Hey Nick, Don't worry my friend i found👉 saber 👈 in fdroid as an amazing alternative for handwritten notes cross platform synchronizable with nextcloud 😊💐🤩
One thing to consider with Obsidian: the app may not be open source but it doesn’t create proprietary files. Any other md editor can open them. The note structure is also handled by OS folder structure.
I was also searching for a replacement some time ago and found "Trilium Notes" the best. It has a self hosted docker server in case you want to "backup" your notes but can also run standalone. It has a great feature set and is open source.
From a (very happy) user of Obsidian and self-hosting enthusiast, here's a pro-tip: You can use SyncThing (or any other file-syncing software) to make your own online backup solution, since, as Nick correctly pointed, The Vaults are just text files in folders! The .obsidian hidden folder holds your Vault's configuration, including all of your installed plugins for this Vault. Also, YES (!), syncing the files works for the Android application, too! To summarize: Obsidian + SyncThing =
Couldn't agree more. I love Obsidian so much. Personally I don't mind paying for their own sync service to financially support the project and to make syncing to mobile devices easier, but Syncthing is a great option too.
@@asystole_ I also payed the one-time fee for supporting the application and I would happily pay for their syncing solution too, but I am self-hosting as a hobby and I am becoming progressively paranoid with privacy, so I opted for SyncThing.
I was never really a fan of OneNote, so I started using Joplin, and after getting used to math notation in markdown (which isn't really related to Joplin itself), I've been liking it a lot
I switched from OneNote to Joplin three months ago. Since my workflow of taking notes is pretty simple (mostly text notes and sometimes embedded pictures) and I never was fond of handwriting or drawing in my note app and do not missing it either. Joplin serves me pretty well. My notebooks are are on my self hosted Nexctloud. Because I use an iPhone additionally to several Linux clients it was important for me to have a mobile app too. My very first notes in Joplin needed some experience using markdown language formatting (never needed it in OneNote). But after writing four or five notes using MD formatting I got pretty used to it. I love Joplin. 👍
One thing I hate about joblin is, that they use a custom folder architecture. This makes it borderline impossible to combine it with any other program while with obsidian or zettlr, you keep your folders and can just use them to store files like you did before and can seemlessly switch between them (Aside note kit, as they way of storing drawings makes it dangorus to open the md anywhere else as they might break the annotations.)
while not open-source, Obsidian does have support for handrwitten notes via the excalidraw plugin. I found out like a month ago that it even supports pressure sensitive writting
@Radha I don't think that it is limmited in size. You can scroll and zoom in and out. I just tried using the obsidian plugin and I was able to make a massive document.
Thank you so much for showing that Joplin allows you to sync cloud with various services! I migrated from Evernote straight to Obsidian (and installed Joplin just to assist in the export and conversion of my database). I had the impression that Joplin was not FOSS and now I'm excited. (And I also imagined before Obsidian was FOSS, so I'm thinking of migrating to the Logseq) The Joplin end -to -end encryption feature allows to leave Notes on my OneDrive (it's the cheapest option, the only one I can afford at the moment ...) without worrying much about the issue of privacy.
StandardNotes is an incredibly underrated open-source note-taking app and I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned more often. I've personally been a happy paying user for over a year now and honestly haven't even had to consider anything else. It's both end-to-end encrypted as well as supports multiple device sync (including mobile support) in the free plan, and the paid plans includes more document types like spreadsheets, code, and task lists in addition to some other great features.
I use StandardNotes too. I don't need super advanced features. It's easy to use and it has a Web-based app, which makes it very accessible (I keep its browser tab pinned). Easy to use and accessible, that's what I care about the most. Just as a test, I exported my notes and imported them to Joplin. The migration seems to work reasonably well. But I'm not using Joplin since I don't like keeping an app running just in case I need to quickly write down some notes; that's why I much prefer something with a Web-based app.
@@Dee-Ell It usually doesn't take any longer to load an app than to load a web page. Not to mention that browsers are enormous memory and CPU hogs. A native app is usually much less of a problem. On both my mobile devices and my computers, it is one or two clicks away to get to Joplin. Even if left running, mobile doesn't leave the app in memory for long.
I've been using Rnote for about half a year, it's crazy how much improvement it's seen just over this time period. As far as stylus note taking, I actually prefer it to OneNote, the interface is faster, switching colors and tools is easier, and exporting actually works properly. Not to mention that you can enable page outlines and import from and export to a wide variety of formats. I've always preferred not to mix typed and handwritten notes, so having a stylus note-taking app was really all I wanted to replicate from OneNote. The Rnote + Markdown combination is better enough for me than OneNote that it's now another thing that has me "stuck" in the Linux ecosystem. If anyone else uses a 2 in 1 laptop for note taking I highly recommend checking it out. Kinda sad it wasn't the main apps featured in the video, even if it lacks many of the features the other apps have, it is built for a specific purpose and is easily the best option when it comes to that purpose.
By rnote and markdown combo do you mean with a seperate app? I have a 2 in 1 laptop and writing handwritten notes on onenote is legitemately the only thing holding me back from taking the plunge. Also does it have pdf imports/infinite canvas? Thank you!
@@Moonnikill These are two separate apps, yes. Rnote has PDF imports and exports, in fact they're better than OneNote. When I was using OneNote, it didn't have guide lines for what sections would be exported as a page, but Rnote let's you (optionally) see guidelines while still having infinite scroll.
I prefer Obsidian over Joplin. It's UI on the mobile part is much more convenient. Also it's implementation of Plugins is superior. You have Excallidraw as a plugin which allows for seamless handwritten notes. Perfectly integrated. Also you have all the plugins on the mobile version aswell! Aaaaand they are saved inside the "Vault" (the directory that contains all your Obsidian Notes), that means if you sync that vault to your mobile devices and add a new plugin on ANY of the devices, each and every other device automatically gets the plugin. Regarding sync, the solution mentioned here in the video is the official one. But it's pricy af and tbh, i don't want my stuff on anyones server. So you can just take that "Vault" and sync it however you like! It's literally just a folder containting .md files and the various other files you attached. On your mobile end you can use whatever App you want to sync that folder with your local storage; Autosync, FolderSync, etc. etc. It's amazing and imo the best choice here IF YOU ARE WILLING to put in some little work to get the sync happening (most of the work is on the mobile side)
@@xfilesxfilesxfilesThe notes are all stored in one folder as Markdown files, so you can use any file-syncing app and point it to your vault. Alternatively, there's a community plugin that you can use to sync your vault to a remote Git repository
The owners of a Synology NAS also have option to run DS Note server on them and access world wide through Synology DS Note client applications for Linux, Windows and Android.
Joplin really is a fantastic application. I use Windows, Mac, and Linux on a regular basis and use an iPhone so shared notes between all of those platforms have been a pain for a while. I switched to Joplin from Simplenote a couple years back and haven’t looked back.
Quick correction about NoteKit : It is in the official Fedora repos. The COPR is discontinued and is only there to continue support for legacy users of the COPR using cLaTeXMath. Unfortunately, cLaTeXMath support isn't enabled in the fedora package due to legal issues, as we're waiting to transition to cLaTeXMath's successor, microTeX.
