A structured note-taking app for personal use

by 0xyz • 3 years ago

210 151 3 years ago

gnatolf• 3 years ago

This 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• 3 years ago

I'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!

0xyz4• 3 years ago

Of course, the development of the sharing feature is in planning

Yodel0914• 3 years ago

This 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.

Ringz4• 3 years ago

Since 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.

burnished3• 3 years ago

That seems an odd take given the content of the discussion: 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.

tovej3• 3 years ago

Well, if what you need is a flat file system, the json-as-database approach that penx is taking isn't really an improvement.

I'm interested in what advantages you have lost. Joplin allows you to export your entire notebook as a directory of markdown files (with front matter), and from a performance, reliability, and replication perspective, a database seems like a much better choice.

eviks5• 3 years ago

The linked discussion also lists some huge limitations of the flat markdown file system, how did he discredit himself?

midtake• 3 years ago

The 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".

0xyz4• 3 years ago

Currently, you can install it as a PWA app. when the web version is stable, I will develop a desktop app.

atoav5• 3 years ago

In 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.

adhamsalama2• 3 years ago

Try SiYuan Note.

It's a free and open source local-first of Notion+ Obsidian.

https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan

replygirl• 3 years ago

i wouldn't call completely broken on mobile a beta

happytiger• 3 years ago

Yea it’s pretty broke.

0xyz4• 3 years ago

Sorry, It's not stable yet，but I am working on it

cjbprime2• 3 years ago

FWIW I need a Kanban board view from a note-taking app, am using extensions which add one to Obsidian and vscode.

0xyz4• 3 years ago

I am working on the Kanban view now

nivertech2• 3 years ago

What 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?

cjbprime2• 3 years ago

It'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!)

rubymamis• 3 years ago

I’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/

[2] https://rubymamistvalove.com/notes/kanban.mp4

[3] https://www.get-notes.com/

tovej3• 3 years ago

Joplin's kanban plugin is quite nice:

https://github.com/joplin/plugin-kanban

saint11• 3 years ago

This 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• 3 years ago

This looks really similar to Logseq, are the notable differences?

simonbw• 3 years ago

For 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• 3 years ago

It’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• 3 years ago

Welcome to Node! This is one of the least buggy “apps”.

zero0529• 3 years ago

Does 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• 3 years ago

Nice 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• 3 years ago

What 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.

bayindirh8• 3 years ago

Logseq 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.

codethief• 3 years ago

What you disliked about Logseq?

For me it was the fact that it's a pure outliner and I couldn't write free-form text. Everything had to be list.

Roark66• 3 years ago

Evernote

I _still_ have some notes in Evernote. Imagine my surprise when I logged in after maybe a year of not using it and now search in text notes is not working unless "you upgrade". WTF?

The only good feature of everyone now is that it's easy to export ones notes (I hope that still works).

(about Obsidian) >The only downside is that it's not open source

Indeed, but a saving grace is that it can just store in a bunch of text files you can use any editor with. Some editors (neovim/emacs I think) have plugins to read/write obsidian's notes properly.

viddo• 3 years ago

FWIW, I exported all my Evernote notebooks just recently from my old free account. Used https://github.com/akosbalasko/yarle to convert them to Markdown. It also has support for various PKB formats, like Obsidian. Hope that helps!

rubslopes2• 3 years ago

It got worse: 3 weeks ago Evernote announced that their free version will be limited to 50 notes

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/29/23981683/evernote-limit-...

Brajeshwar3• 3 years ago

Wow! This is me. I'm not worried about the open-source part because, as you mentioned, we own the files and their organization. I will just walk out and still have everything I need with me.

I'm kinda pretty well organized. If you wake me up in the middle of my slumber, I can tell you where I have kept something with a series of steps to make it easy for you to find. Even if not precise at times, I will have a way via a general direction. So, this works for something like Obsidian and will only work for things I know how the underlying things are organized.

This is also why I lost Logseg - it was too smart for me and my ways.

gexla• 3 years ago

Same, and it took some months before the plugin ecosystem got to the point where I found it useful. I don't think I would go through that with another note taking app. And it would be difficult for another app to create such a big ecosystem.

Vingdoloras• 3 years ago

How does Obsidian's text editing experience compare to VSCode? I'm using VSC for everything at the moment, which includes a workspace roughly structured into GTD categories via subfolders, filled with markdown documents. The only thing that keeps me curious about Obsidian is the note linking/network visualization and features related to that. But I'm so used to having dev tool levels of text editing available in VSC that I can't bring myself to try switching Obsidian.

jddj2• 3 years ago

Same here, but other side of the chasm.

I use logseq for note keeping but I just want the text editing experience of vs code.

