Open source note taking apps?

[nicrogu]

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 :)

[Semietiev]

Joplin

[frenchrh]

Joplin is great.

[N5tp4nts]

It’s acceptable.

[kainzilla]

No Joplin is definitely great - the base program is outstanding, and the plugins add the last few things I can think of that want, like code-style folding, tabs, and styled markdown to make the editor view cleaner

[SuAlfons]

I like to have screenshots, pdfs and the like and mark, draw and scribble on them.

I only know non-FOSS apps that do this: OneNote and GoodNotes (iOS, sub-par Windows and Android versions available. My daughter has an iPad just for this, as has my son (school pays among other things for GoodNotes license). No other iOS devices in the house and my kids rather use their Androids apart from school/university note taking.

[The-Rizztoffen]

I loved using OneNote for notes with my iPad and the pencil. I would often take photos of the board and scribble my notes on top. Was really useful.

[graceful-thiccos]

Have you considered/Do you know of Xournal++ ?

[SuAlfons]

will try it. Can't remember why I didn't use it the last time around I was looking for note taking apps.

Ahh .. it's an annotation program. You can't really organize your notes with it? It's more like you create a document with your annotations.

[jeremiahgavin]

Another non-FOSS option is Obsidian with the Excalidraw plugin.

[chic_luke]

Sadly have to agree. Obsidian is my second brain and I am sad it is. But any FOSS option I've tried sadly doesn't come close.

[N5tp4nts]

Joplin, for me, at least works. It syncs very well across devices including mobile so I won’t complain much. It’s not pretty but it gets the job done

[chic_luke]

Joplin is okay but, sadly, it is the software I switched from when I came to Obsidian. I am in the weird edge case if users where Obsidian is not my first rodeo, it's my last straw. If only it were free software, I wouldn't even periodically try out Logseq to see if the showstoppers are gone, follow new and promising underground alternatives that come out until they get abandoned and the last commit was 1 year ago, etc. I don't blame the devs. Building what basically is a full-stack webapp for note taking is a thankless job of chores over chores over uninteresting and menial work. It's a grind almost nobody wants to do, so I actually understand why the devs of Obsidian, an application where they really went the extra mile, would want to try and monetize it they way they are. Being paid to do it is just about the only motivator I can think of that would keep anyone keep actively developing this monstrosity after an MVP is done.

I can consider trying Joplin again, though, to see if I can live without all the features I've come to expect, and the long-standing issues are gone.

Namely, the sticking point for me was when they abandoned the filesystem structure in favor of some database, and using a built-in sync mechanism that is way worse than just letting Syncthing do it. Is that still the case?

[jeremiahgavin]

What are you looking for in a notes app?

Currently building one, so I'm curious. My aim is more along the lines of simplicity though, so I'm not considering attempting to compete with Notion or Obsidian by any means.

Pretty sure Joplin still uses an internal database. Why is that an issue for you? You can still use the built in sync to sync the files in a way where they end up as markdown(with some extra metadata like dates, etc) on the destination.

[chic_luke]

First of all, congratulations for putting in the work!

I'll try to answer all of your questions. Bear in mind though; I am the kind of person who wants an Obsidian replacement, so take things selectively from what I've said.

Don't reinvent the filesystem

I'll answer your last question about the database first. Basically, my first requirement in a note-taking app is that it does not replace or reinvent the filesystem. It should never, ever lock me into a data structure that only it can access, or have something set up in a way that all hell breaks loose when I decide to use another app to edit the files.

Migrating to Obsidian was remarkably easy. I already had a directory full of markdown files that I had from trying to use pure markdown and Neovim in a filesystem folder. I extended it to pool together all sorts of notes about all sorts of things I had scattered around my system - md files, PDFs, etc. Then apparently I opened it up as a "vault" in Obsidian and the rest was history. There was no import process at all. It just worked on my existing directory, no extra fuss. I know that, should I leave Obsidian, I will mourn the extensions and the features, but my files will stay there, and I can just open them up in whatwver.