I am in the middle of my transition from OneNote to Obsidian and Windows to Linux. Joplin would be my 2nd choice after Obsidian if I did not want to fiddle with the Obsidian configuration and plugins.
OneNote makes it easy to customize the notebooks like a big canvas, that is the main reason I like it. You can move images in an (almost)infinite space and start writing anywhere while still offering the standard formatting options, making it very versatile for almost any type of note taking. This is the feature I mainly find missing from lot of the mentioned alternatives. Please let me know if alternatives also offer the same thing.
Yes Prashant you nailed it, that's the reason I'm 'stuck' with OneNote. I tried Evernote way back and as soon as I found that I couldn't move images and text around on the canvas like you can in OneNote, that was bye bye Evernote. If there's an alternative as powerful as OneNote in that respect I'd also love to hear about it. However, the one thing that continually frustrates me about OneNote is the poor search. It doesn't remember previous searches and it's easy to click on something and lose your search string, so you have to enter it again, aagh! IMHO the whole search interface is just clunky and unfriendly. And it's terrible at finding exact phrases, even if you wrap them in double quotes. I think though Microsoft is just not good at search in it's PC products. The search in Visual Studio is poor as well. It's not like I'm asking for much, if they just made their search as good as that in Notepad++ I'd be happy! :)
*Obsidian* is the only second brain here. Everything compared to Obsidian is like comparing paper planes to actual NASA rockets. And that's mainly due to Obsidian's plugin ecosystem. There are single plugins that outperform entire paid online services. Yes, Obsidian isn't open-source but all of the plugins are open-source. Obsidian is free, works offline and standardises everything in markdown. Obsidian should be in an entirely different category of its own.
A calassical two-pane Outliner. I bet it was influenced by TreePad. There is a little known great outliner for Androind, called Halna Outliner, but it's not open-source.
Nick kind of glossed over it, but Rnote is pretty amazing piece of software with tons of features and more features coming soon. People should give it a try. The few thing this is missing is tab View and latex rendering.
It's incredible that you just made this video the day after I just installed one note because I didn't know about any alternatives! Thanks for the video, you uploaded it in the perfect moment for me
I go with Joplin. Joplin's structure and the way it works _just works_ for everything that I'd need a journal type note-taking app to be. Very useful for work with Inline TODO extension and basic html capabilities (the tags are super useful), and has a simple interface for me to write on, and backup certain stuff I want backup/sync. I keep a lot of my linux config and choco installs there too. Their mobile app leaves a lot to be desired, but I don't write long stuff on mobile, so I'd rather use a Keep replacement likr Standard Notes or Simplenote (though I've just went with WhatsApp send to self lately). I used to use Dropbox and OneDrive for syncing before, but I liked it enough to get their stuff. It's "just right" for what I want and I appreciate that.
I would have really liked a comparison of all of these on the metric of how many layers you can have. Multiple people I know rely on numerous OneNote features, but the one they require the most is at least 5 layers of organization: Notebook > Section > Subsection > Page >Subpage
Trilium probably 'nests' the best in terms of having multiple layers of hierarchical organisation as it can go arbitrarily deep. You can also 'focus' any level of note so it appears as the top level of organisation in the navigation panel on the left making it easier to navigate in deeply nested trees
Got myself a Synology NAS for file storage / backup, but one of its most underrated features is the amazing productivity suite packages available for it, including their Note Station. Seriously, Synology’s Drive, Office, Chat, Calendar, and Note Station software are really good and, while not open-source, they can be used completely privately on just your local network or tunnelled through a VPN of your choosing (which you could also set up on the NAS).
Pretty surprised you didn't mention Standard Notes. It's open source, e2e encrypted by default, nice desktop/web/mobile apps, pretty popular and... it's awesome! Very complete and usable, very rational. It also has been positively audited over the years. Last but not least, it has a pretty cool always-free plan with unlimited notes and storage (but limited editors). I encourage to try it! After Bitwarden, Standard Notes is one of the most important digital tool I use.
Also, a much limited app, but SimpleNote ... FOSS + has an electron client + Sync with phone + browser based, but best thing is it allows notes to be published as webpages.
The one I use is Taskade. It's available on almost any Linux and Linux ARM distros and can be run on any browser. They even have a legible mobile app and tons of tutorials on their official YT channel. Sadly, it's not open-source :(
My problem with many of them is electron, I try to avoid applications with electron, I dont feel safe, also linux is always second citizen in electron.
i use Jupyter lab for my research. The advantage is that I can put my codes next to my notes. I connect my ipad to my PC via Zoom to take snap of hand written notes and paste in the jupyter notebooks.
I'm mainly a Windows user, but I also went on a quest to find a note-taking app. Cherrytree is a decent freeware alternative. Syntax highlighting, own DB, tree structure, the works. Ultra Recall is not seeing active development lately, but is somewhat recent. It has a nice interface, has a portable version, and a lot of features. I ended up buying it. EssentialPIM is another option worthy of consideration. It's more of an Outlook replacement, but also does have a well developed note taking part.
I have some experience with Joplin, but one Evernote feature is indispensable for me: Taking a screenshot on iOS and sending it to Evernote, I get a small window (i.e. Evernote doesn’t open in its regular fashion) where I can choose a name for a new note and can assign some tags, the note then gets created in the background. The screenshot itself is still open in iOS so that I can delete it right away.
Standard notes. Syncs across devices while being end to end encrypted. Can 'lock' individual files so if someone gets device access certain files will still be non accessible
My selection of programs this semester was Obsidian, Rnote, and VSCode for studying electrical engineering, which needs all 3 types of notes: drawing, math and text. I'll look into FOSS Obsidian alternatives tough, and use whichever markdown editor has the best LaTeX and circuitikz integration. If none of them do, next semester might look like Texmaker-Rnote-Neovide.
I'm surprised Notesnook didn't make the cut. It's open-source (since about the summer), very much an Evernote alternative, with a free option and paid subscription. No idea about handwriting, I never use that. Available for mobile as well as win, mac and linux. Not sure about the packager used. Since Notion and Obsidian were mentioned, there is also Anytype (suuuuuper alpha stage though). Available for mobile, win, mac and linux (appimage). It's open-source and free of charge (There are some features that may become paid as the program releases). It's got the blocks and felxibility like Notion, but then the graph view like Obsidian. I normally have all my messy notes in Notesnook, and then organize projects in Anytype. It's been a great workflow, works on all my devices, and is open-source :)
There's one use case - and a pretty big one - that makes it hard to replace OneNote: iPad for college. You go to class, take notes with the pencil, then you go home study for tests on your computer. OneNote keeps your mark-ups synced like many others, but it also searches the handwritten notes, and lets you convert to typed texts if you want. If you have a MacBook there are lots of other options that are even better, like Notability, where you can even record the professor speaking while taking notes, with audio and writing synced for studying later. It's all about the convenience of getting things done using one app instead of using one for writing, one for typing, one for recording, than manually dealing with so much stuff. OneNote is great in this regard for non-mac users. And the web version works quite well to be fair, it's Microsoft but it's a great product.
I've tried all of these, and am now happy with MarkText with files synced to my mobile device using SyncThing, using Zettler and recently Markor on Android.
