I’ve done it a fair bit and it’s actually pretty painless. If you know how to use vim you save a ton of keystrokes, which makes a big difference on mobile.
Honestly, the closest I have found is https://github.com/baggachipz/tinylist It looks like keep, can share and edit files with other people, which is something a lot of things are lacking and I use it extensively for that. Also, I don’t like the recommendations of using MD apps/files for a simple checklist/random notes app. That’s way too much for something this simple and I use Obsidian as well. But they serve much different purposes.
It allows you to host your own database for it, and there is a guide on it.
I’m really enjoying Otterwiki. Everything is saved as markdown, attachments are next to the markdown files in a folder, and version control is integrated with a git repo. Everything lives in a directory and the application runs from a docker container.
It’s the perfect amount of simplicity and is really just a UI on top of fully portable standard tech.
I’m really interested to see what you end up picking. I’m going through another phase of “find a new note taking tool” too. I can give you a few recommendations to try:
Obsidian is great on desktop, and okay on mobile. But it’s really slow sometimes to open so not great for quick notes. I have a Tasker task/shortcut on my home screen that prompts me for a quick note and saves it to a md file in the vault directory without ever opening the obsidian app. Sync also isn’t free unless you use a 3rd party plugin. There’s a ton of plugins and some seem great, but there’s no real built in security to protect you from malicious plugins afaik.
Joplin is okay, it has a great web clipper browser plugin. Syncing (at least over webdav) is painfully slow and doesn’t happen in the background. The UI UX is pretty clunky but has been getting improved. Exporting from Joplin to markdown is annoying and not in a format usable by other tools. I ended up writing a script that uses the Joplin rest API to export all my notes with correct file names, frontmatter, etc. Otherwise they’re random uuids and the metadata is at the bottom of the file.
Standard Notes seems alright so far. I’m pretty sure it’s still electron, but hasn’t felt too slow to me. It’s the only app I’ve tried that has true end to end encryption where the notes are encrypted locally on your devices, not just in transit. Self hosting the sync server still requires a paid subscription to unlock most of the features like uploading files or using any note type other than plain text.
logseq scratches the emacs org mode itch, but doesn’t have a mobile app out yet. It’s an outliner by default too. I haven’t used it much but it seems like it gets as much attention as obsidian does.
JTX Board, kind of a weird one but it’s mobile only and uses caldav to create notes using the VJOURNAL format. I’m testing it with nextcloud. The app is pretty fast and usable offline so great for quick notes. It does have a lot of limitations though like not really being able to add large images or attachments. I also haven’t found a good desktop or web app that uses the VJOURNAL standard.
TiddlyWiki - I really want to like it, it works offline and has several different methods of syncing changes. I haven’t been able to get a good mobile syncing experience though, and it doesn’t have a dedicated mobile app.
I juggle a lot of different note apps because I’m still looking for “the one”, so always interested in seeing other’s opinions!
Not a huge one, but it is only free for personal and non-profit use. “If your notes contain content directly related to work projects or processes for a greater-than-one-person company, then you require a commercial license.”
Since it is on flathub and they don’t really nag you, I am sure there are people who aren’t really aware.
Seconding Obsidian - it’s not FOSS, but the files are just markdown, nothing special, so you’re not locked in. Self hosting is real easy, you just have to Sync the files, and everything follows. I use syncthing between my laptop and phone and am having a good time with it.
Whoops, should have noticed your endorsement of syncthing before posting a comment mentioning this.
While Obsidian does save to individual files, the Markdown they use seems to be a superset of everyday Markdown. Eg, being able to use callouts (eg, Note, Warning, Info, etc) and embedded linking of notes.
The automatic backlinks are fantastic. And I’ve discovered that if I rename a note, all links to that note get updated as well. So no need to worry about orphaning pages.
I’ve added a handful of plugins as well. Off the top of my head, one is a dynamic table of contents (for that page), another helps to compose/edit Markdown tables.
Why’s that? Keep looks and feels like a pretty basic note taking app, I don’t even see any of the usual google “secret sauce” that would make it better, smarter, or more embedded… what is it about keep that you find inimitable?
Of all the open source note apps I tried over a year ago, they didn’t seem that great. I’m also not interested in self hosting.
I like that Keep let’s you quickly create lists, let’s you add images, you can markup images, you can pin notes, search is fast and it all backs up to the cloud seamelessy. And I can result access it on any device.
In general I think there’s a lot to be said for Google services. Drive is great, put anything in there and have it everywhere and easily share.
Photos is indispensable because it’s so tig byhtly integrated with Android: take a photo and instantly it’s backed up to the cloud. No worry about losing my phone because my memories will be in the cloud.
I use Calendar all the time to manage events and reminders and it works perfectly. Also syncs to my calendar on Mint perfectly. It’s fast, easy to use, let’s you get in and out.
Google Messages now uses RCS which is great, is designed very well, and you can also send and receive messages from the web if you want. Plus it integrates nicely with Phone, Meet and Contacts.
