Obsidian with syncthing works offline.
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Obsidian with synchronization to my Nextcloud instance
I use Logseq in my PC and my phone and I unse Syncthing to sync the notes accross my devices.
Emacs. Org. Mode.
Use Orgzly Revived for mobile sharing.
I use text files and grep
Yeah, haha. 😂
Wait a moment... 🤔
Logseq!
- Mobile: Nextcloud Notes
- Desktop: Qownnotes or vim
- Server: Nextcloud (+Qownnotes addon)
Much better solution than Joplin, no database or cryptic file names, just plain markdown files on every device you can imagine. Simple and future proof.
Joplin on a docker macvlan thru NGNIX proximanager via some proxied website name from cloud flare. My phone goes to the mynotes.website.com name, it gets proxied to my IP, the traffic hits my NGNIX server, then it tosses it to Joplin. Lol it works.
Apparently I'm in the minority, but I love Logseq. I've used it with Syncthing for personal notes and grad school for the past three years with no hiccups. Maybe my success with it is partially due to nested bullet points already being how my brain works but the default paradigm is perfect for me.
The plain markdown files are organized reasonably, so I can straight up use Vim as my notes editor if I want.
Tags (#) create a new page to easily circle back to topics later without interrupting your thought pattern to make that structure manually. Once you leave edit mode for the line the tag becomes a link to that page. Some of my favorites are #clothes-that-fit (where I can easily embed a picture of the tag of what I'm trying on to look for deals online later), or #reading-list.
It's just so useful.
Joplin synched with syncthing (or Synchthing.fork on android).
I do the same, but I've run into a bottleneck where Joplin syncs encrypted notes really, really slowly to local storage. So looking to switch to hosted Joplin server
I really want a FOSS solution for my notetaking, but I feel like I want too much. I love how well OneNote works with my Surface in terms of drawing notes, but I also love writing notes in Markdown and graph structure. I've at least been trying out Dendron for the latter, and it's been alright.
Obsidian with syncthing for syncing between my phone and PC.
Yup. It’s a shame they don’t natively support cloud solutions like iCloud, which is what leads to workarounds like syncthing. It’s because they want to push their paid cloud option instead. But I also recognize that iCloud and their cloud hosting isn’t self-hosted, so it wouldn’t really fit here.
This is what I'm using and I haven't found any reason to switch yet.
Nextcloud notes, it gets the job done 👍
Mostly just copious amounts of "new tab" in notepad++
Recently discovered KleverNotes by KDE, while only a desktop app it's really really nice! It's dead simple and straight to the point markdown editor. Recommend folks to check it out.
TXT files I sync with syncthing.
Use amaze file manager built in txt editor on android and vim on desktop.
I've been using logseq with syncthing for sync, across laptop/desktop/Android. Works ok, app can be a little chunky though and sometimes the manualness of coding queries can. E annoying. I have used joplin, trillium, Zim and a few others in the past. Installed silver bullet as a try too but haven't gotten far into playing with it
I'm using https://anytype.io/. Offline applications for all major systems, synchronization out of the box.
I've been using this, as well. They default to hosting your "vault." It does peer-to-peer syncing, if you don't want to have a server involved at all. I'm running their self-hosted server, but that's only after I decided that AnyType was what I was looking for. I really like that it's object based, so you can create templates for things like meetings that are their own type, separate from a bog-standard page.
How was setting up the server? I’m on my phone right now so so I’ll check out the docs later but were there any problems deploying?
A little rough, to be honest. It's a docker-compose deployment, but it requires you to run make
to deploy it. The makefile does extra configuration and such to allow the containers to come up healthy. It works, but it's overcomplicated and styled after their own deployments, so probably way more compute than what is needed for one household.
Oh and because of this protracted topology, it's tough to hide behind a reverse proxy.
Obsidian, or a normal txt
I've tried 'em all. And I am always on the lookout for new apps that can do what I want. So far, Obsidian is the best.
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Joplin: adds meta data to your text files making it nearly impossible to find anything outside of Joplin unless you export
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Logseq: the closest substitute to Obsidian. The android app is almost unusable in my testing. And it's an outlined based note app, so it requires a different mindset
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Silverbullet: such a neat project. The PWA runs great on every device I've tried it on. That said, I find it hard to navigate and will require more learning to take full advantage of its features
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Nextcloud Notes: decent if you already have an instance running. Not worth it just for Notes though. It's very spartan, feature-wise
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Quillpad: the closest Google Keep alternative I've found so far. Does require Nextcloud insurance to sync though. At least currently.
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Acreom: very cool project. Similar to Obsidian and Logseq. Local first.....unless you're on mobile, then you are required to have an account and use their sync.