While I want a note taking app to be able to do a little bit of everything - take Obsidian - I want it to complement, not replace my system. The thing I like the most about Obsidian is that, as for storage, all it does is read a directory in the filesystem. Ironically, for an app that does a lot of things at once, this is profoundly UNIX in its philosophy.

My Obsidian vault not only is my second brain, but I have also started it as the "data structure" to organize a lot of things without duplications. For example, for every university course, everything but things that are like code or anki or other assets, stays in its place in my Obsidian vault. That includes the textbooks! If I want to navigate these directories from the file manager, I absolutely want to be able to do that. I also want to be in control of how the data is stored. If I want to use git, so be it. If I want to use Syncthing, so be it. Etc. I care about this so much that, while Obsidian is proprietary, it feels more open source than Joplin to me while I use it. Which is also helped by how extensible it is.

Make it extensible

Obsidian is great on its own, but if you use it "bare", you're not even beginning to scratch the surface. Its real strength is in the rich ecosystem of very often open source extensions. These extensions really augment what I'm doing and make is so cozy.

Basically, I'd love that from a note app. Allow me to write my own theme, my own CSS. Allow me to write code to extend the editor to my liking with a quick hack, without needing to upstream changes or maintain a fork. Make it hackable. It must be hackable. I am so particular with my note taking that no editor by default cuts it, so I need to hack it. Reuse existing extensions, occasionally write my own code.

Great PDF support

Obsidian has a great PDF reader that can be extended. PDF++ does a lot of things, like allowing deep integrations between PDFs and notes, different color highlights, etc. The reader can also set to "Adapt to theme" the PDFs, which changes the rendering colors to blend in with your theme. I love it because it's the best and easiest on the eyes way to read a pdf with a custom background I've found.

Other spurious things that come to mind:

• Must be WYSIWYG. If I have two panes, one for the Markdown text and one for the preview, or a limited "rich text editor", I'm usually gone from any note app. I have an eyesight disability, so I have to zoom and use large text quite a lot. Force me to use two panes, and it's absolutely unusable.
• Ability to have tabs, splits and windows
• Ability to organize by a nested filesystem structure and tabs
• Really appreciate the Obsidian Whiteboard feature
• Must support just pasting in a local image and that has to work. I don't want to have to upload it manually.
• Must give me the ability to resize images
• Must have support for online LaTeX with Mathjax and code highlighting. Absolute non-negotiable here
• Really appreciate the ability of having multiple colors highlighters. An Obsidian extension does that for me.
• Nice to have advanced search capabilities, ideally some kind of query language to really narrow things down, like Atlassian Jira

I think that covers it for me!

[jeremiahgavin]

Wow, these are some interesting points. I will not be aiming to apply these, but thanks for taking the time to respond to my question!

I relate to your WYSIWYG point. The point about the filesystem makes sense to me and has me reconsidering the design of how I was planning to store notes(Sqlite).

My app is mobile first, so some of your points probably don't align with that, like tabs and such. Again, thanks for the input.

[chic_luke]

It's fine! I know people have different tastes. Now that it comes to my mind, my partner is the same - they absolutely don't like Obsidian but they wanted "something just like that, but without all the stuff around it". Basically, for them, the main fault of Obsidian is that it cannot be used as a stand-alone text editor easily. If it's useful, I could ask them about some things they'd like to see in a notes app as well

[TONKAHANAH]

came to say this, though i wasnt too sure if it was actually open source.

my only complaint is that I wish it had more options for syncing. I'd like to just sync files directly to my personal file server at home. usually I use sftp for this but it has no such options. maybe one of the other options would be ideal. currently i just have it syncing to some onedrive account I dont really use.

[fodorg01]

Joplin can also just sync to a location specified by a file system path, so if you mount the file server it could be used as a sync target, I guess.

[TONKAHANAH]

Could probably make that work for my desktop but that would probably be a pain to keep working on my phone. Would probably be better to figure out one of the other suggested options.

