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Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

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Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#403
post #46
post #7

I wonder how that 100 year guarantee is holding up? https://longnow.org/ideas/evernote-and-the-100-year-data-gua...

>Evernote CEO Phil Libin announced at the recent Le Web London conference that the company will soon set up a protected fund and include a legally binding guaratee that users’ data will be maintained for 100 years That almost sounds like a threat to commit a crime in certain jurisdictions. A lot has changed regarding how we talk about data in the last decade.

> legally binding guaratee that users’data will be maintained for 100 years

This sounds mostly like a PR stunt to use the word "legally" to try to instill a false sense of confidence in users when in reality, "legally" doesn't mean much. Legally binding to what? The corporation? The corporation can run out of funds and die in 2 years, and then the contract isn't bound to anything.

Legally binding for 100 years has NOTHING to do with staying alive for 100 years.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#404

I feel like Evernote is a prime example of the pains of trying to convert free users to paying users for the same features, something we see in many VC funded software from its era. Once you give something away, it's damn near impossible to take it back, even if you plead your case as honestly as Evernote did. Evernote was great. Honestly, it was worth paying for. But they gave away the farm too early, and folks feel…

> and telling you that if you want to own the sync story that you can, but you can pay to have the cohesive experience on every device What stops you to sync for free using free Dropbox or OneDrive accounts?

It sounds like that I didn't explain myself super well, because we agree. Using Dropbox or OneDrive to do sync is still owning the sync story yourself. You may not be writing the file syncing software, but you're not using Obsidian's purpose built sync system.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#405

Here is an (incomplete) list[1] of random note-taking apps that you can try if you are leaving Evernotes. Or you can try ours, which is based on Markdown (not open source) and a nested notecard format (not documents). Heavy emphasis on getting out of your way and just letting you write notes, though still with plenty of power if you need it. It has plenty of other cool features[2] and we're prepping for a pretty big…

I never stopped using the Notes app in my Apple computer and phones. I know it lacks a lot of features that typical HN reader thinks is a must-have but the fact that I don't have to worry about feature creep and crazy monetization schemes is a strong enough motives that keeps me on this ecosystem. Plain text FTW!

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and now we only really have OneNote, the web version of which still really sucks. You can't even search a whole notebook, just a section. And it needs to reload every day.

OneNote 2016 was revolutionary for me. Since then I’ve found it less and less usable with each new update. I think the tension between having a good web app and a good desktop app with the same interface is difficult to resolve.

Yes the simplified version that MS made was also much much crappier. The tabs for the different notebook disappeared and much of the functionality too :'(

The syncing with Sharepoint also works pretty crap. I preferred when the database was just stored locally and I could choose where to store it.

I'd love to get a new application just like this that works like the old OneNote. Without a whole cloud backing it which locks in my information (e.g. Evernote, Notion etc). Just a file (or collection of files) I can store locally or even in a local git server or whatever. But with options for attachments and cross platform.

I haven't really found anything good. Most of the things are not WYSIWYG but markdown with a double pane (one for the input and one for rendered) which I don't like - I'm not a dev so I don't really idolise markdown or have the muscle memory for it.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#408
I tried Evernote when it came out ~2005, but it never got rid of its rough edges. There were some neat features but they were overshadowed by bugs and glaring gaps in functionality. Tried it again ~2010 to see if it improved, but it was still a no-go. ): It was always an over-hyped app.

I'm currently migrating from Apple to Obsidian.

Re: Tell HN: Nearly all of Evernote’s remaining staff has been laid off

#409
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not open source. If migrate from Evernote, at least it's better to migrate to FOSS. Sadly, most FOSS solutions lack mobile app support.

Open source is not a cure-all you know. I prefer to pay for quality software than spend countless hours trying to compile a thing someone abandoned years ago.

It's essentially impossible to create a SaaS app that's fully FOSS. And what good would it do?

Furthermore, FOSS is orthogonal to support and usability. It's a meaningless property on its own.

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