Show HN: A free alternative to Typora –– IF

https://if.openages.com

by matrixages • 2 years ago

11 63 2 years ago

if.openages.com

arjvik• 2 years ago

Free as in beer only?

_rupertius• 2 years ago

I’m not sure how this is an alternative to Typora, that seems misleading. Typora is a minimalist markdown editor, this is some sort of to-do app.

Brajeshwar3• 2 years ago

I think you should disclose that it is freemium and not FREE. Typora is a one-time buy of $15; the app here, IF, is $3 /mo.

Personally, I have gone through so many productivity note-taking apps that mine are now plain-texts[1] with a tool that can read them. Of course, the texts are spiced with a tad of Markdown for readability and for the tools to make it easier on the eye. Right now, I'm with Obsidian.[2] However, I can move to any tool that does not chew up my content but just does its thang on top of it.

I also use iA Writer[3] a lot when picking out just a single file to focus on.

1. https://brajeshwar.com/2022/plain-text/

2. https://obsidian.md

3. https://ia.net/writer

matrixages25• 2 years ago

In fact, IF's Note module is entirely free, while other modules have limitations. You should understand this first before refuting, instead of assuming it's not free just because there's a price tag.

Brajeshwar3• 2 years ago

Hey, hey! I'm extremely sorry if I hurt your feelings. I didn't mean that. Coming from another designer, developer, builder, I might have reacted similarly when my product had a different reaction than I expected.

Honestly, I wish you success and help others who depend on such tools for their well-being and productivity.

Treat mine as feedback after using so many similar tools in my life. Thus, I have turned to solving problems with patterns, processes, and systems and then layer tools on top — not starting with the tools.

mayoff• 2 years ago

I'm puzzled why this is headlined as an alternative to Typora.

I'm a happy, paying Typora (on macOS) customer. Looking at the linked page, I would never have guessed that IF is at all a Typora competitor.

I love Typora because it is a great, flexible WYSIWYG-ish Markdown editor (at least for me), and that is how it bills itself: “A minimal Markdown editor and reader.”

The linked page about IF doesn't mention Markdown at all… but it does mention things like “todo” and “pomo” and “schedule”. What do those have to do with editing Markdown?

Brajeshwar3• 2 years ago

It has a Markdown editor in the second tab on the left sidebar. I downloaded it to try and delete it right away. Not my type.

I was a long-time fan of Typora, too, while using it alongside iA Writer. The later won for me as it has a good iOS companion. But I'd be lying if I did not mention that my default is, well, Apple Notes.

beastcoast• 2 years ago

Your site doesn’t explain your product very well. I know about GTD but I literally haven’t heard of any of the other products listed in the page. The screenshots are tiny and hard to parse on mobile. The descriptions of each feature include many paragraphs of philosophy before getting to what it actually _does_. I suggest “bottom line up front” and a clearer description of the product that better appeals to people who haven’t tried alternatives before.

matrixages25• 2 years ago

Thank you for the feedback, I will optimize the content of the document.

sevg6• 2 years ago

The website claims "Privacy First" but there's no end-to-end encryption (Obsidian has it, OmniFocus has it) and not any mention of server-side encryption either.

matrixages25• 2 years ago

Because the end-to-end encryption feature has not been released yet.

sevg6• 2 years ago

Seems like Privacy is second then ;)

matrixages25• 2 years ago

I'd like to clarify that, given the numerous features of IF, I chose to promote it as a free alternative to Typora to make it easier for people to understand what IF is and to further explore its other capabilities. If this has misled you in any way, I sincerely apologize.

sevg6• 2 years ago

The "doc" page starts off with about 800 words of philosophy. At first I thought it was AI generated, but it's too strange and rambling.

https://if.openages.com/doc

Excerpt:

In the process of biological evolution, gene mutation is the main source of biological evolution, and the "mutation connection" of neurons is the main source of promoting the "thinking evolution" of the human brain. Two nerve cells that have never been connected suddenly "have a call" at a certain moment. Real life is repetitive, monotonous and boring. You can come into contact with new things and have new experiences. It is a low-probability event. Therefore, from the perspective of probability theory, this "sudden call" requires huge energy and is a low-probability event. It must have unique value.

matrixages25• 2 years ago

Of course it's not generated by AI. These emotional expressions are my heartfelt words, which AI can't produce too many of.