It’s really hard to beat. And this is all free, although I pay €20 a year for the larger storage plan.
You can replicate this in Nextcloud but then you need to self host, set up incoming open ports, sorry about being ddoss’d or hacked, have either a large HDD or external HDD which may fail at any time. And it won’t integrate with Android as well.
I get people’s concern with privacy but I don’t think it’s as big a deal as people make out and end up throwing the baby out with the bath water.
I think you got lost because self-hosting is very much the point of this community :)
The Keep features you enumerated are pretty rudimentary, and none of that requires the sheer engineering power of a Google to be delivered securely and effectively. Take something like quillpad for instance, it shares a lot of UI paradigms with Keep, but expands in every direction to make the note taking experience and keeping them organized better. So indeed, Google Apps as a captive ecosystem is hard to beat, but resisting the urge to put all your eggs in their basket has some enormous perks which people with experience value a lot.
Honestly, the closest I have found is https://github.com/baggachipz/tinylist It looks like keep, can share and edit files with other people, which is something a lot of things are lacking and I use it extensively for that. Also, I don’t like the recommendations of using MD apps/files for a simple checklist/random notes app. That’s way too much for something this simple and I use Obsidian as well. But they serve much different purposes.
It allows you to host your own database for it, and there is a guide on it.
Hey, that TinyList.app is actually very good but unfortunately it’s missing a quite crucial feature - reminders… Nevertheless I will be watching its career with great interest.
Have a look at Obsidian. It runs on a variety of devices, you can sync either with their system, or pretty much anything else, as it just stores your notes as markdown files, and you can arrange notes like that with the canvas system.
I actually had Obsidian installed and it looks like something I’d like if I spend more time on a computer but nowadays I’m mostly using phone for Internet activity. I couldn’t get canvas to work on my phone for some reason. It also lack reminders which is wuite crucial for me.
Fair point about reminders, that’s not something I use it for, so I didn’t think of it. Canvas seems to be working now, and there are regularly push updates, so one of those might have fixed it.
Im using nextcloud notes and it works perfectly fine in browser/android app. Doesnt look good like google keep, but had no issues with it.
Recently I also started using memos, it looks like super simple private twiter and it has awesome android/ios app called MoeMemos. Not sure about encription, but it looks amazing
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…ssh and vim?
Lol
Editing a file with vim though ssh on mobile seems like a pain.
I’ve done it a fair bit and it’s actually pretty painless. If you know how to use vim you save a ton of keystrokes, which makes a big difference on mobile.
I don’t believe this for a single second
what about emacs?
I use orgzly on android, Emacs on desktop. Syncthing to sync the files.
+1
There’s also Benotes - https://github.com/fr0tt/benotes
Nextcloud notes is the easiest I have found.
Honestly, the closest I have found is https://github.com/baggachipz/tinylist It looks like keep, can share and edit files with other people, which is something a lot of things are lacking and I use it extensively for that. Also, I don’t like the recommendations of using MD apps/files for a simple checklist/random notes app. That’s way too much for something this simple and I use Obsidian as well. But they serve much different purposes.
It allows you to host your own database for it, and there is a guide on it.
Was going to make the same suggestion. You can try it out at https://tinylist.app
This is awesome! Thanks!
No dockerhub image is a dealbreaker. Especially for Unraid
Looks like you can host your own database and tie the web app to that. I’m going to try it later today with my unRAID server.
I’m really enjoying Otterwiki. Everything is saved as markdown, attachments are next to the markdown files in a folder, and version control is integrated with a git repo. Everything lives in a directory and the application runs from a docker container.
It’s the perfect amount of simplicity and is really just a UI on top of fully portable standard tech.
For the record, I also found that turtl is FOSS and seems to have a decent UI. I will give it a try.
https://github.com/turtl
https://turtlapp.com/
Did you try it?
In another comment you complained about the latest commit being made 7 years ago. Just a heads up, this project also seems pretty abandoned.
I’m really interested to see what you end up picking. I’m going through another phase of “find a new note taking tool” too. I can give you a few recommendations to try:
I juggle a lot of different note apps because I’m still looking for “the one”, so always interested in seeing other’s opinions!
Logseq has an iOS app here, and an Android app at their GitHub releases.
https://gitjournal.io/
Obsidian! Getting it to use cloud synced folders is a little tricky but it is a fabulous little program.
Also a big fan of Obsidian!
For syncing, one option is to use syncthing.
I know someone (whose geek creds are admittedly well beyond mine) who is also a fan. He uses GitHub to sync his notes.
Available but not FOSS. Gotta watch the license if you use it for any work.
I’m curious what licensing issues you would run into with obsidian?
Not a huge one, but it is only free for personal and non-profit use. “If your notes contain content directly related to work projects or processes for a greater-than-one-person company, then you require a commercial license.”
Since it is on flathub and they don’t really nag you, I am sure there are people who aren’t really aware.
Good to know thanks for the info. I’ll have to have a bit of a dig myself.
Obsidian is so so good.
I don’t even mind to pay for their sync service to support them. You can even encrypt your vault (notebook) with your own key.
