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Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

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Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#201

Post by spondylosaurus »

no_wizard wrote: post #186
slowtrek wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shared Google Docs.

Google Docs isn’t near the same as Notion. Not even close. Notion treats information as a repository and keeps things indexed, searchable, and has some ways to automatically sort things, has ability to seamlessly create different types of documents and weave them together and so much more that Docs lack. Docs doesn’t even have native markdown support last I checked

You can use Markdown in Google Docs, but it automatically gets converted to rich text. (When you copy/paste rich text out of Google Docs, there's also a "Copy as Markdown" option, but it'll default to a particular Markdown syntax that may not be the one you refer.)

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#202

Post by scarecrowbob »

sMarsIntruder wrote: post #87
tough wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we have a tally of communist vs capitalist millions of victims I feel like we never had 'real' communism, as much as we never had real 'free markets' yet but that's just a vibe

Well there are/were many ‘real’ communism implementations of closed societies. While you’re right that there are no ‘free markets’ experiments, just some bad Crony Capitalism.

How many of those "closed societies" were implemented as such because of direct actions by the US and other larger powers?

Cuba, Guatamala, Vietnam, and North Korea all seem to have been led by people who were very sympathetic to "open-ness" until the CIA got involved.

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#203

Post by ctrlp »

I just cannot understand the appeal of these browser based note taking apps. Notion, Obsidian, Outline? Is it the collaboration feature? Why not just use Google Docs or equivalent?

For notes, I don't see the appeal of having a browser interface. I just put my notes in a text file. No protocol, just search for text strings or text tags. If I need hierarchical organization, I use directories. What am I missing out on?

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#204

Post by jahewson »

fastasucan wrote: post #194
johndhi wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't thought about this a ton - but am I wrong that it sounds crazy and inefficient for the government to essentially compete with private industry? It feels like a colliding of worlds and a cannibalization that doesn't make sense to me. Like - if the government launched a messaging app competitive with WhatsApp and it drew users away from WhatsApp and it had better encryption ... Would that actually be better f…

Why is it better that 5 private companies make the same product and compete against each other in marketing? Why should the government buy a product from them, and spend lots of money to tailor it to their needs, without even owning the finished product?

Where do governments get their money from? Taxes on economic activity. The more economic activity the government performs itself, the less opportunity there is to raise tax revenue.

Take this through to its logical conclusion and you have the government owning farms, making food, making its own steel, building its own cars, etc. with a corresponding loss of revenue-raising activity in the real economy.

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#205

Post by jonahx »

ctrlp wrote: post #203

I just cannot understand the appeal of these browser based note taking apps. Notion, Obsidian, Outline? Is it the collaboration feature? Why not just use Google Docs or equivalent? For notes, I don't see the appeal of having a browser interface. I just put my notes in a text file. No protocol, just search for text strings or text tags. If I need hierarchical organization, I use directories. What am I missing out on?

> What am I missing out on?

1. Non-technical colleagues.

2. Easy and real-time collaboration.

3. Slickness, mixing of multi-media, etc. This is related to 1.

Not arguing against your preference, just answering the "why".

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#206

Post by HeatrayEnjoyer »

happyopossum wrote: post #163
rlnvlc wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said that government cannot compete with private companies on the free market? It is not like they banned notion, they simply released an alternative product. More competition means better outcome for the customers. But somehow you ended up saying this is communism. How you got there is completely beyond me.

> compete with private companies on the free market It’s not a free market as soon as Gov’t start using text dollars. It’s also. It competition when one entity has zero risk and endless capital to spend on a project. If a corporation did this, they’d be accused of being anti-competitive, not fostering competition.

Zero risk and endless capital is a more accurate description of VC than public works. No one gets voted out for investing in useless apps.

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#207

Post by daveguy »

KronisLV wrote: post #75
nchagnet wrote: post #6

This is a really great project from both the French and German governments. I think state-funded open source solutions to digital platforms is a fantastic opportunity to get away from the big tech walled gardens. Of course, there is always the risk that this becomes unmaintained in the future, but the community at least can take over. But until then, it's a nice platform and a nice contribution to the community.

Personally, even if this software wouldn't be 1:1 capable of replacing the established players, it still feels like a good idea. With how much people (rightfully) complain about how open source is underfunded and with how often we're forced into borderline exploitative dealings with the established players in the market (the likes of MS Office, Adobe products, Atlassian products, even some Oracle stuff), funding the…

> ... seems like a good idea, as long as everyone in the government isn't incompetent. For example, if we had governments with strong tech departments that could fund helping the development of...

The US had two very strong and competent tech departments -- 18F and USDS.

They got doge'd -- dismantled and coopted, respectively.

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#208

Post by blitzar »

johndhi wrote: post #19
nchagnet wrote: post #6

This is a really great project from both the French and German governments. I think state-funded open source solutions to digital platforms is a fantastic opportunity to get away from the big tech walled gardens. Of course, there is always the risk that this becomes unmaintained in the future, but the community at least can take over. But until then, it's a nice platform and a nice contribution to the community.

I haven't thought about this a ton - but am I wrong that it sounds crazy and inefficient for the government to essentially compete with private industry? It feels like a colliding of worlds and a cannibalization that doesn't make sense to me. Like - if the government launched a messaging app competitive with WhatsApp and it drew users away from WhatsApp and it had better encryption ... Would that actually be better f…

The big tech billionaires got there by taking the same money from the government and keeping the ownership. If the government money keeps the ownership in the hands of "we the people" then that sounds good to me.

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#209

Post by [deleted] »

DeathArrow wrote: post #55
rtpg wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a universe where the French government drops a perfect replacement for Notion and causes Notion to go out of business, this is still a net positive for society in the same way that things like Linux existing is a net positive for society. One should not focus on the economic sphere as the be all and end all. We can just have improvements be distributed to everyone sometimes! We can just do good things through coor…

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#210

Post by s1artibartfast »

jahewson wrote: post #204
fastasucan wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it better that 5 private companies make the same product and compete against each other in marketing? Why should the government buy a product from them, and spend lots of money to tailor it to their needs, without even owning the finished product?

Where do governments get their money from? Taxes on economic activity. The more economic activity the government performs itself, the less opportunity there is to raise tax revenue. Take this through to its logical conclusion and you have the government owning farms, making food, making its own steel, building its own cars, etc. with a corresponding loss of revenue-raising activity in the real economy.

Government can and does tax its workers and suppliers.

In a bubble, there is no revenue raising difference between a government owned economy and a private economy with equal production.

Realistic differences come down to comparative disfunction of management (IMO, best considered in terms of which is worse).

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