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What do you use for notes?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.selfhostcat.com/post/93395

I've gone handwritten, obsidian, onenote, and now Trilium. Considering switching to something else because there is no offline mobile support.

I use memos and trilium together but since neither offers mobile offline support considering switching both. No reason to run two services when I could run one.

Considering:

  • Joplin
  • Logseq
  • SiYuan
  • ?
84 comments

  • Obsidian with synchronization to my Nextcloud instance

    • Mobile: Nextcloud Notes
    • Desktop: Qownnotes or vim
    • Server: Nextcloud (+Qownnotes addon)

    Much better solution than Joplin, no database or cryptic file names, just plain markdown files on every device you can imagine. Simple and future proof.

  • I've tried 'em all. And I am always on the lookout for new apps that can do what I want. So far, Obsidian is the best.

    • Joplin: adds meta data to your text files making it nearly impossible to find anything outside of Joplin unless you export
    • Logseq: the closest substitute to Obsidian. The android app is almost unusable in my testing. And it's an outlined based note app, so it requires a different mindset
    • Silverbullet: such a neat project. The PWA runs great on every device I've tried it on. That said, I find it hard to navigate and will require more learning to take full advantage of its features
    • Nextcloud Notes: decent if you already have an instance running. Not worth it just for Notes though. It's very spartan, feature-wise
    • Quillpad: the closest Google Keep alternative I've found so far. Does require Nextcloud insurance to sync though. At least currently.
    • Acreom: very cool project. Similar to Obsidian and Logseq. Local first.....unless you're on mobile, then you are required to have an account and use their sync.
    • Notesnook: has great features but does not store the notes on plain text (due to encryption), which is a deal breaker for my use case
    • Memos: very easy to selfhost. Think of it like a personal twitter feed. Stores entries in a db file, so it's out for me

    I tested others, and many didnt last long enough in my testing to even be worth writing about. I find Obsidian's folder hierarchy easier to fit around how my brain works. And the plain text files in folders, maintaining the hierarchy, is a killer feature for me. Lots of folks self host a sync solution. And I want to but am currently paying for their basic sync plan of $5/mo.

  • I really want a FOSS solution for my notetaking, but I feel like I want too much. I love how well OneNote works with my Surface in terms of drawing notes, but I also love writing notes in Markdown and graph structure. I've at least been trying out Dendron for the latter, and it's been alright.

  • TXT files I sync with syncthing.

    Use amaze file manager built in txt editor on android and vim on desktop.

  • Recently discovered KleverNotes by KDE, while only a desktop app it's really really nice! It's dead simple and straight to the point markdown editor. Recommend folks to check it out.

  • It depends on the notes, for me:

    I've had an oddly long-running obsession with Tiddlywiki!

    It has a bit of a learning curve, but it's VERY flexible. My favorite part being that by default it's just a single, portable, HTML file. No special app required besides a browser, no accounts, and you can just sync it like any other file. (Syncthing, Nextcloud, and friends)

    There's also an app called Tiddloid for Android to make managing and saving a little easier, but they open in any browser.

    I have a Tiddlywiki that I use like one might use Obsidian, where I just stash stuff I'll want to remember and maybe link between similar ideas.

    And then I'm currently trying to use it to make a solution to sketch out my Savage Worlds RPG campaigns. It gets a little tricky but you can make templates, script buttons, and that kind of thing. If you're already comfortable with web stuff you'll probably catch on WAY better than I have.

    You can also host it as a website, or on your server or whatever, to use it like any other wiki. There's also plugins to use Markdown instead of "wikitext."

    There's also an excellent guide to learning it at https://groktiddlywiki.com/read/ . It's basically an online workbook using Tiddlywiki itself!

    The community is also super helpful. I do wish it had a little more out of the box, but something about a customizable, portable, digital "notebook" that doesn't require an account or hopefully-supported-in-5-years application is SUPER appealing to me. It's quite underrated.

    Also just for fun I wanted to share my favorite example someone's been working on for quite some time now, a heavily customized D&D wiki

    https://intrinsical.github.io/wiki/index.html

    Tiddlywiki can be a bit dense and the documentation is slowly improving, but there's so much potential!

  • I've used Joplin for years. IDK why people have a hate on for it, it's fine.

  • Org-mode in emacs.

    There are various mobile clients.

    If you have something to synch files, it's just syncing org files. Probably mostly interesting to people who use a lot of emacs on a PC, though.

  • Remnote, sadly i believe there are substantially better places for sync capable noting but theyre all either paid or use third party bs like gdrive. Need joplin and proton drive to work something out!

  • I use Joplin for day-to-day: to-dos, journals etc. I like Joplin, but I haven't tried the others. I tend to be sticky with services, if something "works" I don't go looking for better. Only when I have a specific problem I can't solve do I branch out.

    I use bookstack for documentation on the server, faqs guides, updates etc. perhaps that works for others. The lack of android app is what moved me to Joplin.

84 comments