• irishPotato@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    4 months ago

    I’ve never used a proper note taking app, but recently started using Tana (Startup, free-to-use with some limitations after giving a credit card and cancelling during a two week trial).

    It’s not open source and it only supports full HTML bulleted list or a heavily proprietary JSON format (which is kinda useless outside Tana) exports. Also most of the paid features are AI BS which I don’t mind missing out on, but there are file-size limits on the free version.

    However, I’m finding the UX and features so far amazing! It’s got easy relationships and a tagging hierarchy systems to which you can add fields and it supports a whole bunch of view options and query stuff. You can scroll through this 46 min YT video to get a feel for it!

    Edit: forgot to mention at time pf writing (felt it was implied I guess), it’s cloud only, no local, one of the reasons I feel it’s not ideal

    • hikaru755@lemmy.world
      0·
      4 months ago

      Same boat here, recently discovered tana and its whole model is amazing. It’s fixing most of the things that bothered me a lot in Obsidian and Notion, respectively. I don’t want to go back to a service where I don’t have file-based control over my own data though, so now I’m seriously considering building something on my own that takes the mental model of tana, but implements it local-first based on regular files like Obsidian

        • hikaru755@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 month ago

          So, after finishing my previous project, I have now actually started working on this, working title “Catana”. It’s not usable at all yet but I feel pretty good about where it’s going right now, so I thought I’d put something here to get some public accountability to help keep motivation up, lol.

          Here’s a quick demo of what I have so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyTTfCJxrRQ

          I’ve got the core data model and editing actions down, the two next big steps are adding an equivalent to supertags, and actually being able to save things. Right now it’s in-memory only and resets on every restart, which makes it a lot easier to iterate on the data model quickly. The way it’s looking right now, I’m probably not going for full markdown-compatibility for the storage layer. That would bring with it some immense complexity that I don’t feel like tackling this early on. Instead, I’m planning to save data in a custom (but still open) format, and then in the future add markdown import/export separately, as well as general integration with the file system (representing arbitrary folders and files on your device as Nodes so you can link and manage them directly without leaving the app).

          I already have a rudimentary Tana import working though! Since Tana is the main inspiration for the data model, their export shape is pretty easy to map to Catana’s internal model. It still needs a lot of refinement to be actually useful beyond testing the app quickly with a large, existing dataset, but it’s a very good start.

          So, uh, yeah, if you’re still interested, I’ll keep you posted!

          • irishPotato@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            1 month ago

            Ooh shit dude/tte, that’s awesome! Get it going as open source and post it somewhere for people to make PRs to (I’m not in a place to do so myself, but there’s bound to be others thinking the same as us)!

            • hikaru755@lemmy.world
              2·
              6 days ago

              Here we go, the app is now public on Github and has its first release that can be installed on Windows and Linux! https://github.com/roschlau/catana

              The app is now in a state where it can technically be used, although lots of important features are still missing before it can be considered anywhere near production-ready, that’s gonna be a long march. I’ll keep chipping away on it :)

              • irishPotato@sh.itjust.works
                2·
                1 day ago

                Hot damn! Well done, wish you all the best, if you haven’t posted already I’m sure there are some people on lemmy who might be interested in testing/contributing!

                I’ll check it out myself if I ever get some spare time

            • hikaru755@lemmy.world
              2·
              1 month ago

              I’ll do that for sure! Just gotta build it out a little more first, it’s too early right now to start inviting contributions. The core structures of the app are still changing too much for that to not just end up in chaos

      • irishPotato@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        4 months ago

        Wow, chill, I stated how it’s not in line with the community. Just thought it was worth the mention as I quite like it, it’s got plenty of UX and features I would love to see in a FOS offering but just haven’t!

        I’m part of the community even though I’m not a zealot, in this specific instance I’m very consciously sacrificing a bit of privacy for what I consider a better UX.

        My thinking was that best case someone more in the know would point out an app that’s just as good or better and offers the lacking privacy…

  • peanuts4life@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Is this really true about Keep? I mean, I know it’s a Google product, but is it really that insecure? I’ve never heard much negative stuff about it.

    • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      1·
      1 month ago

      I mean it’s as secure as anything else in your google account.

      But they’re also just quick notes, I don’t think most people are putting extremely private info on those.

  • Libb@jlai.luEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    I still use a pen and notebook. But I have an excuse: I prefer pen and paper to write (and I’m starting to get old too) ;)

    The only digital note taking app I still use is the one that comes with the E2EE filen.io cloud storage, from Germany. It certainly is very limited but it’s more than enough for my occasional note-taking usage and it’s synced everywhere I may need to access it.

      • Libb@jlai.luEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        I’m 99% sure they ripped the note editing functionality from Standard Notes.

        Not sure to understand, how could anyone ‘rip’ a note editing feature? Put text in a file (hopefully encrypted since it’s online) is kinda the purpose of all note-taking app… which they all copied from their analog (and much older) version pen + paper. And the vast majority of them do it using Markdown, too. Even sync is available in most note-taking apps (with or without E2EE encryption), or do you have something a little more specific in mind they would have ripped?

        and try to sell them back to you with a yearly license, even if you host your own server.

        That’s one (other) reason I like filen: lifetime plans are available (the most interesting ones are offered for a limited-time once a year during blackfriday). No sub.

      • something_random_tho@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        Unlike every other note app I’ve ever used, you don’t need to organize things manually or manage an organizational hierarchy (like folders, etc). That’s where I always fall over in other apps, eventually. Organization happens automatically in Logseq.

        It gives you a new, date-stamped journal entry everyday, and you jot down notes in that. You can link to other pages just by adding a hashtag or using 2 square brackets around some text. Each link/hashtag is automatically given its own page, and if you visit it, you’ll see all your mentions of this page, neatly organized in a chronological order by the date. So think about daily work on a project/goal, or anything around a specific topic, all of it is automatically organized for you.

        Under the hood, all the links form a graph and Logseq is backed by a graph database, so it visualizes this graph for you and gives you some powerful querying tools on top of it too.

  • kaosof@lemmy.world
    0·
    4 months ago

    I don’t understand why these Google alternatives don’t lean hard on actually replacing Google’s services.

    Myself as an example; if Notesnook had collaboration, I’d switch in a heartbeat.

    Thr main use-case for an app like this for me is in things like grocery lists, to-do lists etc, all of which are impossible or annoying to do with Notesnook.

    For general offline notes that need to be encrypted there are other solutions I’d rather use. I’d like if I could just use one app for it.

    Me and my partner would HAPPILY pay for an app to get out of Google’S clutches.

    There’s money on the table, but they ain’t counting it yet.

    Why?

    • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      Yeah there’s no replacement out there for Keep. There are note apps that look like keep, but they don’t replicate the functionality.