I’ve no problem with using LibreOffice for most of my document needs, but i haven’t found a good substitute for microsoft’s OneNote yet. I mainly use it to plan my RPG games and it helps a lot. What alternatives are there for organizing notes on linux, with similar features to those that OneNote provides?
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I am surprised that no one has mentioned Rnote yet.
It is my favourite newly-created program for Linux. It is a relatively new app which supports annotating files and taking handwritten notes. You can import PDFs, set the page size to infinite or a fixed size (something OneNote can’t do), adjust the background to display grids or lines or dots or nothing with any spacing you like, input text with your keyboard, … It is available on Flathub for easy installation.
The only major downside is the following: Disclaimer: The file format is still unstable. It might change and break compatibility between versions.
For text-based notes I use Obsidian.
It isn’t open source, but it writes standard markdown files to disk, so I can switch programs whenever I like and I am not locked into the Obsidian ecosystem with my notes. That was the main reason why I decided against using Joplin, especially after my experience with converting recipes from Nextcloud Cookbook to markdown …
In general I am always trying to find a simple file-based solution for whatever I need to do. I want to be able to sync it with Syncthing instead of something fancier that requires a centralised web server or even relies on a cloud service.
Did you know that you can even sync your note using git and thus a git remote server for syncing? It even works with iOS 😃
Synching works but if you have a server, Obsidian live sync is fantastic and seamless.
Actually that’s one of the main reasons I use Syncthing: It doesn’t need a server, as it is a peer-to-peer architecture. Unlike a centralised solution (cloud storage, Nextcloud, etc.) devices sync directly with each other. If they are on the same local network, you get to enjoy the full bandwidth of your local network. If they need to sync over a long distance over the internet, you are limited by the upload and download speeds of your internet provider, just like with centralised storage.
I have a server that serves as an introducer, so I don’t have to connect each device with every other device manually. But the server doesn’t need to be available once all devices are connected with each other.
Syncing continues to work without it for as long as I don’t reinstall any of the other devices. And even if I’d reinstall a device, I could delegate any other device to be the introducer or connect the devices manually with each other. It really is quite robust and fail-safe.
Amkng all note taking apps, FOSS or not, online and offline, Obsidian still holds the top spot unmatched. I don’t even dislike to admit it anymore. It’s just that good and really has almost everything.
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For me the issue is “importing and exporting”. I just don’t want to have a note-taking software anymore where I can’t just read or edit plain text files with any text editor I happen to have.
I know I can export my notes from Joplin into markdown, but when I last tried it, I wasn’t satisfied with the result. I don’t remember it anymore, but exporting either didn’t preserve the file hierarchy, caused issues with linked images or I had to do something else with the markdown files.
I also didn’t like that Joplin had to sync with a local folder instead of just using the files directly. Overall it was just too complex for what I need (i. e. a glorified text editor).
But I don’t want to discourage anyone from using Joplin. Different people simply have different needs and Joplin is free to use so one should try it out and see for themselves. ;)
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oh my god, this looks like the note app i’ve wanted for so long on linux!!
it’s still missing some text formatting features imo, but maybe i could hack those in a submit a patch… definitely keeping on my radar! thank you!
Haha, that’s what I was thinking as well when I first discovered it. Glad you found it through my post!
I took my handwritten notes with PDF Annotator in a Windows VM for over three years …
I was asking a similar question a few months ago, and my search turned up Joplin. It’s a free, open source app that works across multiple platforms and can sync data through a cloud service, either through Joplin’s own cloud storage or through a third-party cloud storage like Dropbox.
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Thanks! I’ll check it out.
I use and enjoy Joplin. It’s much less feature-rich than OneNote, but if you’re predominantly using it to make text-based notes it does that with aplomb. I enjoy the cloud syncing, which is very useful combined with the fact that there’s an Android app (so I can access my notes on the go).
You might want to explain the features of OneNote, particularly the exact ones that you want. I get the impression that most people don’t know its organization structure.
My short input: it’s not just note taking. It’s has a tiered level of organization for the notes to categorize and quickly move about. The example I read was like it’s set up like you have multiple binders, with dividers in each, and pages (notes) within those. The page is very open ended, you can add text boxes in any spot, mixed with pics in any spot.
Your input is very accurate. Being able to write notes freely anywhere on the page, draw on it, attach images, links, etc is a big part of it, but one of the most important things to me is organizing different pages into dividers/binders like you said.