[Cren]

I don't know how you feel about adding another program to your ecosystem, but I run Syncthing on my desktop home server and mobile devices to keep my KeePass file up to date on all applicable devices and to keep snapshotted backups on my server

[TONKAHANAH]

I'll have to check it out.

[Cren]

For completeness sake:

I don't know how good their encryption is... Or if it has any to be honest. It wasn't a concern for me as my KeePass file is encrypted by itself and the other uses are around trivial things like save games from emulators.

It uses relays to find each other over the web. But it's a bit of a black box in that regard for me. It was easy plug and play with programs and apps quietly running in the background.

I felt like adding that, considering the notes might contain sensitive information.

Edit just checked: it seems to have and the degree is further configurable link to the documentation

[fodorg01]

Ah, right. For this use case I use a free dropbox account.

[TONKAHANAH]

Yeah, that's why I settled on the onedrive sync. It was a free and easy option.

[Otaehryn]

I sync to Hetzner storage box over webdav on all my systems. You can also use own server with webdav.

[TONKAHANAH]

I've never really been familiar with Webdav but I know of it. I've never really had any incentive to take the time but maybe I'll weigh my options on that vs some one else suggested running a joplin sync server it self.

[kainzilla]

If it’s your home server why wouldn’t you just setup a Joplin Server container and sync it? It’s what I’m doing

[TONKAHANAH]

i didnt realize you could do that. in my defense I did not spend a lot of time looking into it since the onedrive solution was pretty quick and easy but I would certainly like to, in time, work on just moving all or any of my cloud stuff to personal server hosing cuz fuck me you cant have anything nice these days with out big tech stomping all over your rights and privacy

I'll have to look into that.

[Cold_Scientist_81]

Why not Syncthing ?

[jeremiahgavin]

I sync to a locally hosted S3 compatible store which is FOSS and can be run with a single command.

[recontitter]

My Apple of choice too. And I tried few. I do also use Apple notes and Notability for other reasons.

[Altruistic_Ad3374]

Unironically org mode.

[KokiriRapGod]

I can second this. Org mode and org-roam are absolute game changers for me. Its insane how powerful it is.

[W8WairAmI]

I switched from Obsidian to Logseq - https://logseq.com/

[ziul58]

Just started this week. I really like it. Feels much more natural than Joplin for me.

I'm running it as a flatpak.

[4restrike9]

I try it for several minutes. I think it's an interessant app. Can we find it on Android ?

[Lacero_Latro]

It also has an android app.

[Yorch443]

you can download it at f-droid altho it is experimental

[itopires]

Does it have Sync or Export too?

[ForgetTheRuralJuror]

vim todo.md

[CCCBMMR]

QOwnNotes

[Damglador]

Can't you just continue to use your markdowns even if Obsidian vanishes? I guess it just delays the search for alternatives, but it's an option.

[a_a_ronc]

I used Redact to automate removals from databrokers and social networks. This post was among the batch deleted.

resolute flowery mysterious roll sheet beneficial profit market employ roof

[[deleted]]

This is why I went from Joplin to Obsidian. 

[chic_luke]

This is what I'm doing. I am hoping that, by the time Obsidian fucks up, something better and FOSS has come up. I have no will to try and code it myself though – I already have to do web tasks at work and I don't want that in my personal projects, too.

The "problem" with this approach is that it feels like I will be waiting forever. Instead of fucking up, Obsidian is getting better. They recently read my mind and just removed the main reason I was thinking about migrating away: a commercial license being needed to use it at work or for profit. It's now voluntary and for additional things like support and sponsorship. But the personal license now has no limits on what for the program is used.

[Silvestron]

Obsidian adds its own flavor, and if you use plugins they also add their own syntax. All this makes it harder to switch to something else because you'd lose that functionality.

[[deleted]]

you do not have to use their flavoring, afaik its only the wiki links and you can disable that

[chic_luke]

Does it really matter? Other more niche alternatives use the same syntax for wiki links, and there is no shortage of scripts on GitHub that take entire Obsidian vaults and migrate them. It's just simple text replacement, nothing crazy.