I have just been using Typora (markdown editor) with standard markdown files organized with a standard folder structure. There is a folder called "Notes" in my Dropbox with folders underneath it that serve as basically notebooks and folders under those that serve as sections (and subsections) and the .md files containing the actual note content. Typora has an option to reopen the files last open when restarting the app that is super useful and you can keep the entire tree of notes open in the side by just opening the master folder. FYI, one of the main issues I had moving away from OneNote was that there is not an easy way to export all of your notes and migrate to another app. For me, I had about 100 note files that I had to copy/paste over manually which was a pain but after that, I will NEVER move to another proprietary locked down note solution without proper import AND export functionality.
Two years ago, when I was studying physics, I used "write by stylus labs" Its super obscure, but back then, it was the only one that really suited my needs Its very simple and only takes handwritten notes. Now I never take hand written notes anymore
Standard Notes, which I use privately is missing. Notion has it's databases, which makes it completely different to OneNote. I use it also plus Google Cursive for handwritten notes.
My wife and I use Simple Note to mark/share between each other. Can be used on mobile and on computers by logging in. As the name states it's quite simple. But nice for quick note sharing.
There are another very-very good note taking app called StandardNotes, which keeps all your notes end-to-end encrypted and backend for it. And apps are present for all popular platforms as well.
As a long time user of OneNOTE and a user of a Surface pro, and before that the old tablets of the 2010's... the BEST alternative to one note is *Stylus Labs Write* . I am also a Linux user since way back and used Xournal way back in the day. It's great. But Stylus labs write does ink, text, pictures, and all in a format you can open in almost any web browser. It does all of that while NOT BEING AN ELECTRON APP. IT runs on Windows, Linux, mac, Android. It has not been updated in a good while but it is also basically feature complete. IT does lack really straight forward collaboration and cloud. This is the reason I still use One Note (It seems they have a collaborative white board app in the works). Also I teach and the schools all use it and I am bound by contract to use what they use.
I switched from OneNote to Joplin for my graduate school classes this past semester. I love Joplin! I couldn't be more pleased. Joplin makes searching notes easy and fast (e.g. to find information while you're writing a paper) I use the end-to-end encryption feature and sync between devices via Dropbox. (I do not use Dropbox for anything else. pCloud is my go-to for encrypted online storage.)
One important aspect of OneNote is it's math capabilities. Eg you type a square root and it can become editable like on a professional calculator right out of its Unicode symbol. Without handwriting this is one feature I really need. I'll check which of those Apps support it
I have run "Tomboy" for what may be close to 20 years... There was a period where it kinda faded for a while, especially in Ubuntu derivatives since it was a .NET app... but since I have getting on for 600 notebooks, I didn't relish trying to transfer that data, and just as I was about to throw in the towel, the project was picked up, and we now have "Tomboy NG"... which I'm hoping allows me to continue with this app for another 20 years.
Why didn't you show Simplenote, I've been using it for a very long time and find it quite handy. It is open source, has sync, works on android, linux and windows (Yes, there is electron, but still.). Of course, I understand that it may lack functionality, but this is its feature.
I just standard notes now - end to end encryption by default and it’s open source and it’s has auto sync too. Also it’s cross platform on Linux , Mac , windows and iOS .
I use Obsidian although its not open source I think. the main reason is that it has many plugins/extensions, I generally make todo list for my daily work .I have separate note for every project. then I also use it to make notes for example I have whole Redux toolkit notes, ReactJS notes. I use Megasync and I created my Vault in megasync folder so I can have a syncing feature without paying extra.
I never managed to make it function properly on Windows, weirdly. The pen always registered as a left-click first by default, and only switched to "pen mode" after a fraction of a second, which would always create some hideous "straight lines" followed by the curves I actually wanted to draw. It is still useful for sketching with big strokes, but awful for writing (which is what I used it for). Just to be clear, this was entirely a Windows problem, as it happened to every piece of software that had not come pre-installed with Windows, or wasn't installed through the Windows Store. Not just Xournal++.
Very strange, I wonder if it was a driver issue. I only had issues occasionally with the auto eraser switching but that felt like windows messing with stuff.
Thanks for this info. Since moving from Windows to Ubuntu, the OneNote web experience is bad enough to force me to move to an alternative. I think Obsidian with Syncthing might be my best option. I need Windows, Linux and Android apps so I think this should be possible. And there are ways to export my OneNote into an Obsidian vault too.
Something I'm investigating is to replicate the function of detecting that a file has been opened and changed, then using rsync to sync the files to more than one online storage sync folder. This way you get the "cloud storage" effect but you can have more than one online storage backup. Maybe I'll try and find this comment if I get the solution
Hey Nick just a PSA, Obsidian is not open source. I know, it's a shocker and it's really a common mistake because the whole platform feels so open. But no source, sadly. Maybe you could pin a comment with that correction? It's important for some people.
I am using Joplin for over an year, I can say it is one of the best alternative of onenote and evernote. Also what I found with note taking apps is that you don't need so much fancy stuff, just JOT it down with linking capabilities.
For me the only Linux-native note taking apps worth considering for serious users are Obsidian, Logseq and perhaps Zettlr. All of the other apps you mentioned simply don't have the features that are expected now; the note taking space has changed tremendously in the past few years. I think this is why you got so many messages from people baffled that you didn't include Obsidian in the past; it's hard to understand why someone would promote apps with less functionality and bad UX over it. If the reason is that Obsidian isn't fully open source, then you can recommend Logseq, which is almost as good and improving rapidly. Both Obsidian and Logseq also have excellent mobile apps.
My friend who was using OneNote used it for handwriting math formulas sometimes, and OneNote converted those handwritings to formulas. I didn't see something like that anywhere else so I was wondering if it exists somewhere else. Anyway when I need to write things I most often use LibreOffice as it has the features I need mostly. Good video anyway, I may want to take a look at obsidian and see how good it is for myself
Obsidian actually have a mobile app for IOS and Android. And for handwriting you can use the Excalidraw plugin with obsidian, it works with a smart pen too.