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Notesnook: has great features but does not store the notes on plain text (due to encryption), which is a deal breaker for my use case
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Memos: very easy to selfhost. Think of it like a personal twitter feed. Stores entries in a db file, so it's out for me
I tested others, and many didnt last long enough in my testing to even be worth writing about. I find Obsidian's folder hierarchy easier to fit around how my brain works. And the plain text files in folders, maintaining the hierarchy, is a killer feature for me. Lots of folks self host a sync solution. And I want to but am currently paying for their basic sync plan of $5/mo.
I use Joplin. The functionality is nice, but visually the app looks a little outdated in my opinion. It's worth it though.
I've used Joplin for years. IDK why people have a hate on for it, it's fine.
Org-mode in emacs.
There are various mobile clients.
If you have something to synch files, it's just syncing org files. Probably mostly interesting to people who use a lot of emacs on a PC, though.
It depends on the notes, for me:
I've had an oddly long-running obsession with Tiddlywiki!
It has a bit of a learning curve, but it's VERY flexible. My favorite part being that by default it's just a single, portable, HTML file. No special app required besides a browser, no accounts, and you can just sync it like any other file. (Syncthing, Nextcloud, and friends)
There's also an app called Tiddloid for Android to make managing and saving a little easier, but they open in any browser.
I have a Tiddlywiki that I use like one might use Obsidian, where I just stash stuff I'll want to remember and maybe link between similar ideas.
And then I'm currently trying to use it to make a solution to sketch out my Savage Worlds RPG campaigns. It gets a little tricky but you can make templates, script buttons, and that kind of thing. If you're already comfortable with web stuff you'll probably catch on WAY better than I have.
You can also host it as a website, or on your server or whatever, to use it like any other wiki. There's also plugins to use Markdown instead of "wikitext."
There's also an excellent guide to learning it at https://groktiddlywiki.com/read/ . It's basically an online workbook using Tiddlywiki itself!
The community is also super helpful. I do wish it had a little more out of the box, but something about a customizable, portable, digital "notebook" that doesn't require an account or hopefully-supported-in-5-years application is SUPER appealing to me. It's quite underrated.
Also just for fun I wanted to share my favorite example someone's been working on for quite some time now, a heavily customized D&D wiki
https://intrinsical.github.io/wiki/index.html
Tiddlywiki can be a bit dense and the documentation is slowly improving, but there's so much potential!
Obsidian.md + paying for sync.
Transitioned from a mix of Keep + OneNote + Obsidian.md to just Keep (hidden todo list feature I utilize to keep track of shipping orders I have yet to receive) and obsidian.md (I have yet to import my old personal and work KB into the synced KB).
My other option was NotesNook
Heres my thread: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/34370838
Also Obsidian but with syncthing
Syncthing on my home server, synced with each device I use for notetaking, has been glorious so far. I wish Obsidian would offer Sync for a cheaper rate, because I'd pay if it felt like anything near the cost of actual sync and storage. But Obsidian's cheapest tier is more expensive than my email hosting!
Woah! Yeah it is! Well nearly. I pay $50/yr for my email. Obsidian is $48/yr for sync. My email even comes with WebDAV which if it were a better protocol could do the syncing! Haha
Remnote, sadly i believe there are substantially better places for sync capable noting but theyre all either paid or use third party bs like gdrive. Need joplin and proton drive to work something out!
Oh I'm ashamed of this one, but notability on a second hand iPad for handwritten and otherwise notion. I'm sorry but nothing has its polish, goodnotes just isn't good enough and doesn't have enough setting to make it good either. I refuse to use one note. In regards to notion it's the sharing and collaboration features that are killer.
I've been happy with joplin, I leave it on my nextcloud
300 page 5 subject 5-star branded binder for actual schoolwork
for personal scheduling/journaling?
Same. I'm addicted. I literally have 5 strewn about me right now.
I use a brand called "decomposition" books, I guess because they're made with recycled paper.
Nextcloud. But only because I already have it. I wouldn't set it up just for that.
I use Joplin. They have a sync server you can host for yourself.
@ocean maybe @notesnook is something for you.
It's even E2E encrypted in case somebody got access to your server or so.
https://github.com/streetwriters/notesnook-sync-server?tab=readme-ov-file#notesnook-sync-server
I use obsidian but I wish there was an open source notes platform that could do what I want:
- Excalidraw support ( or similar ) with PDF import and annotation support ( this is achieved by a plugin on obsidian )
- Vim mode
- Markdown for everything
I have tried so many notetaking tools and the closest I ever got was using xournalpp for PDF annotation and drawing, then writing plain markdown in helix / neovim, with a live markdown rendering pane on the side. Was just too clunky though.
I use joplin with joplin server running through a reverse proxy in a docker container. I love it. It also supports encryption, so you could use a more convenient service like Google drive and still be assured of your privacy.