I set up various sections for quests, locations, npcs, etc, for my rpg worlds, and need it to be well organized and be able to link to different sections within the same binder. I also like to color code everything.
You should check out Affine.pro then. It’s FOSS and you can draw anywhere, it’s one of their selling points.
Thank you.
We are encouraged to use the Microsoft office suite if tools at work, and I still haven’t figured out how to use OneNote to improve my life.
I use onenote at work for all my notes. tabs and individual pages let me organize things so nothing is too long to scroll and find what I need. I can put text, screenshot, and hyperlink (to another part of one note or outside link), and a link to a pdf or excel file. I can add check boxes to whichever line items.
once I’ve got a nice set of notes, I can share either the entire notebook, the section, or just that page with the next person. or if they’re a bit of a luddite, I can print it out and maintain format (mostly). the most recent version broke emailing a page, but if you’re still running an older version of one note, it embeds it, with formatting, without being a pdf.
got something you need to paste in all the time? I’ve got one page where each text box is one copy/paste comment. clicking the header automatically selects all the text in just that box.
like OP, I tend to use one note at home for D&D, but if I can find something just as good I’m happy to try it. work leaves me with MS Office.
I looked at Joplin and Obsidian for the kind of notetaking I do and settled on Obsidian. To be honest, both have more features than I use. I like Obsidian because it’s based on Markdown, so you’re not tied to some oddball file format. But you should try them out and see which one fits your work style.
Joplin also uses markdown, and it has the advantage of being open source.
…in a database file. That and the awful android app had me look elsewhere. Too bad really, FOSS and self host options with it are great.
What’s wrong with the android app? I haven’t had any issues with it
I use checklists/task lists a lot. The way the app handles those are completely backwards. Checkbox is auto put in the title of the list but when you tap in the body of the list, it doesn’t. And the rendered view of your Todo list is very small with no way to change the font size. You can change the editor font size, but not on the rendered output.
I also don’t like to be required to put a title in at the start of any document. Other apps either name it ‘untitled’ or date/time it was created. This causes friction and if I can’t get my thought down quick, I may lose it.
That plus the whole markdown in a db file killed it for me.
Are you sure you are talking about Obsidian here? I can change the font size for both the editor and reader views, the default note name is ‘Untitled’ and markdown files are stored in plaintext.
I assumed you were asking what was wrong with the Joplin app, since that is what I was referring to in my post about awful android app. I use and love Obsidian on Linux, MacOS, and Android (tablet and phone). The only thing I don’t like about it along the lines of my original reply to you is that task lists and to-dos aren’t very easy or intuitive from Android. It’s doable, but kinda clunky. So for that type of scenario I’m using Quillpad.
But no, Obsidian app on Android is great. Joplin…nope. :)
Oh sorry, I misread that. Thanks for the clarification!
And can sync to webDAV
I recently settled on Obsidian too. It’s proprietary software, but the text files themselves are in simple markdown and readable in a text editor. Additionally, you can sync across multiple devices using their paid service (which works flawlessly for everything) or set up sync yourself for free if you know how to host a couchdb instance yourself (works perfectly for everything except iOS, apparently).
The plugin support was baked in from the start so it’s extremely flexible.
I wasn’t worried about it being proprietary until I saw the founder reasoning for not having the source be open under a nonpermissive licence.
https://obsidian.rocks/why-isnt-obsidian-open-source/
I decided to go with logseq because of it.
It also syncs with all my devices using my own servers, instead of needing to trust obsidian/logseq.
That’s fair, the privacy concerns are not ultimately addressable with a closed-source application. I can encrypt communication and the db itself since I am self-hosting it, but ultimately I’m using the obsidian app on desktop and mobile so I don’t know where the data is going unless I specifically manage it’s network usage etc which is a ton of extra work.
I haven’t actually started taking notes with obsidian yet, I just got it setup. But the plugin support is…massive. IDK.
You can also use SyncThing, works great.
Yes I probably should have implemented that, but the Obsidian plugin implementation (“Self-hosted Live sync”) appears to work almost shockingly well. I was amazed by how easy it was to setup . Setting up a couchdb instance took more time than getting sync going across all my devices, and couchdb wasn’t that hard either.
I think that’s the part I had a hard time w. The db setup. I’m only good at postgres and sqllite.
Obsidian is my go to for D&D.