This has always been my white whale for migrating to Linux; I've been so hopelessly dependent on OneNote for my non-gaming laptop needs that it was always a nightmare to use Linux and search fruitlessly for something that does everything that I use OneNote for. I use it on multiple devices (I run my own NextCloud, so I don't mind having something else sync it for me) including both Desktop (Win/Lin) and Mobile (Android) platforms. I use both pen input and typing, I integrate a lot of web content (I'm using it primarily for roleplaying purposes and need lots of references), my note taking style can be gently described as pure anarchy (with lots of "unusual" positioning of notes on a page), and even more complex pages such as entire character sheets. I also share some of these pages with other people (read-only). Heck, even in these examples you can see the same problems - nothing that does it all. At the moment, I'm using both Joplin and Xournal++, but I'm pretty unhappy with what I have. Markdown-based note taking software tends to rigidly define where notes need to be on a page, similar to what a word processor does, rather than moving itself out of your way to take notes the way you want. In Joplin, I need to create a defined table in order to have content on two sides of a page; in OneNote I can just click wherever the heck I want to put a note there. I can do the character sheet thing in Xournal++ by putting a PDF in the background of a note page and I gain the "click wherever I want", but that's not integrated into the same application I'm using for typing up notes, so things get muddled and lost. Searching is a nightmare because I don't know whether the note I'm looking for was taken in Joplin or Xournal++ (and if it was in the latter, I'll never find it). The import feature of Joplin for web clippings works, to an extent, but requires an awful lot of setup for no good (to the end user; I understand what it is doing and why) reason and still has some issues. None of this setup lets me easily share pages with other people, but that's more because it requires them to install a pair of applications to open any of it rather than having an almost-passable web viewer like OneNote. Even though I've mostly migrated at this point, every time I try to take notes in Joplin I just ask myself why I'm putting myself through this pain when OneNote just worked for me. It is kind of like I need an unholy hybrid of NextCloud Notes, Joplin, Xournal++, and something to make Joplin give up on Markdown. :) Of course, I can't migrate to Linux anyway due to my new 2-in-1 (MS Surface Book 3) not supporting stylus input (or cameras for that matter) in Linux. Seriously, the prior models did, I didn't even think to check that on this one. If only there was a Linux-native 2-in-1 laptop with good stylus input.
I feel ya. OneNote and OneDrive are the main reasons I haven't nuked Windows and switched entirely to Linux. I wouldn't mind using the OneDrive web client and, although is a hassle, move the files manually to the cloud. Nevertheless, there is a solid option to integrate it using RClone, which at the moment I'm still researching. But like you said, finding a suitable way to use OneNote in Linux is just a pain in the ass. So far, the best option would rely on using a Virtual Machine, but again, it's still a hassle. By the way, have you looked into the Github Linux Surface project? They say that they have stylus support for your model. No camera support yet, though.
@@DaniAlva25 I actually ended up selling that tablet; the project must have completed support for the pen after I sold it off. Which is good, but also sad.
I use plain markdown files (or sometimes just plain text), syncronised across my devices with syncthing, and of course vim as an editor. I've added a few functionnalities to vim in order to mange a calendar-like file.
😮you forgot Emacs org-mode it supports all linking tagging other notes and excel , time tracking Etc. Only thing it doesn't have is a auto sync and handwriting but might have a org package i don't know about lol u can do auto syncing with a simple cron job.
Trillium. You forgot Trillium. I was a Joplin user but when I discovered Trillium I was amazed by its ease of use and good interface, so I switched. Try it!
I' ve used Trillium as a backup note-taking to my Joplin. I use only local Trillium notes to note linux commands and keyboard shortcuts and it is pretty competent.
Thanks bro. Yeah I love OneNote. I use it every day almost for all day, lol. But for Linux Joplin it is I guess. Even if I don't like that you can't turn off sync (it's useful sometimes, gives you more control if something with sync goes wrong). OneNote (suprisingly) can.
A FOSS notebook you missed: TiddlyWiki I've been using it ever since I first discovered it in about 2006. TW Classic is essentially HTML files that include CSS and Javascript that effectively turns them into self contained notebooks that you can read in anything from a browser to notepad. TW5 is a rewrite that takes advantage of the HTML5 standard. You can do basically anything from scientific notation to playing MIDI with TiddlyWiki. You can keep you TW local or share to any online location and choose who can read or modify the files. You can even use it as a website.
I used to use and love TiddlyWiki. I should check out TW5! I've been using Obsidian, but considering a switch to SilverBullet. I'll give TW5 some consideration before deciding though :)
I want something like Obsidian or Notion except with added security: I want to share sections of it - with both password locking and AFK passwords (after a set time of being Away from Keyboard) on both my PC and phone.
I have access to Evernote beta. It runs well. I tried various note taking apps and I couldn't find one that have all the features that I need and Evernote is the closest that suit my need
I have been a Joplin user for a about a year now and really like it but its has a couple of drawbacks. For me the biggest drawback is that it is an electron app. I don't know if it is still true but electron has had a bug that caused the app to crash when printing. The can be worked around by using an external editor. I like ReText for that. Lately I have been experimenting with SimpleNote (FOSS). I like it but it won't do everything that Joplin does. It syncs really well but it doesn't have plugins. I find Slash commands to be really useful. Still searching for the perfect knowledge base app. Thanks for the videos.
I recently discovered UpNote after trying several options, and works really great; very comprehensive (non-FOSS though). I would ckeck for web-clipping skills, as are perhaps one of the main strengths of Evernote or OneNote.
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logseq very good alternative to obsidian
Hey Nick, Don't worry my friend i found👉 saber 👈 in fdroid as an amazing alternative for handwritten notes cross platform synchronizable with nextcloud 😊💐🤩
Obsidian is not open-source, and a good alternative to it is "Trilium" which is open source
true its closed source
Tbh Obsidian is much better in my experience. Trilium is really buggy in my experience but it might still be a good tool if you're okay with that
It is not open source, but it has an open ecosystem. Virtually all plug-ins are open source, and also the format that it uses: markdown plain text.
One thing to consider with Obsidian: the app may not be open source but it doesn’t create proprietary files. Any other md editor can open them. The note structure is also handled by OS folder structure.
Obsidian also has mobile app.
Joplin for notes, Zettlr for writing Essays. Zettlr with Zotero, Latex and Pandoc is insanely powerful, you do not need Word anymore after that
Is there an alternative to rnote for Android please?
@@streambarhoum4464 try xournal++
I was also searching for a replacement some time ago and found "Trilium Notes" the best. It has a self hosted docker server in case you want to "backup" your notes but can also run standalone. It has a great feature set and is open source.
i totally agree, trilium is the best replacement i've found for me (would be nice to have a ios/android app, but it's useable as webapp)
I also agree, I use it to document my home lab. The code type notes and the internal linking make for excelent quick documentation access.
it is so bad imho , very slow
@@orkhepaj mine is running very smooth, i have round about 2000 notes with code, images and drawings, also some added pdf's
@@turanamo trilium is just software and software has no political opinion, people have
From a (very happy) user of Obsidian and self-hosting enthusiast, here's a pro-tip:
You can use SyncThing (or any other file-syncing software) to make your own online backup solution, since, as Nick correctly pointed, The Vaults are just text files in folders! The .obsidian hidden folder holds your Vault's configuration, including all of your installed plugins for this Vault. Also, YES (!), syncing the files works for the Android application, too!
To summarize:
Obsidian + SyncThing =
Couldn't agree more. I love Obsidian so much. Personally I don't mind paying for their own sync service to financially support the project and to make syncing to mobile devices easier, but Syncthing is a great option too.
@@asystole_ I also payed the one-time fee for supporting the application and I would happily pay for their syncing solution too, but I am self-hosting as a hobby and I am becoming progressively paranoid with privacy, so I opted for SyncThing.
I was never really a fan of OneNote, so I started using Joplin, and after getting used to math notation in markdown (which isn't really related to Joplin itself), I've been liking it a lot
Logseq is my favorite now, moved from obsidian to it.
They are also adding Whiteboard for handwritten notes.
Ok I'll be excited if the whiteboard is good. Nothing quite beats xournal++ or Inkscape or mathcha
And it's open source.
