Ask HN: How do you synchronise your notes?

#1

Post by flowinho » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 6:25 AM UTC

tl;dr: How is your personal / work setup?

Long version: I’m starting to burn out searching for a note system that suites my needs and values.

My values: - Privacy and Security - Open Source

My needs: - Markdown writing - Note printing (somewhat beautiful) - OS agnostic (i use Linux/iOS) - Sync across devices. - PDF storage (this is where trust comes in, as some documents contain sensitive info)

My capabilities: I run my own VPS, and as a software developer I’m familiar with git, ssh etc.

As always, tradeoffs are acceptable if I get something in return. For example it doesn’t HAVE to be open source software.

I‘m struggling to find something decent, that is not overblown. I don’t need note revision, I don’t need note-linking, I don’t need fancy productivity hacks or calendar-support.

Best wishes from Germany.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synchronise your notes?

#2

Post by BA4gDY-cqjsEPWn » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 6:33 AM UTC

Joplin - https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/

I use it with end to end encryption enabled and Dropbox as the storage backend.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synchronise your notes?

#3

Post by vs4vijay » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 7:02 AM UTC

There are good Notes App (with syncing options):

  - Standard Notes (OSS, E2E encryption, Allows Sync)
  - AnyType (OSS, E2E encryption, P2P Syncing, Have option to host a node yourself)

---

If you want to separate Notes App and Syncing, then you could try following combination:

  - Obsidian/LogSeq with SyncThing
  - Obsidian/LogSeq with Git Sync
  - dendron vscode with Git Sync

Re: Ask HN: How do you synchronise your notes?

#4

Post by flowinho » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 7:09 AM UTC

vs4vijay wrote: post #3

There are good Notes App (with syncing options): - Standard Notes (OSS, E2E encryption, Allows Sync) - AnyType (OSS, E2E encryption, P2P Syncing, Have option to host a node yourself) --- If you want to separate Notes App and Syncing, then you could try following combination: - Obsidian/LogSeq with SyncThing - Obsidian/LogSeq with Git Sync - dendron vscode with Git Sync

Oh wow! I did not know about anytype. Thank you for showing me another option. How long has the software been around? What is your personal setup? Do you use it?

Re: Ask HN: How do you synchronise your notes?

#5

Post by NoZebra120vClip » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 8:56 AM UTC

Google Docs

Re: Ask HN: How do you synchronise your notes?

#6

Post by joshxyz » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 10:11 AM UTC

Obsidian + obsidian-git extension + github private repository.

It just works.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synchronise your notes?

#7

Post by joshxyz » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 10:13 AM UTC

flowinho wrote: post #4

vs4vijay wrote: post #3

There are good Notes App (with syncing options): - Standard Notes (OSS, E2E encryption, Allows Sync) - AnyType (OSS, E2E encryption, P2P Syncing, Have option to host a node yourself) --- If you want to separate Notes App and Syncing, then you could try following combination: - Obsidian/LogSeq with SyncThing - Obsidian/LogSeq with Git Sync - dendron vscode with Git Sync

Oh wow! I did not know about anytype. Thank you for showing me another option. How long has the software been around? What is your personal setup? Do you use it?

iirc they went open source the other day on github but it puts me off that you are required to login to use their desktop app.

with obsidian i can just open a git cloned repo folder with my notes and i can use it without sign in walls.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synchronise your notes?

#8

Post by flowinho » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 10:27 AM UTC

joshxyz wrote: post #7

flowinho wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow! I did not know about anytype. Thank you for showing me another option. How long has the software been around? What is your personal setup? Do you use it?

iirc they went open source the other day on github but it puts me off that you are required to login to use their desktop app. with obsidian i can just open a git cloned repo folder with my notes and i can use it without sign in walls.

Yo I totally thought about using just files in a git repo myself. However I’m reluctant on trusting GitHub with my notes. Maybe is self-host a git repository and use that. Hmm thanks thoughts like these are exactly why I posted this.

Also looking into Möbius, which is an iOS implementation of syncthing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synchronise your notes?

#9

Post by flowinho » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 10:28 AM UTC

BA4gDY-cqjsEPWn wrote: post #2

Joplin - https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ I use it with end to end encryption enabled and Dropbox as the storage backend.

I used Joplin a few years ago but at some point I couldn’t restore synced notes and had some data-loss. This experience still makes me shy away from using it again…. Has it gotten better?

Re: Ask HN: How do you synchronise your notes?

#10

Post by cpach » Wed, Aug 09, 2023, 11:30 AM UTC

vs4vijay wrote: post #3

There are good Notes App (with syncing options): - Standard Notes (OSS, E2E encryption, Allows Sync) - AnyType (OSS, E2E encryption, P2P Syncing, Have option to host a node yourself) --- If you want to separate Notes App and Syncing, then you could try following combination: - Obsidian/LogSeq with SyncThing - Obsidian/LogSeq with Git Sync - dendron vscode with Git Sync

FWIW, the company behind Obsidian also offer a paid sync service.