TiredOfLife2• 2 years ago

AI is very good at generating this kind of word vomit.

matrixages25• 2 years ago

This is the "underlying reason" for building this feature. As a developer, I need a starting point when creating something. You might consider this starting point philosophical, but for users, they don't need a tool that converges; they need a lifestyle that includes life philosophy.

grodriguez1002• 2 years ago

As a user evaluating a tool like this, I definitely don’t need a “lifestyle that includes life philosophy”.

Quizzical4230• 2 years ago

For linux, I enjoy Apostrophe[^1]

[1] https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/apostrophe

dddw• 2 years ago

And typora is thre for Linux, I tend to use Marktext lately for distraction free writing.

thangalin• 2 years ago

Have you seen my text editor, KeenWrite?

https://keenwrite.com/

Has a similar feature set to MarkText (tables, diagrams, math, code blocks), with the addition of: typesets to PDF, automatically curls straight quotes, can use inline R statements, offers interpolated variables, has distraction-free ability, document statistics, and you can position/resize/rearrange its tabbed panels to your liking. There's also a command-line interface for use with scripting.

I_am_tiberius• 2 years ago

Does it support .mdx?

matrixages25• 2 years ago

Nope. There is a module named Page under development, which will enhance Markdown capabilities. The Note module is a pure implementation of the Markdown standard, which I believe is also what many developers need.

john-titor• 2 years ago

Nice web page but after reading through the landing page I could not say for certain what the actual product is. There is no text that describes it, it just reads

GTD for professionals

What does this mean?

matrixages25• 2 years ago

IF is an offline content and data system designed to help professionals achieve their goals more effectively. Currently, it can serve as an alternative to Typora, Ticktick, and Notion Calendar.

whilenot-dev• 2 years ago

Had the same question, and since OPs answer isn't so satisfying in the sibling comment:

GTD stands for Getting Things Done[0], so IF advertises itself as "a time management system for professionals".

...I guess the doc/schedule part will become the major focus?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done

matrixages25• 2 years ago

The world has changed rapidly in recent years. The description of GTD was defined many years ago, but the core of GTD is "Get Things Done". How to define "Things"? IF has different answers.

verwalt• 2 years ago

The German translation I got automatically reads like a fever dream. Grammatically it often makes no sense and even worse, some things are translated literally. Doc is now "Dok", but no one would ever shorten it like that. The da Vinci quote is shortened to one sentence, and now makes no sense at all.

I know translating is hard, but it's kind of unsettling here.

matrixages25• 2 years ago

Sorry for that,I will improve the documentation in my spare time from coding.

throwaway888abc• 2 years ago

i love https://typora.io/ and use it daily.

indrora• 2 years ago

I don't see how this is an alternative to Typora. To Notion, perhaps, but not Typora.

matrixages25• 2 years ago

In fact, IF does not want to replace any application. The purpose of creating IF is not to compete with other applications; that would be boring. There should be an application in this world that highly values design and is an offline-first content and data system where different content modules can interact with each other. The reason I chose to say it's a Typora alternative is because IF's goal is so ambitious that before it's 60% complete, people can't possibly understand what IF is in just one or two sentences.