I switched from OneNote to Joplin three months ago. Since my workflow of taking notes is pretty simple (mostly text notes and sometimes embedded pictures) and I never was fond of handwriting or drawing in my note app and do not missing it either. Joplin serves me pretty well. My notebooks are are on my self hosted Nexctloud. Because I use an iPhone additionally to several Linux clients it was important for me to have a mobile app too. My very first notes in Joplin needed some experience using markdown language formatting (never needed it in OneNote). But after writing four or five notes using MD formatting I got pretty used to it. I love Joplin. 👍
One thing I hate about joblin is, that they use a custom folder architecture. This makes it borderline impossible to combine it with any other program while with obsidian or zettlr, you keep your folders and can just use them to store files like you did before and can seemlessly switch between them (Aside note kit, as they way of storing drawings makes it dangorus to open the md anywhere else as they might break the annotations.)
yeah , it should be turned into an open and free obsidian
@@orkhepaj big agree. I really prefer the simplicity of obsidian's files
while not open-source, Obsidian does have support for handrwitten notes via the excalidraw plugin. I found out like a month ago that it even supports pressure sensitive writting
also obsidian has a very useful mobile app on ios and android
yeah its decent but, unless I'm missing something, excalidraw has a fixed canvas size which is a dealbreaker
@Radha I don't think that it is limmited in size. You can scroll and zoom in and out. I just tried using the obsidian plugin and I was able to make a massive document.
Thank you so much for showing that Joplin allows you to sync cloud with various services! I migrated from Evernote straight to Obsidian (and installed Joplin just to assist in the export and conversion of my database).
I had the impression that Joplin was not FOSS and now I'm excited. (And I also imagined before Obsidian was FOSS, so I'm thinking of migrating to the Logseq) The Joplin end -to -end encryption feature allows to leave Notes on my OneDrive (it's the cheapest option, the only one I can afford at the moment ...) without worrying much about the issue of privacy.
StandardNotes is an incredibly underrated open-source note-taking app and I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned more often. I've personally been a happy paying user for over a year now and honestly haven't even had to consider anything else. It's both end-to-end encrypted as well as supports multiple device sync (including mobile support) in the free plan, and the paid plans includes more document types like spreadsheets, code, and task lists in addition to some other great features.
Agree
woah i'm gonna have to look into this one thank you!
I use StandardNotes too. I don't need super advanced features. It's easy to use and it has a Web-based app, which makes it very accessible (I keep its browser tab pinned). Easy to use and accessible, that's what I care about the most. Just as a test, I exported my notes and imported them to Joplin. The migration seems to work reasonably well. But I'm not using Joplin since I don't like keeping an app running just in case I need to quickly write down some notes; that's why I much prefer something with a Web-based app.
It's being merged now and taken over by proton so that'll be interesting to see what they do
@@Dee-Ell It usually doesn't take any longer to load an app than to load a web page. Not to mention that browsers are enormous memory and CPU hogs. A native app is usually much less of a problem. On both my mobile devices and my computers, it is one or two clicks away to get to Joplin. Even if left running, mobile doesn't leave the app in memory for long.
I've been using Rnote for about half a year, it's crazy how much improvement it's seen just over this time period. As far as stylus note taking, I actually prefer it to OneNote, the interface is faster, switching colors and tools is easier, and exporting actually works properly. Not to mention that you can enable page outlines and import from and export to a wide variety of formats.
I've always preferred not to mix typed and handwritten notes, so having a stylus note-taking app was really all I wanted to replicate from OneNote. The Rnote + Markdown combination is better enough for me than OneNote that it's now another thing that has me "stuck" in the Linux ecosystem. If anyone else uses a 2 in 1 laptop for note taking I highly recommend checking it out.
Kinda sad it wasn't the main apps featured in the video, even if it lacks many of the features the other apps have, it is built for a specific purpose and is easily the best option when it comes to that purpose.
Second this. It works great, improves quite fast and the interface looks like something out of this decade. Can't recommend it enough
By rnote and markdown combo do you mean with a seperate app? I have a 2 in 1 laptop and writing handwritten notes on onenote is legitemately the only thing holding me back from taking the plunge. Also does it have pdf imports/infinite canvas? Thank you!
@@Moonnikill These are two separate apps, yes.
Rnote has PDF imports and exports, in fact they're better than OneNote. When I was using OneNote, it didn't have guide lines for what sections would be exported as a page, but Rnote let's you (optionally) see guidelines while still having infinite scroll.
I prefer Obsidian over Joplin. It's UI on the mobile part is much more convenient. Also it's implementation of Plugins is superior. You have Excallidraw as a plugin which allows for seamless handwritten notes. Perfectly integrated. Also you have all the plugins on the mobile version aswell! Aaaaand they are saved inside the "Vault" (the directory that contains all your Obsidian Notes), that means if you sync that vault to your mobile devices and add a new plugin on ANY of the devices, each and every other device automatically gets the plugin.
Regarding sync, the solution mentioned here in the video is the official one. But it's pricy af and tbh, i don't want my stuff on anyones server. So you can just take that "Vault" and sync it however you like! It's literally just a folder containting .md files and the various other files you attached.
On your mobile end you can use whatever App you want to sync that folder with your local storage; Autosync, FolderSync, etc. etc.
It's amazing and imo the best choice here IF YOU ARE WILLING to put in some little work to get the sync happening (most of the work is on the mobile side)
Is there any way to get the pro feat without paying
Like u mentioned I just can’t pay 8bucks a month for a fucking notes app
@@xfilesxfilesxfilesThe notes are all stored in one folder as Markdown files, so you can use any file-syncing app and point it to your vault. Alternatively, there's a community plugin that you can use to sync your vault to a remote Git repository
The owners of a Synology NAS also have option to run DS Note server on them and access world wide through Synology DS Note client applications for Linux, Windows and Android.
Joplin really is a fantastic application. I use Windows, Mac, and Linux on a regular basis and use an iPhone so shared notes between all of those platforms have been a pain for a while. I switched to Joplin from Simplenote a couple years back and haven’t looked back.
Quick correction about NoteKit : It is in the official Fedora repos. The COPR is discontinued and is only there to continue support for legacy users of the COPR using cLaTeXMath. Unfortunately, cLaTeXMath support isn't enabled in the fedora package due to legal issues, as we're waiting to transition to cLaTeXMath's successor, microTeX.
I found out about Obsidian some days ago and I love it! I use it a work to keep track of everything and to have a nice Kanban board using a plugin.
it is not free work stuff
I know it’s closed source and Apple-only but I LOVE Bear. It’s fast, it’s beautiful, it’s organised and it just works.
I am in the middle of my transition from OneNote to Obsidian and Windows to Linux. Joplin would be my 2nd choice after Obsidian if I did not want to fiddle with the Obsidian configuration and plugins.
OneNote makes it easy to customize the notebooks like a big canvas, that is the main reason I like it. You can move images in an (almost)infinite space and start writing anywhere while still offering the standard formatting options, making it very versatile for almost any type of note taking.
This is the feature I mainly find missing from lot of the mentioned alternatives. Please let me know if alternatives also offer the same thing.