They still sprinkle a bit of their own stuff into the markdown but it’s generally usable outside.
Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll see which one works best for me.
I’m not sure what features of OneNote you are talking about, but maybe logseq will suit your needs.
I switched from OneNote to Logseq. Its feature set is pretty much completely different, but in the end I realized it’s fine with me and resulted in my notes being more useful.
The main downside that I see now is that it’s kind of slow - much faster than the Electron version of OneNote was last time I used it, but slower than old native OneNote app or Obsidian. Otherwise its main differences from Obsidian are that in Obsidian the basic building unit is a page, whereas in Logseq it’s a paragraph (and, usually, its sub-paragraphs - it’s an outliner), which Obsidian can only do with plug-ins and not as seamlessly, and that with Obsidian you pretty much need to use community plug-ins, whereas with Logseq a lot of the functionality is built-in.
It’s open-source and uses markdown, not completely standard, but close enough for the files to be entirely usable if Logseq ever dies. Its community is smaller than with Obsidian, which is a downside, but it’s not exactly obscure either.
Really probably the most important thing about Obsidian and Logseq is to read an article or watch a video about how automatic backlinking works. It’s especially useful for something like Zettelkasten, but it also works for more “normal” approaches as well as concepts like Getting Things Done.
Both are OK tools and are similar in many ways, but they’re quite different from OneNote. Downside of both is that synchronization between devices sometimes creates issues unless you use their paid service.
I use logseq and notesnook.
I absolutely second logseq. Would you mind elaborating why/how you use notesnook in addition?
Thanks in advance!
I’ve used both, honestly can’t justify the price of notesnook after using logseq. I’m in the process of switching over entirely to logseq.
I will say though that notesnook is a great alternative to Evernote and OneNote that is private and secure. I just don’t use its features enough to justify using it over logseq and syncthing.
Notesnook required me to re-login every week or so. I paid for it in the beginning but after that kept happening over and over (it was fixed for a while and then regressed) I just gave up. If I need to quickly write something down I don’t want to context-switch into my password manager first. Especially since auto-complete wouldn’t help me, since for whatever fucked up reason Notesnook first asks for the TOTP token and THEN for the password.
I absolutely second logseq. Would you mind elaborating why/how you use notesnook in addition?
Thanks in advance!
Probably logseq or Obsidian, but… if you like plain text and really need customization you might go with what I use: emacs + org-roam
Guides
text: https://jethrokuan.github.io/org-roam-guide/
video:
Start Using Org-roam Today | Install, Configure, and Use https://piped.video/watch?v=AyhPmypHDEw
Setup Trilium and use the Firefox extension to save screenshots or the whole page to it automatically which I love.
+1 for Saber. Just found out about it from this comment and it’s exactly what I was looking for
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I’m feeling old. I have a folder called Notes with a directory hierarchy with text files in them. If I want to edit something, I navigate to the appropriate directory and type “vim -S”. If I want to get to them remotely (which I haven’t really needed) I would SSH in to my system with whatever terminal emulator I had available.
You might look at these relative newcomers to this category of app…with some caveats for why I haven’t switched from Obsidian.
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Acreom - Not open source yet, but planned. Flat markdown files like Obsidian and Logseq. Dealbreaker for me is that in order to use the app on Android, you have to sign in with Google, Apple, or Github and use their cloud for sync. I’m trying to convince the dev to allow their “local first” mantra to permeate all versions of the app regardless of platform. He is very receptive, so we’ll see. If they do, I can see myself switching to Acreom instead of continuing with Obsidian. But that’s the beauty of open file format, you can pack up and leave very easily!
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Notesnook - Is FOSS. But not self-hostable yet. That is on their roadmap. Potential dealbreaker is that it doesn’t support markdown, rather shortcuts that behave similar to markdown syntax. As a result of that and their E2EE, the file format is not as open as Obsidian and others that use simple .md files.
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Some which I can think out of my head are : Joplin Trillium Logseq Notion Obsidian Anytype
If you need to draw, I would look into notion and obsidian.
There’s a program called cherrytree that I think is very underrated. It’s probably not a 1:1 replacement for OneNote but I recommend checking it out in case it fulfills a similar but different need.
I ended up going with obsidian. I wanted absolute portability I needed multiplatform support. I hadn’t heard of Joplin at the time I made my choice, but I can say I’m happy with Obsidian and I like how their documentation is dog-fooded and useful in that form.
