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Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

anytype.io

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Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#121

Post by pronkin »

PurpleRamen wrote: post #81
taminka wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Talking about trust and having illusive pictures and designs.. it's one of the key features of the app that most other alternatives lack, it would be weird for them not to mention this > And why do I need to login for an offline app? it's not offline only, it can sync to your other devices over the internet > Where does the data really go? There is some setting remote storage, and some mb already used, so is in rea…

> it's one of the key features of the app that most other alternatives lack, That's their claim, but it doesn't hold up much so far. > it would be weird for them not to mention this There is a difference between mentioning it, and using it as a selling-point. > it's not offline only, it can sync to your other devices over the internet There are many apps who can sync, most of them have it as an option, without a forc…

>That's their claim, but it doesn't hold up much so far.

are there any arguments?

>There are many apps who can sync, most of them have it as an option, without a forced login and hidden sync.

We don’t have any forced login. It’s just basic keychain that generated on your machine, that only can use, and can use off-line. It’s a way do deal with encryption. Where you see a forced login?

>So I can't even access my data and must trust in the app to not screw up, and have a well working export. Which considering it takes Notion and its poor export as inspiration, is not really a good sign

we have described our data format, so your data is yours, you can write any adaptor to read/write

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#122

Post by fuksman »

taink wrote: post #57
pronkin wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's useless if the client also sends the same data to Any's node. You can't disable that for now: Self-hosting only without a backup node is currently unavailable The self-hosting-only feature is not released yet. If you don’t want to use Anytype node and instead use p2p sync between your devices, you can block Anytype network traffic (Anytype & Anytype Helper) via your firewall. From https://doc.anytype.io/d/data…

Thank you for the heads-up, we released the self-hosting ability yesterday and didn't update the docs. Now it's been updated; self-hosting is available: https://tech.anytype.io/how-to/self-hosting

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#123

Post by zoogeny »

pgeorgi wrote: 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/

A lot of the comments to this are angry and I can appreciate that. There is obviously some specific nuance to "open source" that individuals in this thread want to maintain and feel that the OSI has enshrined in stone as a definition that no one shall breach.

However, I strongly support the kind of license (in principle) that this software is released under. Source code is available for anyone to inspect, modify for their own use, contribute to, run locally for their own benefit. The main restriction is so clearly obvious: you can't create a commercial competitor. You can't take their code and with minimal effort or minor changes create a competing app and sell it to others.

This to me seems like a completely sane license. So common in fact that creative commons asks two basic questions when they recommend a license: "Allow adaptations of your work to be shared?" and "Allow commercial uses of your work?". In fact, they differentiate this difference with the moniker "Free cultural works" [1] (those that allow commercial use are termed "free").

I'd like to see the same nuance in software licenses. A difference between "open" and "free". That way, we can avoid this bickering in the comments where those who really want completely free software (free from all restrictions including those against commercial use) won't jump down the throats of those who want to open up their source while protecting themselves from competing commercial use.

1. https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/fr...

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#124

Post by sharipova »

nashashmi wrote: post #12

One thing I found amazing about Notion was how nicely my Evernote was imported in. Can I do the same here

not yet, we have very limited import options at the moment (notion, markdown, csv and protobuf). This surely limits our activation > not easy to start. We are working on more import options and also plan to publish an API and hope our community helps to build more options together with us

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#126

Post by fabifabulous »

jitl wrote: post #5

(I work at Notion) The Anytype model is really cool - in a way, they’ve rebuilt Lotus Notes with 21st century E2E encrypted protocols and technology. They’ve built a really solid personal knowledge app with many of Notion’s features - and some clear improvements over Notion. However they also demonstrate the complexity and tradeoffs of the E2E approach. Anytype has been a work-in-progress since at least 2019. Their d…

> Without these features Anytype is in a much smaller market (PKM) with less distribution than Notion/Coda/Dropbox Paper/Quip/Confluence/…

I can tell you that e.g. the whole education market in the EU is waiting for something like AnyType, as soon as they have implemented collaboration, which is very high on their roadmap. As a teacher I just can‘t use Notion or any other US-service based on US cloud services. All claims concerning GDPR are nonsense due to Privacy Shield. I am not allowed to use such services.

Therefore I hope AnyType copies as many good Notion features so that I can leave Notion and its abysmal performance and lack of offline mode for private stuff as well.

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#127

Post by Kerrick »

pronkin wrote: post #114
pgeorgi wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You replied to "You deny your users the most basic freedom there is, the freedom to use your software for any purpose without discrimination." and caim that open source isn't about that. Let's see https://opensource.org/definition-annotated/ , _the_ definition for open source, specifically the sections titled "No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups" and "No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor": "The licens…

The way we crafted it is not clear. Our idea is straightforward: if you want to use the software, you can do so for free, whether for personal use or within an organization. However, if you aim to sell it for profit, you need to contribute to its creation in some way; this is why permission is required. At least, that's the case at this early stage.

That means it's zero-cost and source available, not open source. As it's your software that's your choice, but please don't abuse the term "open source" to describe it. It's no more "open source" than, say, DaVinci Resolve is.

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#128

Post by fabifabulous »

chambers wrote: post #74

The proportion of philosophy to features in their marketing seems off. They say "trust our code, not our words" and then spend several paragraphs of words talking up their ideals. It feels like something is being hidden or talked around. Data-independence may be one aspect that's not transparent. Compared to https://obsidian.md/ , I can't just use raw Markdown or CSV file with Anytype. I've paid Obsidian $300+ just b…

Markdown sucks in some ways though. Not being able to merge cells in tables? Come on.

Re: Anytype – local-first, P2P Notion alternative

#129

Post by dspillett »

pronkin wrote: post #99
wallmountedtv wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When will VC companies stop conflating source available with open source? It's even worse than just being closed source as it's trying to pander to a group for money, and without any respect to the actual values of what they are saying.

Our philosophy surrounding open-source is uncomplicated and clear. All essential protocols and data formats are subject to the MIT license. However, considering our clients' needs and with the MongoDB situation as a reference, we must maintain some degree of defensibility. Our objective is to foster a collaborative atmosphere, co-creating with the community. The size of the community matters to us; when it reaches a…

Your goals sound laudable, but they do not alter the fact that your use of the term “open source” is, deliberately or otherwise, misleading.

> Our philosophy surrounding open-source is uncomplicated and clear.

It does not appear to be the case that your philosophy surrounding open-source is clear. You state very clearly, without caveats, that the product is open-source, which strongly implies that the product is, well, open-source without caveats – and this is not the case. That feels rather disingenuous, if not deliberately dishonest.

It is not unlike printer manufactures loudly proclaiming a page-per-minute value without any note about that rate is only attainable feeding entirely blank A6 sheets out of the device.

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