Yes Prashant you nailed it, that's the reason I'm 'stuck' with OneNote. I tried Evernote way back and as soon as I found that I couldn't move images and text around on the canvas like you can in OneNote, that was bye bye Evernote. If there's an alternative as powerful as OneNote in that respect I'd also love to hear about it.
However, the one thing that continually frustrates me about OneNote is the poor search. It doesn't remember previous searches and it's easy to click on something and lose your search string, so you have to enter it again, aagh! IMHO the whole search interface is just clunky and unfriendly. And it's terrible at finding exact phrases, even if you wrap them in double quotes. I think though Microsoft is just not good at search in it's PC products. The search in Visual Studio is poor as well. It's not like I'm asking for much, if they just made their search as good as that in Notepad++ I'd be happy! :)
*Obsidian* is the only second brain here. Everything compared to Obsidian is like comparing paper planes to actual NASA rockets. And that's mainly due to Obsidian's plugin ecosystem. There are single plugins that outperform entire paid online services. Yes, Obsidian isn't open-source but all of the plugins are open-source. Obsidian is free, works offline and standardises everything in markdown. Obsidian should be in an entirely different category of its own.
If we could have a "live preview" view such as blocknote and a mobile app that doesn't constantly reloads, Obsidian would be perfect
cherrytree doesn't fully replace it but it is good enough for me. I like that it is simple, opensource, lightweight and cross platform.
A calassical two-pane Outliner. I bet it was influenced by TreePad. There is a little known great outliner for Androind, called Halna Outliner, but it's not open-source.
Nick kind of glossed over it, but Rnote is pretty amazing piece of software with tons of features and more features coming soon. People should give it a try. The few thing this is missing is tab View and latex rendering.
It's incredible that you just made this video the day after I just installed one note because I didn't know about any alternatives! Thanks for the video, you uploaded it in the perfect moment for me
I've tried OneNote, Joplin, EverNote, etc.(may take a look at NoteKit), but I always come back to Emacs + org-mode.
You actually can sync obsidian notes for free, using syncthing, nextcloud or whatever else supporting automatic folder upload!
I go with Joplin. Joplin's structure and the way it works _just works_ for everything that I'd need a journal type note-taking app to be. Very useful for work with Inline TODO extension and basic html capabilities (the tags are super useful), and has a simple interface for me to write on, and backup certain stuff I want backup/sync. I keep a lot of my linux config and choco installs there too.
Their mobile app leaves a lot to be desired, but I don't write long stuff on mobile, so I'd rather use a Keep replacement likr Standard Notes or Simplenote (though I've just went with WhatsApp send to self lately). I used to use Dropbox and OneDrive for syncing before, but I liked it enough to get their stuff. It's "just right" for what I want and I appreciate that.
I use obsidian. Not because it's the best, because it in a lot of ways isn't, but because it plays really well into the way I organize myself
I love Joplin as the Opensource alternative
And Zoho as a full-stack package
I would have really liked a comparison of all of these on the metric of how many layers you can have. Multiple people I know rely on numerous OneNote features, but the one they require the most is at least 5 layers of organization: Notebook > Section > Subsection > Page >Subpage
Trilium probably 'nests' the best in terms of having multiple layers of hierarchical organisation as it can go arbitrarily deep. You can also 'focus' any level of note so it appears as the top level of organisation in the navigation panel on the left making it easier to navigate in deeply nested trees
Got myself a Synology NAS for file storage / backup, but one of its most underrated features is the amazing productivity suite packages available for it, including their Note Station. Seriously, Synology’s Drive, Office, Chat, Calendar, and Note Station software are really good and, while not open-source, they can be used completely privately on just your local network or tunnelled through a VPN of your choosing (which you could also set up on the NAS).
Joplin is the best! It allowed to completely replace my EverNote subscription and it just works perfectly!
Pretty surprised you didn't mention Standard Notes. It's open source, e2e encrypted by default, nice desktop/web/mobile apps, pretty popular and... it's awesome! Very complete and usable, very rational. It also has been positively audited over the years.
Last but not least, it has a pretty cool always-free plan with unlimited notes and storage (but limited editors).
I encourage to try it! After Bitwarden, Standard Notes is one of the most important digital tool I use.
Also, a much limited app, but SimpleNote ... FOSS + has an electron client + Sync with phone + browser based, but best thing is it allows notes to be published as webpages.
NICKKKKK MYY BROOO!!!! i was literally searching *alternatives for OneNote* like few hours ago and you just now saw this on my feed LET'S GOOOOOO!!!!
The one I use is Taskade. It's available on almost any Linux and Linux ARM distros and can be run on any browser. They even have a legible mobile app and tons of tutorials on their official YT channel. Sadly, it's not open-source :(
My problem with many of them is electron, I try to avoid applications with electron, I dont feel safe, also linux is always second citizen in electron.
i use Jupyter lab for my research. The advantage is that I can put my codes next to my notes. I connect my ipad to my PC via Zoom to take snap of hand written notes and paste in the jupyter notebooks.
Joplin sounds like it's the notes tool I was looking for.
Thanks for sharing these tools.
I've been using Joplin on 3 devices synced to a free Dropbox account for years. Never had any issues whatsoever.
I'm mainly a Windows user, but I also went on a quest to find a note-taking app.
Cherrytree is a decent freeware alternative. Syntax highlighting, own DB, tree structure, the works.
Ultra Recall is not seeing active development lately, but is somewhat recent. It has a nice interface, has a portable version, and a lot of features. I ended up buying it.
EssentialPIM is another option worthy of consideration. It's more of an Outlook replacement, but also does have a well developed note taking part.
0:12 _"Why MacOS Sucks"_ best giggle of the night yet
I have some experience with Joplin, but one Evernote feature is indispensable for me: Taking a screenshot on iOS and sending it to Evernote, I get a small window (i.e. Evernote doesn’t open in its regular fashion) where I can choose a name for a new note and can assign some tags, the note then gets created in the background. The screenshot itself is still open in iOS so that I can delete it right away.
Standard notes. Syncs across devices while being end to end encrypted. Can 'lock' individual files so if someone gets device access certain files will still be non accessible
I have tried a lot of these and am the most happiest with Joplin.
My selection of programs this semester was Obsidian, Rnote, and VSCode for studying electrical engineering, which needs all 3 types of notes: drawing, math and text. I'll look into FOSS Obsidian alternatives tough, and use whichever markdown editor has the best LaTeX and circuitikz integration. If none of them do, next semester might look like Texmaker-Rnote-Neovide.
I'm surprised Notesnook didn't make the cut. It's open-source (since about the summer), very much an Evernote alternative, with a free option and paid subscription. No idea about handwriting, I never use that. Available for mobile as well as win, mac and linux. Not sure about the packager used.
Since Notion and Obsidian were mentioned, there is also Anytype (suuuuuper alpha stage though). Available for mobile, win, mac and linux (appimage). It's open-source and free of charge (There are some features that may become paid as the program releases). It's got the blocks and felxibility like Notion, but then the graph view like Obsidian.
