Hi. Basically, I’m asking for suggestions. Do you know any good note taking app that works on linux desktop? I’m looking for something that I can use instead of Notion or Obsidian, with some nice to have:
- Open source (that’s the reason I’m not that much into Obsidian, it could disappear tomorrow and I could not replace it with a community maintained fork)
- Markdown based. I’d like to know that I can replace that app for another one when I want, and that’s not possible when they use their own obscure format
- Local. I’m not interested in paying monthly for cloud storage. And actually, I’d prefer to know for certain that nothing leaves my local machine
- Nice UX. I know that using plain text files and vim might do the job, but I’d like something more user friendly and with nice features (Notion, for example, nails it in my opinion)
- Bonus: Can also be used on android (I’m aware this is a though one, and is not a deal breaker)
I know that all those requirements are hard to fulfill and I don’t even know if something like that exists, so I’d appreciate any kind of suggestion. For example, It’d be great if an open source like that exists, but I’m not completely closed to open-source-ish proprietary apps (e.g. licenses not really open but close enough), as long as they are free to use and work on linux.
Edit: Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. The most suggested alternative was Joplin so I’ll give it a try. However, as most of you mentioned, at the core it’s all markdown so I could easily try the other alternatives with the same knowledge base at a later point :)
Shameless plug, but if you want something offline, with rich text, tagging, trees, quick search, small, and encrypted…
You can use treedome! https://codeberg.org/solver-orgz/treedome/releases/tag/0.5.4
I want to congratulate everyone. I may have missed it, but I didn’t see a single person say Org Mode. Personally, I would suggest
Org ModeJoplincan’t believe nobody mentioned silver bullet yet
Joplin - switched two weeks ago and I’m super happy. Open source, many extensions, sync via WebDAV, app for all systems,… Perfect system for me :).
How’s the data portability? Like, if you decide to move everything away from it, for whatever reason, would your notes be easily migrated to another platform?
When I ditched Evernote, the nightmare to get my notes into a different platform really left a sour taste in my mouth.
Now I prefer plain txt files for anything I plan to keep, and something like Synology Notes for things I need organized, but wouldn’t care if they were trapped in the Synology Notes platform.
It’s also just markdown text files, saved locally (but syncronizable to cloud/webdav etc…). So in short, yeah you can move things back and forth between joplin and obsidian, or one of many many markdown editors.
Pretty big caveat to that though. Joplin names the individual text files some huge hexadecimal value, unlike Obsidian (and maybe Loseq). And it appends some meta data in the file itself.
I personally felt this was unacceptable for my use case. And if Logseq’s android app wasn’t so bad, is be using it instead of Obsidian.
Is that just the desktop version? I cannot see any such option on the mobile version.
I get what you say about Obsidian just falling off of the face of the earth, but it is just that, markdown, so you can migrate it to any MD based notes app, like Joplin.
Now, I don’t think those meet the nice UX requirement.
Was going to say the same. Obsidian has very little proprietary stuff in it, other than maybe some plugins users may elect to use. Other than that, it’s just folders full of markdown files.
Even if it does “disappear”, you’d still be able to use it if you have it on your computer. And probably archive.org will have the binary saved.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Logseq yet.
Logseq has a horrendous UX. The concept is amazing but check back in a decade to see if its usable.
Get a nvim distribution like lazy or lunar or nvchad, etc and install obsidian.nvim.
Note to OP: you don’t want to use obsidian, but obsidian.nvim is not related and not dependent on the software with the same name. Obsidian.nvim offers a Zettelkasten approach too.
https://github.com/epwalsh/obsidian.nvim https://youtu.be/5ht8NYkU9wQ
QOwnNotes https://www.qownnotes.org/
Shameless plug, but I had almost the same requirements so I went and made the app myself https://github.com/RoBoT095/printnotes
Desktop needs more work but you can for now use the appimage. Once it’s in a better state I’ll make flatpaks and maybe other types like rpm and deb packages
I forgot to mention your app, I use it on my phone. Pretty fast app.
I was planning to add an issue - when the numbered list reaches 3 digits, it overflows to the next line. This was the reason I went back to Joplin. But I have high hopes for your app :)
Thanks for letting me know.
Also, I am just surprised people know about it, even if I mention it I honestly didn’t think anyone would try it. I want to make it much better but I lack the knowledge to make it as perfectly as I envision it, so they only thing I can do it learn and improve as I go.
Your app is really good, I use the android version. It has most features one expects. It loads really quickly compared to Joplin (ik Joplin has a lot of other features, plus I have a few plugins installed as well). I also really like the customization option - ability to create custom themes is awesome, I like creating custom themes if the apps provide the option.
And the numbered list issue is present in almost all apps I tried, one dev told me its due to the editor they use. The only reason I stick with Joplin & markor is because they’re the only markdown based apps I found where numbered lists work.
Thanks for making print notes!! And most importantly, don’t burn yourself out, take rest. I’m not a developer, I’ll assist with testing though
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Beaver Notes. The android version is in early dev called Beaver pocket. Do note, it does not have folder/notebook feature afaik
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SiYuan. You can notes as Markdown files but their sync requires payment (I don’t know much about Siyuan’s pricing). I don’t use this as it has “AI”, it can be disabled but I didn’t need it in the first place.
Joplin and Beaver Notes (soon) support syncing with syncthing and other similar options (Joplin also has it’s own paid cloud sync afaik)
The rest are available on Linux, but if you export the notes, you can use Markor on Android
I second Joplin. I use it on Android and sync it locally (and only locally) with my Mac. It uses Markdown.
Joplin & sync to my self-hosted Nextcloud (with many other sync options)
Seconding Markor for Android. I originally installed it because I was sick of all the note-taking apps that store your notes away in hidden directories and proprietary formats. I’ve been using it for years and it’s not let me down yet.
Xed editor comes close in terms of handling files-as-files, but I found it more cumbersome and buggy than Markor.
I recommend Notesnook. It is open source, cross platform, and cloud synchronized E2E encrypted. I know cloud based wasn’t something you wanted especially, but I thought it was worth mentioning because it is encrypted.
Yeah, technically you can self-host it but on boy its configuration is convoluted. I decided that trying it out on their cloud would be better for my mental health.
