Live data from Hacker News

Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

anytype.io

41–50 of 281 posts

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#41
post #7

Can someone explain this is — what it does and what it's used for? I'm not familiar with Notion at all and the page — which basically says you can use it for everything — is not helpful in this regard. It sounds like a P2P shared note and document app but it's not clear to me.

"Knowledgebase apps" try to reconcile the fact that people (most people? all people?) think in sporadic and unstructured ways with the fact that maintaining data is mostly about codifying it into a structure.

So, instead of forcing a person to think "which app do I need to start getting some ideas sketched out", the app wants people to use it and then do whatever makes sense to them as a means of dumping all of the disparate knowledge into a bag so that it can be recalled, even if unstructured, later.

In an idealized example: if a writer got an idea, they would whip open the knowledgebase app and then...

- they might begin writing a list of characters and start detailing their relationships.

- they might upload a few photos of their local environment for remembering setting details, later.

- they might open a 'canvas' and put together a rough drawing of a new spaceship design they're mulling over.

- they might start working out the economy of their world by drafting an accounting table and assigning the trade networks.

The idea being that if any one of those tasks leads to any of the others (an inevitability), it's nice to just be able to scroll down the page and start on the new data without having to think "okay, which app do should I put this in"?

So, overall, it's about velocity of data recording. Some people just don't work that fast, or would prefer to consider HOW to think about an idea before they want to consider the idea, itself. So, for them, this may seem a bit like overkill. But there are definitely people whom can be far more productive if they can bounce around storing data as it surfaces in their mind, rather than when they have time to categorize it.

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#42

This is really nice, but I think the perennial curse of technology people is producing " , but with " People want a thing, not an ideal, and they'll sell their soul to get the thing. At this point, it's actually being surprised by this that is the ludicrous position. Philosophies are a differentiator for a very small portion of population. If you want them to buy into ideals, you've taken on two problems: Make a thin…

This is true, and I sometimes wonder if the only true solution is regulation or overhauling IP or such. But I don't see that happening, because proprietary software is too large and frankly libre software isn't asshole-proof enough for capitalism.

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#43

This is really nice, but I think the perennial curse of technology people is producing " , but with " People want a thing, not an ideal, and they'll sell their soul to get the thing. At this point, it's actually being surprised by this that is the ludicrous position. Philosophies are a differentiator for a very small portion of population. If you want them to buy into ideals, you've taken on two problems: Make a thin…

You're on a forum for hackers, so most of the people here are the ones that care about the specifics of technology.

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#44

This is awesome! Love to see more local-first, security-focused apps! Especially ones that are free. Asking because I'm currently working on a local-first app that I am gaming out how to sync to non-local networks: The docs state that the app syncs to local P2P networks. Does that mean it doesn't sync across the internet? If so, is that because of the cost of maintaining/renting a TURN server? Or is there a technical…

> Does that mean it doesn't sync across the internet? They currently host their own backup node, so it does sync across the internet, but you only get 1GB of storage (or 10GB if you were in the alpha) on their backup node. Once that's exceeded, additional files are only synced P2P. They're planning on providing extra storage for a cost and soon anyone will be able to self-host their own backup node.

Right; should have been more specific, thanks!

I meant to ask if the app syncs P2P over the internet, rather than just through their provided storage.

My solution is to have short-lived data so that they can't reach more than a few MBs of memory on my server, but if there's a straightforward way to do P2P across the globe, I'd very much prefer that option. Asking people to believe that I can't look at their (encrypted) data is fine, but preventing me from having their data at all is ideal.

Given what you pointed out, I definitely figure they're not doing WWW P2P syncing, but you'd be surprised the technical stuff you can figure out by just asking someone who spent way too long building it. They're usually happy to tell you all kinds of interesting details (especially when it comes to 'interesting' bugs/workarounds/hacks)!

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#45

Why does this smell like a cult? Talking about trust and having illusive pictures and designs.. And why do I need to login for an offline app? Where does the data really go? There is some setting remote storage, and some mb already used, so is in reallity an online-app with some offline-mirroring? But it seems there is not a choice to set the local storage-path, and the saved files are just your usual electron-blob-f…

They seem to have only one "node" so far, because the software is still in alpha? That's what their docs seem to say[1].

  All your data primarily syncs to the encrypted backup node in the current alpha. For alpha testers, the application is always connected to the backup node and cannot be disconnected.
Their homepage could tell this more clearly. It doesn't look like it's in alpha.

[1] https://doc.anytype.io/d/troubleshooting/self-host-your-back...

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#46

This is really nice, but I think the perennial curse of technology people is producing " , but with " People want a thing, not an ideal, and they'll sell their soul to get the thing. At this point, it's actually being surprised by this that is the ludicrous position. Philosophies are a differentiator for a very small portion of population. If you want them to buy into ideals, you've taken on two problems: Make a thin…

This is true, and I sometimes wonder if the only true solution is regulation or overhauling IP or such. But I don't see that happening, because proprietary software is too large and frankly libre software isn't asshole-proof enough for capitalism.

My preference would be using this tendency the other way. Make it so good they can't resist it, even if they accidentally eat their vegetables along the way.

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#47

Why does this smell like a cult? Talking about trust and having illusive pictures and designs.. And why do I need to login for an offline app? Where does the data really go? There is some setting remote storage, and some mb already used, so is in reallity an online-app with some offline-mirroring? But it seems there is not a choice to set the local storage-path, and the saved files are just your usual electron-blob-f…

I think the same. I was trying to find the "How to install the server" but here is no option. It just saves the data in their servers. There is too many wording about security and control, but only in their control.

Here is the link with the instructions https://tech.anytype.io/how-to/self-hosting

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#48
post #39

I don't understand this license. It's not open-source. https://github.com/anyproto/anytype-ts/blob/main/LICENSE.md

Co-founder of anytype is here. The most of are repos are open-source. We have our philosophy regarding open source here https://blog.anytype.io/our-open-philosophy/ Happy to discuss concerns regarding our approach.

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#49

I'm sorry to hijack the thread but as someone forced to use Notion as a team wiki, please improve the performance! I can't emphasize this enough. The Notion subreddit is filled with complaints: if that's not a wake up call to every single PM at Notion, I don't know what is. Stop shipping features until the perf is a joy to your users. It's mind-boggling to me that companies would prio anything over fixing perf outsid…

> Notion is the single biggest frustration of any workplace tool I've ever used in my entire software career and it all comes down to its performance.

Even worse than JIRA, or MS Teams? That sounds horrible indeed.

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#50
post #28

Note, their idea[0] of "open source" doesn't match the popular Open Source Definition [1] [0] https://github.com/anyproto/anytype-kotlin/blob/main/LICENSE... [1] https://opensource.org/osd/

Hence why the "free" in "Free and Open Source Software" really matters. :)
Post reply on HN