I normally have all my messy notes in Notesnook, and then organize projects in Anytype. It's been a great workflow, works on all my devices, and is open-source :)
There's one use case - and a pretty big one - that makes it hard to replace OneNote: iPad for college. You go to class, take notes with the pencil, then you go home study for tests on your computer. OneNote keeps your mark-ups synced like many others, but it also searches the handwritten notes, and lets you convert to typed texts if you want. If you have a MacBook there are lots of other options that are even better, like Notability, where you can even record the professor speaking while taking notes, with audio and writing synced for studying later.
It's all about the convenience of getting things done using one app instead of using one for writing, one for typing, one for recording, than manually dealing with so much stuff. OneNote is great in this regard for non-mac users. And the web version works quite well to be fair, it's Microsoft but it's a great product.
I've tried all of these, and am now happy with MarkText with files synced to my mobile device using SyncThing, using Zettler and recently Markor on Android.
Such a seamless cut to your sponsor, I was shocked to see the change of clothes!
I have just been using Typora (markdown editor) with standard markdown files organized with a standard folder structure. There is a folder called "Notes" in my Dropbox with folders underneath it that serve as basically notebooks and folders under those that serve as sections (and subsections) and the .md files containing the actual note content. Typora has an option to reopen the files last open when restarting the app that is super useful and you can keep the entire tree of notes open in the side by just opening the master folder.
FYI, one of the main issues I had moving away from OneNote was that there is not an easy way to export all of your notes and migrate to another app. For me, I had about 100 note files that I had to copy/paste over manually which was a pain but after that, I will NEVER move to another proprietary locked down note solution without proper import AND export functionality.
Another good open source alternative is Logseq.
It is similar to obsidian and it does a lot of stuff.
I've been on Joplin for 7 months, it's pretty great.
Two years ago, when I was studying physics, I used "write by stylus labs"
Its super obscure, but back then, it was the only one that really suited my needs
Its very simple and only takes handwritten notes. Now I never take hand written notes anymore
Can't believe no one talks about Logseq! It's an open source great Roam-style outliner!
An excellent list, will definitely have to try some of these out and see if I can migrate my oneNote docs into them.
Standard Notes, which I use privately is missing. Notion has it's databases, which makes it completely different to OneNote. I use it also plus Google Cursive for handwritten notes.
My wife and I use Simple Note to mark/share between each other. Can be used on mobile and on computers by logging in. As the name states it's quite simple. But nice for quick note sharing.
I use OpenBoard . It is simple to use and it is very good to do lessons. It is available for Windows, macOS and Linux and of course it is open source.
There are another very-very good note taking app called StandardNotes, which keeps all your notes end-to-end encrypted and backend for it. And apps are present for all popular platforms as well.
I really appreciate the variety of info you cover. Thank you!
As a long time user of OneNOTE and a user of a Surface pro, and before that the old tablets of the 2010's... the BEST alternative to one note is *Stylus Labs Write* . I am also a Linux user since way back and used Xournal way back in the day. It's great. But Stylus labs write does ink, text, pictures, and all in a format you can open in almost any web browser. It does all of that while NOT BEING AN ELECTRON APP. IT runs on Windows, Linux, mac, Android. It has not been updated in a good while but it is also basically feature complete. IT does lack really straight forward collaboration and cloud. This is the reason I still use One Note (It seems they have a collaborative white board app in the works). Also I teach and the schools all use it and I am bound by contract to use what they use.
I switched from OneNote to Joplin for my graduate school classes this past semester. I love Joplin! I couldn't be more pleased.
Joplin makes searching notes easy and fast (e.g. to find information while you're writing a paper)
I use the end-to-end encryption feature and sync between devices via Dropbox. (I do not use Dropbox for anything else. pCloud is my go-to for encrypted online storage.)
I love Obsidian. But I also have to mention Dendron. It is a VSCode extension and very powerful.
One important aspect of OneNote is it's math capabilities. Eg you type a square root and it can become editable like on a professional calculator right out of its Unicode symbol. Without handwriting this is one feature I really need. I'll check which of those Apps support it
I have run "Tomboy" for what may be close to 20 years... There was a period where it kinda faded for a while, especially in Ubuntu derivatives since it was a .NET app... but since I have getting on for 600 notebooks, I didn't relish trying to transfer that data, and just as I was about to throw in the towel, the project was picked up, and we now have "Tomboy NG"... which I'm hoping allows me to continue with this app for another 20 years.
Tomboy is great!
Why didn't you show Simplenote, I've been using it for a very long time and find it quite handy. It is open source, has sync, works on android, linux and windows (Yes, there is electron, but still.). Of course, I understand that it may lack functionality, but this is its feature.
I just standard notes now - end to end encryption by default and it’s open source and it’s has auto sync too. Also it’s cross platform on Linux , Mac , windows and iOS .
I use Obsidian although its not open source I think. the main reason is that it has many plugins/extensions, I generally make todo list for my daily work .I have separate note for every project. then I also use it to make notes for example I have whole Redux toolkit notes, ReactJS notes. I use Megasync and I created my Vault in megasync folder so I can have a syncing feature without paying extra.
Xournal++ is not nearly as fancy as the aforementioned note-taking programs, but its TeX support is super handy for maths notes.
This has been my choice primarily for its simple pen and annotation support, used it on windows and kept it after switching to Linux full time.
I never managed to make it function properly on Windows, weirdly. The pen always registered as a left-click first by default, and only switched to "pen mode" after a fraction of a second, which would always create some hideous "straight lines" followed by the curves I actually wanted to draw. It is still useful for sketching with big strokes, but awful for writing (which is what I used it for).
Just to be clear, this was entirely a Windows problem, as it happened to every piece of software that had not come pre-installed with Windows, or wasn't installed through the Windows Store. Not just Xournal++.
Very strange, I wonder if it was a driver issue. I only had issues occasionally with the auto eraser switching but that felt like windows messing with stuff.
Thanks for this info. Since moving from Windows to Ubuntu, the OneNote web experience is bad enough to force me to move to an alternative. I think Obsidian with Syncthing might be my best option. I need Windows, Linux and Android apps so I think this should be possible. And there are ways to export my OneNote into an Obsidian vault too.
Something I'm investigating is to replicate the function of detecting that a file has been opened and changed, then using rsync to sync the files to more than one online storage sync folder.
This way you get the "cloud storage" effect but you can have more than one online storage backup.
Maybe I'll try and find this comment if I get the solution
Hey Nick just a PSA, Obsidian is not open source.
I know, it's a shocker and it's really a common mistake because the whole platform feels so open. But no source, sadly. Maybe you could pin a comment with that correction? It's important for some people.
Yeah I assumed it was and didn’t double check! My bad!
Obsidian is not open source. A great alternative I've been using is Logseq. Has basically same functionality:)
Yea, I was surprised to see very few comments mentioned it.
I am using Joplin for over an year, I can say it is one of the best alternative of onenote and evernote.
Also what I found with note taking apps is that you don't need so much fancy stuff, just JOT it down with linking capabilities.
For me the only Linux-native note taking apps worth considering for serious users are Obsidian, Logseq and perhaps Zettlr. All of the other apps you mentioned simply don't have the features that are expected now; the note taking space has changed tremendously in the past few years. I think this is why you got so many messages from people baffled that you didn't include Obsidian in the past; it's hard to understand why someone would promote apps with less functionality and bad UX over it. If the reason is that Obsidian isn't fully open source, then you can recommend Logseq, which is almost as good and improving rapidly. Both Obsidian and Logseq also have excellent mobile apps.