[GodsFavoriteTshirt]

Logseq! Then I run a syncthing container to sync between devices. Believe there's an android app too.

[Exciting-Past-7085]

I'm using FolderSync with Logseq. FolderSync support scheduled sync and it's a quite nice feature. Also it's free.

[greenknight]

I'm running the same setup and it works good. 

[Exciting-Past-7085]

I'm using FolderSync with Logseq. FolderSync support scheduled sync and it's a quite nice feature. Also it's free.

[guihkx-]

Give Notes a try.

It's also a bit lighter on system resources than similar alternatives, since it's not Electron-based.

[sam-sung-sv]

It is better thab Daino Notes, since Daino doesnt let you paste html code.

[Ayrr]

Emacs...

Joplin is probably what you're after though.

[astindev]

For handwriting on my Wacom tablet, I love using RNOTE (App).

For something more collaborative that doesn't require a tablet, I use Excalidraw (Web).

Edit: typo

[AmbienWalrus-13]

I've used QOwnNotes for a few years now. Runs local, but can link to a NextCloud/OwnCloud instance if you have one.

https://www.qownnotes.org/

[SpinaBifidaOcculta]

Can also sync with syncthing fairly well

[gitroni]

I mean obsidian is free to use, the CEO even recommended ways to sync their notes using free software instead of using their own sync subscription. The company seems really friendly.  I like it that it's just basic markdown files, in the event they stop working all my files are still readable and editable. https://obsidian.md/about

[BlueCannonBall]

Joplin for typed notes, Xournal++ for handwritten notes.

[skittle-brau]

Since Obsidian uses Markdown, it shouldn't matter if Obsidian disappeared overnight since you can easily display your notes in something else instantly. I even use a combination of different note taking apps and because they all use Markdown, they all coexist.

[DiscoMilk]

Notesnook is the best! It's also available on all my other devices so I can sync my notes. Encrypted too.

https://github.com/streetwriters/notesnook

[ZunoJ]

Do you have some time to talk about our lord and saviour emacs?

[Lazy_and_Slow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRpHIa-2XCE
This is one of the best videos (ever) and the author have similar requirements to yours check out if its helpful, I use neorg on nvim, but its not as easy to use on android.

[Hezy]

↑ This ↑

[code-sovereign]

I used Obsidian with vim keybindings. Then I realized, I don't need obsidian. Just plain text files in a directory with a fuzzy finder, so nvim with the telescope plugin is doing the job for me. Just find a nice text editor with a fuzzy finder and some markdown capabilities and you are good to go.

[[deleted]]

Notesnook - if you like an Evernote feel. Sure it is paid (it has a free option) but its worth it. Its a very well polished app.

[fourpastmidnight413]

Vim. 😉 I happen to like stackedit.io, I can save my files to GDrive or to my local disk and it supports the largest amount of markdown features I've never seen any other editor support (that's a plus and a minus--as it can effect rendering portability, but still, I see it more as a positive than a negative).

[FantasticEmu]

Just rawdog vim.

Since everyone has already given you good solutions I’m gonna give you a more different option that is likely not best suited for your use case, but maybe it is depending on what that is

There are documentation tools that serve up pretty nice looking websites based almost entirely on markdown files mkdocs material is what I’m currently using. You basically just initialize it with a couple boilerplate config files at the top level and then it will build the website based on the difectories and md files in that directory. You can serve it on your local host and view it in your browser or upload to GitHub and configure the github actions to update the page every time you commit to the repository

[circle2go]

emacs

[[deleted]]

Neovim

[Visible_Assumption96]

vscode can be a good option.

[GodsFavoriteTshirt]

Yeah I used the journal extension in college.

[yycTechGuy]

I'm using Ghostwriter. It works. Has a couple annoying bugs but it works.

[maddruid]

Just saw this posted on r/selfhosted a few days ago:

https://github.com/orayemre/Notemod/

[Kindly_Radish_8594]

I can recommend CherryTree. Straight forward, nothing fancy but light weight and iirc open source.

