I have been a OneNote user for a while and as I slide back into the Linux world again (just gotta get a new hard drive for my laptop ) I hope to change or replace this with something that will work on both my Linux and my Windows systems.
Iām going to give Joplin a shot, and Obsidian is alright but I would prefer open source if possible.
Found a link through Redit for Simple, Non-Commercial, Open Source Notes which goes over a lot of them and is giving me a few to consider or to look at, like neoVim, Emacs, Zim and QOwnNotes.
Anybody have any experience with these? What do you use and how to you use them in your flow?
I think the one feature from OneNote I like is how easy it is for setting up tables. I start typing soem text and when I hit TAB it makes it into a table with the previous text going into the first column and every time I hit TAB it makes a new column until I hit enter at the end of the line. Then it starts a new row.
Iām a huge fan of Zim, which Iāve been using for about 10 years or so. I have several notebooks which I use for different purposes, such as Linux etc, general notes, recipes and my Toastmasters stuff.
Zim has a Windows version. It can be opened in Android using Markor, which is also an open source app.
Not a solution for everyone, but after trying many of the mentioned notes apps I realized that with a text editor that has good search by folder/project and ā importantly ā autosave for files and āhot exitā, I have already have everything that I use a notes app for, plus the universal format of plain text files in a folder. And I get all the editor niceties that a notes app may or not have, like a delete line command, block selection and multiple cursors. Iāve settled on Sublime Text.
I almost mentioned it, but didnāt want to make a long post. Personally I prefer to use open-source software, but at the same time ST is very open in how itās well-documented and very extensible with Python. Iād rather support this small software company (and community) than an open-source but giant-corporatation-managed option like VSCode/ium that I was using previously. I used Geany for a while and itās not bad but has stagnated. [Edit: Iād probably use KATE if I didnāt use GNOME, but it feels too out of place to me.] The GNOME editors are too basic and Builder is too focused on building software, whereas Sublime Text calls itself an āeditor for code, markup and proseā. But use whatever editor(s) you want ā thatās exactly the advantage of plain text!
[Edit: Not sure if your printing example is up to date. Iāve never tried to print in ST, but I just tried on a test computer that has ST4 installed on but not signed into my license. It let me print the same as another I did add my license to. (Printing opens a generated HTML file with the browser print dialog open.)
I think thereās something to be said for software that uses plain text files. E.g. zim has its files in a folder structure that matches what shows in the app, and if all else fails (or for other reasons), you can edit the files in geany, gedit, kate, mousepad, vim, emacs or whatever you have on hand.
Standard Notes is OK - but very much a āsoftware as a serviceā sort of deal (but they do have an article on hosting it yourself).
Honestly if you are keen on self hosting I would recommend just syncing the files of something like MarkNote or vim/ neovim/ etc. via Nextcloud. Or Syncthing if you want easy setup.
On Android SimpleMobileTools - Simple Text Editor is great and the files can be synced with another client to a server.
) I hope to change or replace this with something that will work on both my Linux and my Windows systems.
Iāve never tried to print in ST, but I just tried on a test computer that has ST4 installed on but not signed into my license. It let me print the same as another I did add my license to. (Printing opens a generated HTML file with the browser print dialog open.)