something obviously, quite likely, I can't see how the notes are structured. Screenshots would be nice. Why would I use this over sonething like zim-wiki? Admittedly there is no mobile client but in a pinch I use markor for that.
- vrnvu 3y agoIf you visit the website, there is a demo: https://www.penx.io/ https://www.penx.io/
- swah 3y agoLooks good, but cmd+a test failed ;)
- Der_Einzige 3y agoThe best note taking app ever made by far is called verbatim and was built originally for the competitive debate community. It’s so good that people who watched me use it in college were jealous at the power it enables within Microsoft word for structured notes. https://paperlessdebate.com/verbatim/ https://paperlessdebate.com/verbatim/
- remram 3y agoWhy do you think so? Does it sync between devices? Does it work on mobile at all?
- kseistrup 3y agoIt seems to be for Windows and Mac only, right?
- replwoacause 3y agoHonestly difficult to tell what it even does
- isodev 3y agoSay I'm already using Obsidian, what would be some cool features it can add to my workflow? Side note: "Privacy first" but then "Login with Google" :)
- tovej 3y agoIt seems like this tool is creating a hierarchical document database, it reminds me of XML, but it's json! (or serializes to json at the very least) I don't know what to make of this. I do like the fact that it's a tree, and you can sort of create a document-like hierarchy. The issue with enforced hierarchies is that you now have to find a spot in this arbitrary tree structure for every note you take. It's also a little jarring that list items are treated in the same way that two articles would be. I'm not sure I like that. Lists are a useful readability tool, but articles and chapters are semantic partitioning concepts. I get a little bit of a weird feeling when this is the only representation of the note set that's available. And it feels like cross-referenced notes might be difficult to represent. I do like the representation from a minimap perspective, and it's making me think that maybe the best solution is to use this tree-view as a UI model rather than a canonical representation.
- linhns 3y agoLooks cool. My suggestion would be to change your color from purple as it seems ripped off from Obsidian.
- smusamashah 3y agoThis looks very similar to Logseq. I would go as far as calling it a clone because the main page looks almost exactly the same. Logseq has matured a lot over the years, what is PenX doing better than Logseq? From the demo it feels like it's still behind Logseq a lot.
- manyty 3y ago+1 and curious, too I would go further than that also. It directly mirrors https://anytype.io/ https://anytype.io/ but without the desktop or mobile clients to actually store the workspace on your device.
- hellectronic 3y agoFor me it is important to have effective note taking and management. I tried a lot of note taking apps myself and I am not satisfied with the ones I tried. Even unsuccessful planed and tried to write one myself : ) I used zim-wiki[1] in the past and at the moment I am using Obsidian[2], that is working good for me. I like the way you use to take notes. I know it from Workflowy [3]. Everyone has some personal approach and use cases for taking notes. From taking only notes for a grocery list to a full-fledged personal wiki system. And it is important to figure out what PND (pain/need/desire) your application should really satisfy. [1] https://zim-wiki.org https://zim-wiki.org [2] https://obsidian.md https://obsidian.md [3] https://workflowy.com https://workflowy.com
- jbverschoor 3y agoFor me it's obsidian and noteplan.
- redleader55 3y agoI wonder what's the use for this "https://explorer-api.walletconnect.com/w3m/v1/getAssetImage/692ed6ba-e569-459a-556a-776476829e00?projectId=75879ee8d0e1f47758a4bb4577361f08&sdkType=w3m&sdkVersion=js-2.7.1 https://explorer-api.walletconnect.com/w3m/v1/getAssetImage/..." which fails to load on my Firefox.
- southernplaces7 3y agoThe fundamental question for me is about privacy. Good, well-created note-taking apps abound these days, but few really promise and deliver solid privacy that even their creators cant breach. One need not be taking notes on "howz to makez bombez 101" to value nobody being able to snoop their notes at will.
- codemusings 3y agoNothing fishy at all about wanting to connect to walletconnect.com
- berkes 3y agoI usually don't like the hate on everything cryptocurrency or web3. But I cannot see nor understand why it would be needed here. IPFS maybe?
- gtirloni 3y agoTangential question: I see you chose the AGPL license. Coincidentally, I was reading more about it yesterday and it seems like a good choice for software that can be hosted. Could you share your decision process on what or any insights you might have?
- vdo1138 3y agoNice but, does a note taking app with 3 contributors need a Discord?
- CrypticShift 3y agoThis is what I call an outliner-database hybrid. FYI, many note-taking apps are going in this direction. - Tana.inc (closed alpha) introduced the concept of supertags [1], equivalent to what this app calls meta tags - Remnote.com also added editable tables [2] to its outlines not long ago (only in the paid version). - Logseq.com is planning such an addition soon. It is a powerful combo because it combines two very primary ways of interacting with data: the tree (outliner) mode and the grid (table/DB) mode. So for me, this could be an alternative to logseq as OSS/local. It seems promising, I hope it will continue to grow. [1] https://tana.inc/docs/supertags https://tana.inc/docs/supertags [2] https://help.remnote.com/en/articles/8118336-tables https://help.remnote.com/en/articles/8118336-tables
- swah 3y agoCapacities too. But I feel like Notion is easier to maintain in the end and has the databases with linked records and you can do lots of stuff with that... not sure why Notion gets so much hate.
- CrypticShift 3y agoYeah, they both have DBs, and you can kind of outline inside pages. The difference is that, technically, in a "real outliner", each "node" (or line) is (by default) a different entry in the database, whereas in page-based apps (Capacities/Notion), it is the whole page. Capacities is partially going in this direction. Notion, less so, but it is simple and advanced (linked records...) and hence a favorite of mine too.
- albert_e 3y agoIs there a similar tool that allows pasting of images and uploading of files --- that I can self host on say AWS and use S3 for storage and hosting?
- bradley13 3y agoI look at these apps occasionally, and I've even tried a few of them. In the end, I find them to just be overkill. Give me a simple text editor, and I put the text files where the information belongs. Using fancy apps, where you can do formatting, place links, etc? I spend too much time futzing with all that stuff and less time actually getting stuff done.
- Aicy 3y agoI spent lots of time with notion and obsidian and this is what I came to as well. What I do now is have markdown files, and use the OS folder system for organising. I then use OneDrive for syncing - this works perfectly fine between MacOS and Windows, and for both I use Visual Studio Code for editing. For android I use an app called FolderSync to sync and TMarkor for editing. Has been working perfectly for over a year now.
- mejutoco 3y agoObsidian also uses markdown files, so you could have stayed with it and backup the folders normally, if you do not want to pay for the syncing.
- Aicy 3y agoI don't like how anti folders Obsidian is, the whole tagging way of organising is foreign to me.
- stack_underflow 3y agoJust curious, any reason you're using TMarkor instead of Markor? (https://github.com/gsantner/markor/ https://github.com/gsantner/markor/ , https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.gsantner.markor https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.gsantner.m...) Only asking since this was also the editor I ended up settling on in Android, but it seems like TMarkor is just a repackaging of Markor without any references to its forked(?) source. My requirement was that the editor had to be open source so that I could audit the repo and compile the APK from source, as well as potentially fork it for personal modifications if needed.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- purplecats 3y agotaskpaper is my go to for this