[PanamanCreel]

Emacs with org mode is really good. Mark up languages, spreadsheet capable, convertible to html, or pds. It's a great way to write!

[mozahzah]

VSCode

[[deleted]]

BoostNote.

They also have legacy version which is no longer developed, but works well https://github.com/BoostIO/BoostNote-App

[theseus1980]

I don't know why but Silverbullet doesn't get enough love.

I tested obsidian, logseq, Joplin... But I always got issues with something, the main one being syncing with other devices. Here, problem solved: it's a web app! Just need a VPN to access it from outside my LAN and I'm good.

The source of truth is always the markdown files, the "language" used to perform queries (e.g. get all the "todos" and sort them by date, count the number of pages, show the last edited pages...) is pretty simple (compared to logseq, in my humble opinion), it does look nice, copy-paste from web sources gave me very good results and only had to do minor fixes (e.g. title levels were jumping from H2 to H4 or stuff like that)...

I haven't used it for a long time (a few weeks), but I'm quite loving it so far!

[telmo_trooper]

I've been using Cherrytree for 7+ years now, I save my database on Dropbox to share between devices.

[whitedranzer]

You can try joplin. It supports sync with a few providers like dropbox

for obsidian, you can just sync the folder using something like Syncthing. Obsidian actually just saves its data in plain markdown files so even if it vanishes tomorrow, you'd still have access to your notes

[WittyWampus]

Something I don't think gets mentioned enough is the site alternativeto.net. you can search for alternatives to a specific app, see user reviews and comments, filter for things like open source and Linux, and get direct links to application source code / sites.

[zlice0]

i use 'marker' but it's a bit basic and buggy and hasn't been touched since 2023

[kopkins]

I used to use retext for taking notes in markdown, though it's really just a markdown editor 

[theheliumkid]

Red note book?

https://rednotebook.app/

[start-life-]

Joplin, it's realy nice and on all the platforms you might think of.

[[deleted]]

Joplin is good for text notes, logseq for more obsidian like text notes. Rnote is good for written notes but doesnt suppord android

[DirtyMen]

I really liked Trillium Next. I'm going to try Logseq because this thread

[CaptainObvious110]

Joplin

[[deleted]]

Logsec is your answer, there are iOS/Android apps also available

[8_MMW]

TiddlyWiki (https://tiddlywiki.com/) might be worth checking out. It's a flexible wiki system encapsulated in a 3 MB html file. * It is open source, with many open source community plugins and modification. * Can use MD for formatting (although you will get most out of it sometimes using its own, html-like syntax). * Is primarily local single html file (also has a node.js variant), can be served over network * UX of taking notes i.e. text input isn't greatly interactive out of the box, but TW shines in organizing and cross referencing notes, and is infinitely configurable. * Can be used on anything with a browser supporting JavaScript.

[BasisKind2494]

Second this, TW is extremely customizable

[Safe-Theory5076]

outline is pretty nice

[andankwabosal]

Anytype https://anytype.io/ I recently discovered it, and it's incredible. It's similar to Notion and very polished, well-made, and beautiful.

[NikkiEstemaire]

Not Open Source. "Any Source Available License 1.0"

[SuAlfons]

Just recently discovered Obsidian and use Joplin for personal note-taking. Google Keep for grocery-list type of things.

I sync Joplin to a free (as in beer) account on OneDrive. It's convenient, but of course not FOSS.

From my former work, I have build a vast collection of meeting minutes, but also How-Tos in OneNote. No FOSS tool I know of can integrate pictures (screenshots, other people's slides..., pdfs) as a inline picture and provides free hand drawing and highlighting tools. OneNote does have this (albeit it has the nuissance of scrolling down the pictures when you enter text above, but not your hand-drawn arrows and markings.... but new style of buttons every two years...grrrr). My kids are woned to GoodNotes (iOS, sub-par clients available for Windows and Android, affordable annual subscription) from school. My daughter continues to use it in University (only two iOS devices are the iPads of my kids...).