TiredOfLife2• 2 years ago

In that case the submitted title is complete and utter lies. It's not free and not an alternative to Typora.

untech5• 2 years ago

I think it could be useful to read: https://kennethreitz.org/essays/2016/mentalhealtherror_an_ex...

kstrauser• 2 years ago

Is that related to this?

untech5• 2 years ago

Yes, on digging deeper into the site and reading comments here, I think it’s related.

matrixages25• 2 years ago

Thank you for your recommendation. In fact, many developers who immerse themselves in coding for long periods often face a range of issues stemming from mental stress. IF's philosophy is that beautiful design can bring joy to people's moods, Design better, life better.

untech5• 2 years ago

Dear matrixages, I recommended this essay to you because I think you might be going through a dangerous manic episode. It might feel as a productivity and creativity boost, but it is an illusion. I think you should do a quick evaluation with psychiatrist — just in case.

Eisenstein2• 2 years ago

It is totally understandable to be engrossed in a project, but it is unhealthy when the project is taking up all of your time and your emotional energy. You need to save some of that for yourself and your loved ones.

Has your family expressed concern about this? You might want to set aside some of what you are using to create this endeavor and use it instead to make sure that you are not harming anyone you love. If it is between the project and those closest to you, then I think you know what is more important.

lifeformed• 2 years ago

What's Typora? What's GTD? What's KOL? What's KOC?

I don't know what any of those things are. I can deduce this is some kind of productivity tool, which I'm interested in, but it it's marketed in a way that makes me think it's specifically for some particular workflow from a book I haven't read.

matrixages25• 2 years ago

No, IF is a simple productivity tool, nothing more. Regarding marketing, it was indeed my mistake, I didn't express it accurately.

MeneDev• 2 years ago

German here: do yourself and every German visiting that site a favor and drop the machine-translated German version. And just show it in English. What I assume is "local first" is translated as something like "local with utmost importance", to name just one example. It’s barely comprehensible and most Germans who care at all about local first, will be fine with English. I can only assume it’s a similar situation for many languages.

matrixages25• 2 years ago

Alright, I will cancel the German translation on the official website. I deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused by my oversight.

Confirm2754• 2 years ago

This looks like a fascinating new note-taking software. However, I find it a bit surprising that it's currently only available on the Mac platform. In my understanding, if the most important requirement for a GTD application is to open quickly, the second most important requirement is convenient input. Not having a mobile version is somewhat hard to accept, especially since the homepage indicates that it's a rather low priority in the planning. I suggest that the mobile version should be prioritized and developed as soon as possible. Additionally, I recommend launching a web version at the same time; it doesn't need to have many features—at the basic stage, it should just allow adding and browsing todos. Features like notes and the Pomodoro timer can be left out for now and made available only on the desktop.

Overall, it seems quite good. The quick todo addition feature, diverse display and filtering options for todos, and the aesthetically pleasing note interface are all commendable. However, the Pomodoro timer, as a separately listed feature, feels a bit hollow. It would be great if it could be more closely integrated with todos and notes. For instance, todos could have a Pomodoro attribute to track the number of Pomodoros completed, and the note-taking feature could include a Pomodoro timer function.

Additionally, the document tree, tabbed browsing, and lock screen are features that many users appreciate, yet they often seem to be absent in new software. It's nice to see that this software has considered these aspects.

That said, these impressions are based on a cursory look at the documentation; I haven't downloaded the software for experience since I don't have a Mac. So, please let me know when a Windows and Linux version is available, and ideally, there would be a mobile version by then.

Furthermore, I noticed that the software seems to have good support for Chinese, but this isn't reflected in the font options. The font switch only offers Serif, which is common for many foreign software. I hope that if resources allow, you can consider adding support for Chinese fonts, such as Song or Hei.

Lastly, I have a suggestion regarding the documentation. It would be beneficial to separate the design theory into its own chapter and include it in the "Why" section. While I personally don't mind, based on feedback from Hacker News, it seems that this is not well received by many users.

matrixages25• 2 years ago

Thank you for your feedback. The Windows version will be released within a month. Your suggestions are very valuable, and I will implement them based on priority. Additionally, if you wish to join the Infinity plan, please send me an email at if.member@openages.com, and I will provide you with an activation code for the Infinity plan.

Show HN: A free alternative to Typora –– IF

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