{{This article was originally posted on December 29,2016. Lost and found, here it is reposted.}}
Update 2: last year I had downloaded an app called Mynotex and not bothered to try it. The 30th and 31st of December, 2016 saw me testing it after I noticed it in my Downloads folder. 1st Jan, 2017 — I have switched to a new note taking application and it is Mynotex. Simple to earn, easy to use and it fulfills most criteria I had including easy import/export, migration. Saves data in sqlite format, so I can access with Python. Main point though is how is arranges all by notes using Subjects and titles.
Update 1 : a new app that I just saw is called Remember (https://github.com/sanchitgn/remember). It seems to be good, but for me it is web based. So not going for it.
I have this obsession of trying to find the perfect tool for note taking and task listing tools. So every once in a while (mainly when I upgrade my OS) I go on a binge to look for solutions that are out there and try them for their look and feel. I have tried just about every open source or free tool that is out there, that can run on Linux and sometimes with wine over Linux.
Even when I write this there seems to be a new tool out there that was directed through this post on Medium https://medium.com/@mobitar/evernote-is-what-happens-when-you-mix-vc-with-a-notes-app-8a6a9ce5a9c5#.x8cvjl29z called Standard Notes (https://standardnotes.org/) that I am downloading to check it out. I liked what is written on the Standard Notes site — A standard notes app with an un-standard focus on longevity, portability, and privacy. Journey through it and with it is yet to begin though.
I am coming to a point where I am going to upgrade my OS. So just recaping all the tools that I tried for note taking and task listing tasks.
I started off with Tomboy Notes as it came standard with the Linux Mint install. Quickly I switched to Sticky Notes that came with Linux as a Panel App. Tomboy was taking too long to load. So that slowness when it came up really disappointed me. Sticky Notes is fast, but it is notes. So use it to put in important things only. I wanted to compartmentalize notes and wanted something to work as todo also. Sticky notes did not have the features.
Then I thought I might be trying to mix 2 separate requirements into one. So it might be better to look for separate solutions for notes and task lists.
First for the task list : though there were a lot of good solutions for Android devices, I could not find them working well on Linux or vice versa. I separated the two with the thought that i did most of my tasks on Linux and would prefer a good solution for it. Two solutions quickly came up : todo.txt and taskwarrior, both for the command line. But I had to either keep a terminal open at anytime or jump to one again and again. Being as lazy as I am that was too much of a task. So looked around for GUI addons for them, found Ptask for taskwarrior and QTodoTxt for todo.txt I found a lot more, but most did not make through my pickyness of either being written in Python or native to GNOME or QT. Many I found were in JAVA, somehow I tend to find applications written in JAVA a little too quirky for my needs, so tend to avoid anything and everything written in JAVA. I have not been able to decided which among the two and not really using both as the issue of if I create todo list in one how do I get them in the other. Hehe…
On the Notes side I am happily settled with NVPY, though it is not all that I was looking for. It seems I like NVPY mainly for what it is — a rather ugly but cross-platform simplenote client. To be fair to NVPY its minimalist view, simplicity and good search is what I like the most.
But there are many more that either I have started something or installed and not used and then there are the ones that I just gave up on reading about them.
One of the first apps I tried was Xournal. I found to be a little bit off my taste mainly due to the mouse based writing feature. I guess it might be a lot better if I could use a pen like device or maybe on a tablet. Xournal reminds me too much of my Palm Pilot m105 digital assistant device. The device had a really small input screen where with a scribe one could draw patterns and that would turn into letters. I never got the hang of it and found it pretty painful. Incidentally that was also the first device on which I tried to make a survey data collection tool. Neither my data collection tool nor the palm pilot went a long way. So that was the end of it.
Rednotebook had just too many things to look at. My brain never got around the options and calender based navigation. What if I wrote notes based on topics and really didn’t stick to dates? It felt more like a dairy.
Springseed was too slow and then its working mechanism was a little too much. I guess since it was just in beta release I should not have expected much.
There were Zim Desktop Wiki, Keepnote and Gnote. Too complex, too laborous and just too simple. Hehe… There was Everpad that worked with Evernote.
One though I did find good and used for a while is Basket Notes. That was good, but the hierarchical structure started getting to me.
All along I kept going back and forth with NVPY. Finally just continued with it.
Note : Sadly the Standard Notes, that I mentioned above, just refused to start on my Linux Mint 17.3 machine. So giving up on it too