There are many solutions (Org-mode, Notion, Bear, Roam, etc.). But organising knowledge remains one of HN's preoccupations.<p>1. What is your minimal set of features?<p>2. Which ones would you pay for?
You will get wildly varying views here, note taking is hugely subjective.<p>As for myself, I like note taking apps that provide a frontend to a file system, that gets then exposed either directly (editing the contents of an actual folder on a device) or indirectly (syncing with a cloud storage service, preferably third party). While this has some inherent limitations (like on file names and possible hardship to add per-note features) it has also great possibilities for integrations with other workflows and tools of the user.
1. A simple text editor and a file system. Then I can create notes and folders at will, and mix in other file types like PDFs, emails, images, MS Office docs, whatever. I can search them, and if they’re in my iCloud I can view them from the phone or iPad, and edit them from iOS in a pinch (this is last resort).<p>2. I do pay for MacOS hardware since it has a good stable shell (compared to Windows, or Linux) and by “stable” I mean feature set and interface, rather than crashiness. But there’s not a single note taking app or feature I would pay for, and I’ve tried many. None are worth paying for in my view. They suffer from problems such as lock-in and portability, and while I will occasionally accept lock-in and non-portability, I need to get something really good in exchange. None of the paid note-taking apps even come close to offering anything that good.
The most important, non-negotiable thing to me is a quick launch. It has to go from 0-100 (or at least to usable), as fast as possible. Among text editors Sublime is still the gold-standard for this, launching even faster than Notepad++ sometimes. I am not in the habit of keeping my device on all the time, so just tolerating a slow launch and then keeping the app open is not an option. Quick capture of items is very important to me and a slow load breaks my flow of thought.<p>Next priority is it being free software and being a completely offline tool.<p>Beyond that, I just need Markdown support, operating on local files in a sane structure, and a hierarchical file browser in a pane on the left.<p>I'm not averse to paying for any of this, but USD pricing usually translates very poorly to purchasing power in my country. I'd be willing to pay no more than $3 a month.
- Open source<p>- It should be easy to use (not org mode, not vim) like typora<p>- Support for markdown<p>- Just plain text<p>- Easy sync between my laptop and phone<p>I have nothing against emacs or vim. I just do not want to learn a tool for just taking notes. I found typora a good choice for my daily work. However, I'd love to sync my notes without relying on a second app (eg dropbox).
I'm a huge fan of markdown. So for that reason, <i>all</i> my notes are kept in that form unless I'm writing them in a book. I also use markdown just about everywhere else (Markdown New Tab plugin, etc).<p>A couple of features that I've seen in some but definitely not all editors is auto-TOC, and the ability to collapse paragraphs.<p>What I would pay for: A set of apps, like Todo and Sticky Notes and a Notepad that maintain a shared directory or database so I can use Search and find data that could be anywhere among those different note-taking scenarios. And Todo should be able to link to markdown documents within the app set, etc.
Just wanted to leave a reminder that pencil is better than pen for note-taking. And paper is better than screen.<p>My flow is so much better with a pencil and paper, and then I just transfer the organized meat onto a screen, only after I'm satisfied. Working first by typing into a note-taking app is counter productive, your brain doesn't want to work like that. It wants to scribble, doodle, draw arrows pointing to stuff.
The only feature I would pay for is a cloud sync service, at maybe a few bucks a month, I don't use proprietary stuff much.<p>My minimal feature set would be:<p>* Android and Linux support
* Sync
* Open Source
* 100% reliability. No lost notes because you switched to a different app without saving.
* Heirachal organization, bookmarks
* Markdown or equivalent power<p>I'm currently using Drayer Journal, a custom app I built in Kivy when I got the bad idea to build a notes app in Kivy with a P2P sync engine, before remembering how much I hate small time "One author one user" software.<p>I think the P2P sync engine protocol part has a lot of potential, and it's very hard to find anything equivalent, but Kivy is not the best choice, it's a bit hard to work with, slow to open, and still pretty new.
I often use external HTTP links in my notes. I want my app to archive all of these pages, because those links might vanish tomorrow.<p>I also want to be able to search in those HTTP links, upto depth of 3 would be sweet<p>Any notes app supports these features?
I like the features in Microsoft OneNote (web/desktop apps, cross-platform, nested sections/pages, cross-linking between pages, free-form doodles and formatted text). And all of that is free.<p>The only feature I think is missing is exporting to some open format so I can use them with another application.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_OneNote" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_OneNote</a>
Something like the Canon Cat. One big file with quasimodal search. Embedded images and probably arbitrary files. Maybe spreadsheet-ish features (ability to dynamically fill out data generated from code).
If I'm on Windows and it would become my main Operating System, One Note would be the choice.<p>I would pay for One Note, I don't have any idea about the other ones.<p>Right now I'm using markdown with a GitHub repository.
I use Bear and like it. It has all the features I need in an uncluttered easy to navigate interface. If I needed PC/Linux support I would probably be using Joplin.