What do you use for notes?

Obsidian with syncthing works offline.

I use Logseq in my PC and my phone and I unse Syncthing to sync the notes accross my devices.

I use text files and grep

Yeah, haha. 😂

Wait a moment... 🤔

Emacs. Org. Mode.

Use Orgzly Revived for mobile sharing.

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.

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.

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.

Obsidian, or a normal txt

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.

@nek0d3r @ocean how about StandardNotes?
- It doesn't look like you can draw in your notes, but this looks good! I think I might give it a try.

Nextcloud notes, it gets the job done 👍

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.

Joplin: adds meta data to your text files making it nearly impossible to find anything outside of Joplin unless you export
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
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
Nextcloud Notes: decent if you already have an instance running. Not worth it just for Notes though. It's very spartan, feature-wise
Quillpad: the closest Google Keep alternative I've found so far. Does require Nextcloud insurance to sync though. At least currently.
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.
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
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.

Same, the builtin sync between devices using WebDAV was the critical feature for me choosing Joplin over Obsidian.
- Just a folder + syncthing. no extra infra is necessary + easy to backup.
I did too with the joplin sync server until, without a failure or any error messages, it ate all my notes.

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.

Nextcloud. But only because I already have it. I wouldn't set it up just for that.

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?

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 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.

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
- I expected obsidian to not store the kb locally with bare files but more like in a microsoft cloud-like approach.
  Oh well. At least it's stable and has partly a transactional sync history.

I've used Joplin for years. IDK why people have a hate on for it, it's fine.

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.

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

I use Obsidian with the obsidian-live sync docker container to sync data between devices instantaneously. It is not open source but they store plaintext markdown notes and its extendable with plenty of open source plugins.

I use Joplin. They have a sync server you can host for yourself.

I currently have some notes in Nextcloud notes which I quite like. I don't need anything too fancy. Markdown is nice to have, but not required if there is some ui way to make checkboxes. If I remember correctly, in the nextcloud notes app you have to set the folder that it uses. Which makes shared notes impractical, if not impossible.

Because of this, I still have several notes shared with my wife in Google keep for things like shopping lists. I'm tempted to test out the shopping list function in home assistant, but not sure if it will fit the needs. Would be nice to find something that covers all my use cases in one app.

In Nextcloud you can use Deck or Collections for shared notes.
- Thanks, I'll have a look!

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.

Silverbullet for web access (including mobile pwa) and syncthing + markor on android.

Yes syncthing is well and alive on android (to prevent the usual posting "its dead on android", no it's not)

Joplin has a pretty slow UI and it doesn't save notes in standard markdown format.

Why not use the silverbullet pwa on android?
- On android I prefer native apps.

I use Joplin. It's fairly simple and very comparable to Evernote if you've ever used that, but it's perfect for my needs.

I used LogSeq before, it's very similar to Obsidian, the big difference being that it's open source. It's got a ton of features and the built-in whiteboard is actually really good, but I found it a bit overkill for my simple note taking.

Logseq also makes each line start with a bulleted list which quickly made me go insane

@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

Obsidian + syncthing on both my computer and android phone. I love that I can selectively sync certain folders to my phone so not everything is there slowing it down.

I want to like logseq but all the bullet points feels weird to me.

Logseq is also really really slow once you have a lot of notes unfortunately.
- I haven't experienced that at all and I embed all kinds of pictures and links in my 2-3 years of grad school + personal notes. How many is "a lot" to you?
  
  If it genuinely is a logeq problem did you ever try splitting notes into multiple graphs for different topics?

Obsidian and it syncs to my home server

Trillium. It works well via browser and reasonably on a mobile browser.

Obsidian is excellent but I can't install any applications on my work computer and the web hosted version was buggy and slow. If I didn't have IT blocking me I'd be using Obsidian again.

org-roam but logseq is good too.

I've used Logseq for 2-3 years but it's slow and a pain to use on mobile. I discovered Tiddlywiki in December, I love how customizable it is, but it's been taking me a while to tweak it to match my usual workflow. Running it via nodejs server on android (termux) and laptops (so I'm accessing it on localhost on all devices) and syncing the wikis between devices using Syncthing.

I've used a bunch, but I eventually moved to SilverBullet and will probably stick with it.

If you're considering (something) + Syncthing, try Orgmode. It looks like Markdown but has a lot of features for note management and navigation.

A Textbook

Flat notes. I’ve tried a bunch of different more complex apps but I keep coming back to flat notes.

As in a folder of text files? Because that's what I'm doing. Syncing across devices with Syncthing and editing/adding files with whatever markdown editor works best in each platform.
- I assume https://github.com/dullage/flatnotes

https://github.com/hoarder-app/hoarder

For notes??

Orgzly + Syncthing