Seconding Obsidian - it’s not FOSS, but the files are just markdown, nothing special, so you’re not locked in. Self hosting is real easy, you just have to Sync the files, and everything follows. I use syncthing between my laptop and phone and am having a good time with it.
Whoops, should have noticed your endorsement of syncthing before posting a comment mentioning this.
While Obsidian does save to individual files, the Markdown they use seems to be a superset of everyday Markdown. Eg, being able to use callouts (eg, Note, Warning, Info, etc) and embedded linking of notes.
The automatic backlinks are fantastic. And I’ve discovered that if I rename a note, all links to that note get updated as well. So no need to worry about orphaning pages.
I’ve added a handful of plugins as well. Off the top of my head, one is a dynamic table of contents (for that page), another helps to compose/edit Markdown tables.
Try Carnet it is exactly what Google Keep does but a nextcloud hosted App with mobile apps.
Notesnook, whenever they release self hosting.
Nextcloud and Quillpad is decent.
Are there any plans? I just got their 70% off on subscription and I like it, but it would be great if there’d be a self hosted server.
Self hosting is currently in progress
https://notesnook.com/roadmap/
This is great. And I don’t regret paying the subscription.
That’s a fantasy I’m afraid. Just use Keep.
Why’s that? Keep looks and feels like a pretty basic note taking app, I don’t even see any of the usual google “secret sauce” that would make it better, smarter, or more embedded… what is it about keep that you find inimitable?
Of all the open source note apps I tried over a year ago, they didn’t seem that great. I’m also not interested in self hosting.
I like that Keep let’s you quickly create lists, let’s you add images, you can markup images, you can pin notes, search is fast and it all backs up to the cloud seamelessy. And I can result access it on any device.
In general I think there’s a lot to be said for Google services. Drive is great, put anything in there and have it everywhere and easily share.
Photos is indispensable because it’s so tig byhtly integrated with Android: take a photo and instantly it’s backed up to the cloud. No worry about losing my phone because my memories will be in the cloud.
I use Calendar all the time to manage events and reminders and it works perfectly. Also syncs to my calendar on Mint perfectly. It’s fast, easy to use, let’s you get in and out.
Google Messages now uses RCS which is great, is designed very well, and you can also send and receive messages from the web if you want. Plus it integrates nicely with Phone, Meet and Contacts.
It’s really hard to beat. And this is all free, although I pay €20 a year for the larger storage plan.
You can replicate this in Nextcloud but then you need to self host, set up incoming open ports, sorry about being ddoss’d or hacked, have either a large HDD or external HDD which may fail at any time. And it won’t integrate with Android as well.
I get people’s concern with privacy but I don’t think it’s as big a deal as people make out and end up throwing the baby out with the bath water.
I think you got lost because self-hosting is very much the point of this community :)
The Keep features you enumerated are pretty rudimentary, and none of that requires the sheer engineering power of a Google to be delivered securely and effectively. Take something like quillpad for instance, it shares a lot of UI paradigms with Keep, but expands in every direction to make the note taking experience and keeping them organized better. So indeed, Google Apps as a captive ecosystem is hard to beat, but resisting the urge to put all your eggs in their basket has some enormous perks which people with experience value a lot.
I have been using anytype.io for a few months and love it. Best thing is it’s “local first” so stored on your own devices, just synched online.
What type of file uses? MD?
Yes MD can be used or just enter text into their pro forma objects
I don’t even need it to be (self)hosted, it can be an offline Android app that looks and behaves like Keep, but is not made by Google.
So notes arranged together, tick boxes, reminders, dark theme.
Honestly, the closest I have found is https://github.com/baggachipz/tinylist It looks like keep, can share and edit files with other people, which is something a lot of things are lacking and I use it extensively for that. Also, I don’t like the recommendations of using MD apps/files for a simple checklist/random notes app. That’s way too much for something this simple and I use Obsidian as well. But they serve much different purposes.
It allows you to host your own database for it, and there is a guide on it.
Hey, that TinyList.app is actually very good but unfortunately it’s missing a quite crucial feature - reminders… Nevertheless I will be watching its career with great interest.
Have a look at Obsidian. It runs on a variety of devices, you can sync either with their system, or pretty much anything else, as it just stores your notes as markdown files, and you can arrange notes like that with the canvas system.
I actually had Obsidian installed and it looks like something I’d like if I spend more time on a computer but nowadays I’m mostly using phone for Internet activity. I couldn’t get canvas to work on my phone for some reason. It also lack reminders which is wuite crucial for me.
Fair point about reminders, that’s not something I use it for, so I didn’t think of it. Canvas seems to be working now, and there are regularly push updates, so one of those might have fixed it.
that would be only limited to one device though. screenshot looks good.
Im using nextcloud notes and it works perfectly fine in browser/android app. Doesnt look good like google keep, but had no issues with it. Recently I also started using memos, it looks like super simple private twiter and it has awesome android/ios app called MoeMemos. Not sure about encription, but it looks amazing
Check their web