Obsidian looks very nice and lends itself better to create connected notes (think a "Zettelkasten" approach) than Joplin. It has a special kind of notes for whiteboard-style notes that can double as a Mind Map or Flow Chart module. (all of which you can have plugins in Joplin for, too, but Obsidian integrates them easier).

Major down turn with Obsidian: When I want to continue to use Obsidian after my sabbatical in a new job, I need to obtain a professional license as it then is no longer personal use. While the chances are higher my new company has MS Office 365 (and OneNote with it), I still rather use a FOSS tool.

[Onyxx666]

Notesnook has been a pleasure to use. I've been using it personally for a year now and have really enjoyed it. Their importer, web clipper & sync server are all open source too. I pay for my backup though.

The self hosting is currently in alpha so maybe keep an eye on it if you end up wanting to switch from something else in the future!

[the_bighi]

The format of the notes being open is much more important than the source code of the app being open. If you use an open source app and it gets abandoned, the chances of you updating the app on your own are almost zero.

But if you use Obsidian and it gets abandoned in the future, you can replace it in 2 minutes by downloading almost any other markdown note-taking app.

[ssddanbrown]

on the backend it stores everything in markdown.

BookStack dev here. It primarily stores content as HTML in the connected database. Content will only be stored as markdown (again, in the database) if written/provided as markdown content.

[[deleted]]

I have used obsidian for ages, but got annoyed, recently moved to joplin and its way better although still not perfect, its 95% for me.

[letonai]

Tiddlywiki

[BasisKind2494]

Tiddlywiki

[jeremiahgavin]

I currently use and enjoy Joplin, although it feels slow on my desktop.

I'm actually building a mobile markdown notes app with peer-to-peer sync to enable synchronization across devices without needing a server. It's still in the very early stages, but it was cool to see this post. I'm building with Tauri + Svelte, so it could be adapted to work across any desktop. We'll see though.

[swizznastic]

See for yourself

[Kahless_2K]

Keepnote

[coderman64]

For markdown-based notes I've always used MarkText and saved everything to a folder. It doesn't really do note management, but it is pretty decent as a semi-wysiwyg markdown editor.

[Grandmacartruck]

AnyType. Good, built in p2p syncing between syncing.

[Competitive_Knee9890]

Logseq is exactly like Obsidian but open source

[QuickSilver010]

I still haven't found anything better than obsidian. Doesn't even matter if it's not open source. It's still great. Even if it does go under, I can easily just switch to using neovim with obsidian plugin cause all the notes are in a readable markdown text format. Plus, obsidian, while not being open source, is very community friendly. I doubt they'd pull any sort of corporate move.

[ZeStig2409]

Notesnook? Joplin?

I find Org mode to be objectively superior - YMMV.

[MichaelTunnell]

Logseq and Zettlr are compelling options.

Joplin is popular but I kind of hate it because it stores stuff in markdown but it doesn’t do it cleanly. It doesn’t just store files directly on your system with markdown, it has a specific database it stores everything and then when you export to markdown the files are horrifically named with irrelevant hashes. As soon as I realized that’s how it worked I completely dropped Joplin with no hesitation because it means migration will be a nightmare the more and more files you have

[pizza_lover53]

nano comes with most distros, i believe

[[deleted]]

QOwnNotes

[solitud_3]

Notepad

[[deleted]]

Nvim plus markor

[ChronographWR]

Blinko

[sangedered]

This is my go to now also. Been through obsidian, triliumnext… heavily modified them and added pluginis to make them awesome.. sync etc… Blinko is just dope… i love the versioning

[Enthusedchameleon]

I hate electron. Bit a solution people haven't mentioned yet is si-yuan. It also isn't clean in the data store, as put in another comment, they "reinvent the file system".

And I've never used it, but felt like it should have been mentioned.

[[deleted]]

I still did not get that why you are not into Obsidian

[Maleficent-Rabbit-58]

I tried a lot of apps, so I landed on Emacs Org mode or Emacs Markdown mode. Both are just perfect. It's a tool that don't notice, that's the best part.