I use obsidian and synchronize notes using syncthing. By the way, obsidian has its own application for android and iOS.
3:45 obsidian has an Android app as well. If you don't want to pay for sync, you can find it manually, with Nextcloud for example.
Joplin seems to be a good alternative.
Thank you for covering this subject.
I use Notion. I discovered it on Windows but its also available on Linux as well as Mobile.
Joplin was my long time favourite personally
I am using Simplenote lately. It's simple enough and has easy sync between the linux app and android.
My friend who was using OneNote used it for handwriting math formulas sometimes, and OneNote converted those handwritings to formulas. I didn't see something like that anywhere else so I was wondering if it exists somewhere else. Anyway when I need to write things I most often use LibreOffice as it has the features I need mostly. Good video anyway, I may want to take a look at obsidian and see how good it is for myself
Ive suggested that as a feature for rNote, im hoping its gonna get added in the future
Obsidian actually have a mobile app for IOS and Android. And for handwriting you can use the Excalidraw plugin with obsidian, it works with a smart pen too.
This has always been my white whale for migrating to Linux; I've been so hopelessly dependent on OneNote for my non-gaming laptop needs that it was always a nightmare to use Linux and search fruitlessly for something that does everything that I use OneNote for. I use it on multiple devices (I run my own NextCloud, so I don't mind having something else sync it for me) including both Desktop (Win/Lin) and Mobile (Android) platforms. I use both pen input and typing, I integrate a lot of web content (I'm using it primarily for roleplaying purposes and need lots of references), my note taking style can be gently described as pure anarchy (with lots of "unusual" positioning of notes on a page), and even more complex pages such as entire character sheets. I also share some of these pages with other people (read-only).
Heck, even in these examples you can see the same problems - nothing that does it all. At the moment, I'm using both Joplin and Xournal++, but I'm pretty unhappy with what I have.
Markdown-based note taking software tends to rigidly define where notes need to be on a page, similar to what a word processor does, rather than moving itself out of your way to take notes the way you want. In Joplin, I need to create a defined table in order to have content on two sides of a page; in OneNote I can just click wherever the heck I want to put a note there.
I can do the character sheet thing in Xournal++ by putting a PDF in the background of a note page and I gain the "click wherever I want", but that's not integrated into the same application I'm using for typing up notes, so things get muddled and lost. Searching is a nightmare because I don't know whether the note I'm looking for was taken in Joplin or Xournal++ (and if it was in the latter, I'll never find it).
The import feature of Joplin for web clippings works, to an extent, but requires an awful lot of setup for no good (to the end user; I understand what it is doing and why) reason and still has some issues.
None of this setup lets me easily share pages with other people, but that's more because it requires them to install a pair of applications to open any of it rather than having an almost-passable web viewer like OneNote.
Even though I've mostly migrated at this point, every time I try to take notes in Joplin I just ask myself why I'm putting myself through this pain when OneNote just worked for me. It is kind of like I need an unholy hybrid of NextCloud Notes, Joplin, Xournal++, and something to make Joplin give up on Markdown. :)
Of course, I can't migrate to Linux anyway due to my new 2-in-1 (MS Surface Book 3) not supporting stylus input (or cameras for that matter) in Linux. Seriously, the prior models did, I didn't even think to check that on this one. If only there was a Linux-native 2-in-1 laptop with good stylus input.
I feel ya. OneNote and OneDrive are the main reasons I haven't nuked Windows and switched entirely to Linux.
I wouldn't mind using the OneDrive web client and, although is a hassle, move the files manually to the cloud. Nevertheless, there is a solid option to integrate it using RClone, which at the moment I'm still researching.
But like you said, finding a suitable way to use OneNote in Linux is just a pain in the ass. So far, the best option would rely on using a Virtual Machine, but again, it's still a hassle.
By the way, have you looked into the Github Linux Surface project? They say that they have stylus support for your model. No camera support yet, though.
@@DaniAlva25 I actually ended up selling that tablet; the project must have completed support for the pen after I sold it off. Which is good, but also sad.
I use plain markdown files (or sometimes just plain text), syncronised across my devices with syncthing, and of course vim as an editor. I've added a few functionnalities to vim in order to mange a calendar-like file.
😮you forgot Emacs org-mode it supports all linking tagging other notes and excel , time tracking Etc. Only thing it doesn't have is a auto sync and handwriting but might have a org package i don't know about lol u can do auto syncing with a simple cron job.
Trillium.
You forgot Trillium.
I was a Joplin user but when I discovered Trillium I was amazed by its ease of use and good interface, so I switched.
Try it!
I' ve used Trillium as a backup note-taking to my Joplin. I use only local Trillium notes to note linux commands and keyboard shortcuts and it is pretty competent.
and yeah I know, write it with double 'l' all the time for some reason.
Thanks bro. Yeah I love OneNote. I use it every day almost for all day, lol. But for Linux Joplin it is I guess. Even if I don't like that you can't turn off sync (it's useful sometimes, gives you more control if something with sync goes wrong). OneNote (suprisingly) can.
I have been using Joplin for several years, and I think it's a very good alternative to take notes.
A FOSS notebook you missed: TiddlyWiki
I've been using it ever since I first discovered it in about 2006.
TW Classic is essentially HTML files that include CSS and Javascript that effectively turns them into self contained notebooks that you can read in anything from a browser to notepad.
TW5 is a rewrite that takes advantage of the HTML5 standard.
You can do basically anything from scientific notation to playing MIDI with TiddlyWiki.
You can keep you TW local or share to any online location and choose who can read or modify the files.
You can even use it as a website.
I used to use and love TiddlyWiki. I should check out TW5! I've been using Obsidian, but considering a switch to SilverBullet. I'll give TW5 some consideration before deciding though :)
I want something like Obsidian or Notion except with added security: I want to share sections of it - with both password locking and AFK passwords (after a set time of being Away from Keyboard) on both my PC and phone.
Hmm. I'm really wondering why... you didn't include Zim Desktop Notes.
this is exactly where I am! OneNote is *the* Microsoft app that I'm hooked on so this is a very timely video.
What about Standard Notes? It is open source, has end to end encryption, and offers a Linux client.
I have access to Evernote beta. It runs well. I tried various note taking apps and I couldn't find one that have all the features that I need and Evernote is the closest that suit my need
I have been a Joplin user for a about a year now and really like it but its has a couple of drawbacks. For me the biggest drawback is that it is an electron app. I don't know if it is still true but electron has had a bug that caused the app to crash when printing. The can be worked around by using an external editor. I like ReText for that.
Lately I have been experimenting with SimpleNote (FOSS). I like it but it won't do everything that Joplin does. It syncs really well but it doesn't have plugins. I find Slash commands to be really useful. Still searching for the perfect knowledge base app.
Thanks for the videos.
I recently discovered UpNote after trying several options, and works really great; very comprehensive (non-FOSS though). I would ckeck for web-clipping skills, as are perhaps one of the main strengths of Evernote or OneNote.