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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

#241

Post by conradfr »

bornfreddy wrote: post #169
diggan wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We can't even be certain that Notion won't be acquired, deprecated, or poorly maintained in the future. At this point, I feel like we can be pretty sure the combination of "Huge VC investments + for-profit startup" will with 99% certainly eventually lead down the road of enshittification, either by acquisition or by going public. At least based on most previous "internet" startups with that combination.

Not sure why you're being downvoted... This is exactly where the incentives lead the VC-funded companies. Unless they can be extremely profitable by charging money for their product of course, but I don't think Notion can pull this off. The market is just not there, imho.

It's not even cheap.

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#244

Post by thrance »

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #175
thrance wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I just believe that regulation should be standardized. Like all my documents can be in this one european locker (I am not sure if it exists) where filing for regulation can be made really really easy. I don't hate regulation , I just hate friction , if we can really remove the maximum amount of friction in regulation as we can without meaningfully removing the purpose of regulation , then we are talking! (I live in I…

Reducing friction is the EU's raison d'être, near everything it does is to facilitate trade between members. From the single currency to harmonized labor laws, without forgetting the mandated switch to USB-c.

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#245

Post by sitkack »

virdev wrote: post #237
sitkack wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is what grants are for! The government(s) get the exact software they want by a whole field full of folks that know how to make those changes.

Docs actually thanks to the open source grant system we have in Europe. The hard part in a project like Docs is the text editor. We built Docs on top of [Blocknotejs]( https://www.blocknotejs.org/ ) an [NGI funded]( https://ngi.eu/funded_solution/blocknote/ ) library. NGI (Next Generation Internet) and NLNet has been doing an amazing job funding thousands of projects and we are seing the amazing results today. NGI is…

Nice. Wonderful! This needs to spread as far and wide as it can.

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#246

Post by virdev »

bayindirh wrote: post #32
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…

No, it doesn't. First, you create the tools you need with the money your people give you. Then, you give back the tools you created to the public and/or everyone who needs them. You keep your data in your own data center, use the tools which squarely fills the needs of your workers and people, and you share its maintenance with the outside users. It's a win-win-win (country, its workers, people in the world). WWW is…

> We shouldn't be afraid of governments doing cool things

Yes! And you'd be surprised by the kind of talent we're able to attract. People want cool stuff to be built by the public. After all its also their money that's being spent. But you need to provide the right environment for their talent not to go waste and thats not easy.

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#247

Post by sitkack »

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.

The government isn't in the business of consuming tax revenue. Its mission is to most efficiently serve the needs of its constituents.

Government services help everyone and raise the floor of the standard of living. Someone is now free to go write and do SOMETHING else and sell that.

By your logic, we should get rid of libraries since more economic activity would happen if everyone had to buy their own books.

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#249

Post by sitkack »

addicted wrote: post #124
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…

> am I wrong that it sounds crazy and inefficient for the government to essentially compete with private industry? The Internet is a strong and definitive counterpoint to this claim, IMO. If the government didn’t create the open internet, we would all be living in AOL style walled gardens right now.

For many on facebook, this is indeed the case. FB is just AOL for GenX and Boomers.

Re: Docs – Open source alternative to Notion or Outline

#250

Post by addcommitpush »

mrweasel wrote: post #43

Looking at how much infrastructure needs to be spun up, I don't really see this as a good solution for personal note taking. If you use the Docker environment, you spin up 10 or more containers... including KeyClock. I get that this is intended to by hosted by a company or an organisation, but plenty of people are using Notion just as individuals. Most people would be better of with Obsidian, Bear, Notion or even App…

This is an internal tool (which was open sourced) made by the French government digital service to be used by French government employee on French government infra. I do not think it is trying to be a better solution for individuals. It’s trying to be a better solution for gov employees.
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