I'm not sure why they all roll their own editor. Can't it be a plugin?

tuffff• 3 years ago

There is a Vim plugin for Obsidian, so for me the editing is pretty similar. And I guess it's a good indicator that a plugin for your taste may also exist.

For actual coffee editing, there is also https://github.com/sunxvming/obsidian-vscode-editor

NicuCalcea• 3 years ago

You should have a look at Foam: https://github.com/foambubble/foam

2shortplanks• 3 years ago

That’s actually one of the main reasons I like Obsidian - that I can easily use vscode with it. Obsidian’s backend is just markdown files on the file system which you’re free to edit with another editor at the same time as you have Obsidian open (it’ll notice file system changes and update any open documents near instantly). I even have a plugin setup that when I hit a keyboard shortcut it executes the necessary vscode command line tool to open whatever I’m viewing in obsidian in vscode.

adhamsalama2• 3 years ago

Try SiYuan Note. It's free and open source local-first mix of Notion and Obsidian.

https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan

canoebuilder• 3 years ago

Are you(or anybody) using the Obsidian iOS mobile app with git for sync/versioning? Is that possible?

aiisjustanif• 3 years ago

Weird that people find Obsidian before Joplin

DeathArrow• 3 years ago

Is there a free, cross platform note taking app (mobile, PC, Mac) that allows you to save on cloud and sync?

bobmaxup• 3 years ago

Joplin

anticrymactic2• 3 years ago

Obsidian + Syncthing

poulpy1233• 3 years ago

I found syncthing lost severals of my changes . I settled on the live sync plugin and for the moment it works nicely

RockstarSprain• 3 years ago

Simplenote.

codingpanga• 3 years ago

This is nice. But, how this is different from Joplin?

Any comparison?

baq2• 3 years ago

I've been using Dendron on vscode with some success: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dendron....

bachmeier• 3 years ago

Dendron development stopped about a year ago: https://github.com/dendronhq/dendron/discussions/3890#discus...

baq2• 3 years ago

Oh.

Well, at least it isn’t cloud software.

tarcon• 3 years ago

Don't put any real data in the hosted demo. The database credentials are leaked in the .env file.

mdaniel• 3 years ago

I especially enjoyed the header saying ".env is .gitignored" https://github.com/penxio/penx/blob/main/.env#L1

sphars• 3 years ago

Apparently that's for development, the deployed production version is using a separate database: https://github.com/penxio/penx/issues/20#issuecomment-186770...

account-5• 3 years ago

Unless 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• 3 years ago

If you visit the website, there is a demo: https://www.penx.io/

swah2• 3 years ago

Looks good, but cmd+a test failed ;)

Der_Einzige• 3 years ago

The 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/

remram2• 3 years ago

Why do you think so?

Does it sync between devices? Does it work on mobile at all?

kseistrup• 3 years ago

It seems to be for Windows and Mac only, right?

replwoacause• 3 years ago

Honestly difficult to tell what it even does

isodev• 3 years ago

Say 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" :)

tovej3• 3 years ago

It 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• 3 years ago

Looks cool. My suggestion would be to change your color from purple as it seems ripped off from Obsidian.

smusamashah• 3 years ago

This 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• 3 years ago

+1 and curious, too

I would go further than that also. It directly mirrors https://anytype.io/ but without the desktop or mobile clients to actually store the workspace on your device.

hellectronic• 3 years ago

For 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

[2] https://obsidian.md

[3] https://workflowy.com

jbverschoor• 3 years ago

For me it's obsidian and noteplan.

redleader55• 3 years ago

I wonder what's the use for this "https://explorer-api.walletconnect.com/w3m/v1/getAssetImage/..." which fails to load on my Firefox.

southernplaces7• 3 years ago

The 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• 3 years ago

Nothing fishy at all about wanting to connect to walletconnect.com

berkes• 3 years ago

I 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• 3 years ago

Tangential 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• 3 years ago

Nice but, does a note taking app with 3 contributors need a Discord?

CrypticShift2• 3 years ago

This 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 [2] https://help.remnote.com/en/articles/8118336-tables

swah2• 3 years ago

Capacities 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.

CrypticShift2• 3 years ago

Yeah, 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• 3 years ago

Is 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• 3 years ago

I 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.

Aicy3• 3 years ago

I 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• 3 years ago

Obsidian 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.

stack_underflow• 3 years ago

Just curious, any reason you're using TMarkor instead of Markor? (https://github.com/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.

purplecats• 3 years ago

taskpaper is my go to for this

Fire-Dragon-DoL3• 3 years ago

I'm testing the web version in the phone and I can't create tags, not sure how's the testing of this

A structured note-taking app for personal use

Related Stories