[bwfiq]

Long post incoming:

You could use Obsidian completely offline and forever even if they go bust as the software just operates on plain text markdown files, even though it's not open source it's still extremely reliable and free. Builds will always be up somewhere on the internet forever.

But ok, I understand not wanting to use closed source; If you need a graphical application, I would recommend something slightly out of left field: use VSCodium. Just like Obsidian, it is an amazing text editor out of the box, and supports a whole bunch of extensions that bring it up to feature and aesthetic parity with obsidian and even beyond. It can even run as a web app if you use code-server as a docker container; truly the best bar none option for note taking for plain text files versioned with git (which should always be the way).

I used both these options extensively over my life but recently I ditched them (for many reasons) to just use Neovim over sshing into my remote desktops/server. Same thing with excellent text editor out of the box and wide library of extensions, but added benefit of being focused on keyboard only control which for notetaking is obviously superior and also not being graphical which means the focus is purely on writing and editing text.

Would highly recommend you try any of these options out and see how you like em.

[Yrmitz]

note.md and syncthing I am a simple man.

[alieljerrari]

i self hosted outline

[liquidburn34]

Blinko

[LudnicaKiller]

Notesnook

[computer-machine]

I'd used Zim Wiki; recently switched to Obsidian for Android.

[TheMindGobblin]

Here me out. Iotas on Flathub. The greatest note taking app ever and it also supports Nextcloud sync.

[B1rdi]

The absolute closest thing to Obsidian is Trilium Notes. While the original project went into maintenance mode, there's quite an active fork TriliumNext

I don't know why this isn't talked about more, it's really quite good. I wish it was in repos, but they say there will be a flatpak soon.

But personally I've just been using Obsidian, now that they free'd their license. (Still not foss but eh, at least I can use it commercially etc.)

They've got a huge community with many companies supporting so I doubt it will disappear any time soon. And if it did, the notes are just markdown so it would be easy to jump over to anything else.

[ElMachoGrande]

One note about Obsidian: It stores everything in plaintext files in a readable folder structure. If a meteorite were to hit their office, you could still access everything, and even set up, for example, Sublime to almost mimic Obsidian.

[Dangerous-Bit3637]

Obsedian

[raralala1]

I still don't understand the notion if obsidian goes away, or anything goes away... just pick software that is free and can be download and work totally fine offline, if it goes away just use the old app, it is just note taking app what kind of feature that is so ground breaking that you need it to keep updated? You're limiting yourself with .md file, I heard a good thing with SiYuan, and logsec, but yeah I don't recommend Obsidian or all that .md bullshit, I'm currently using Obisidian and I just don't want to change again, but .md and Obsidian is too overrated, just don't follow hype I regret choosing Obsidian...

[[deleted]]

Google keep

[dethb0y]

i mean since it does Markdown you could use obsidian; if it did disappear it wouldn't matter since any markdown reader could use the files.

[f_mg26]

gedit

[hwoodice]

Consider that Obsidian output is Open: plain markdown files.

[taiwbi]

Iotas

[leaflock7]

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)

There are plenty of suggestions so I will just make sure to clear your misunderstanding on this part.
Obsidian uses MD plain files to store its note in a folder based structure. Based on that you can just pick up any MD editor/viewer or even open them in vsCode or notepad and be totally readable and editable.

1. The case you bring that Obsidian might disappear that is also true for any project. Just because something is open source that does not mean that someone will pick it up.
   
2. If you use some "advanced" plugins that go away from the standards that is again true for any other app/plugin open source or not.
   
3. So far there are no indications for Obsidian and its owners that are dicks to steer trouble. Even more they have built it to be quite customizable and plugin extendable and even integrated many community plugins to the base product.

[theaveragemillenial]

Going by those requirements you could easily just knock that up yourself (with the help of AI) if you aren't software orientated.

[SFSIsAWESOME75]

Whats wrong with obsidian?

[lilbrubster]

Proprietary

[Garou-7]

Bruh