i want to move away from using discord as a place to store and organise all kinds of links, text and images. its just come to me how easily i could lose access to it, not just by being offline.
ideally, said program has to:
-work offline
-have android and pc support, especially linux.
-have ability to export data into easily viewable formats
if something satisfies most but not all requirements, please still write about it, it can still be useful.
I’ve been using NotesNook.
I love Notesnook. You can’t save images (or any type of file) without their premium subscription. It’s well worth it tho.
Links: Wallabag, if you don’t want to self host it’s very cheap to have them do it.
Text: Obsidian, but I’m also playing with Notesnook
Images: Immich
The text apps I listed are the only ones that could be considered “offline” though.
I have an issue with Obsisian bc it’s freemium. From what I could tell, there’s not a substantial difference from Joplin, which is FOSS.
How is it freemium? You either pay them to “host” your files or you don’t. There is no other cost involved. IIRC, Joplin Cloud is a similar set up if you’re not equipped to selfhost or just don’t want to. It’s not FOSS, sure. But it’s a hierarchy of flat markdown files that can be read by any text editor on any OS. Making extracting your data very simple. Joplin stores your notes in a database file that requires an export or conversion function to get it back out, should they go out of business, etc. The database and the absolutely horrible Android app is what had me give up on Joplin entirely. If it’s working for you thats great. I’m certainly not trying to convince anyone. My use case requires easy, universal access to my notes. And .md files in folders is the lowest friction way I can think of. I’m currently paying for Sync, but once my year is up I’m going to try Syncthing again or the CouchDB sync plugin to save money. $8/mo is too much.
How is it freemium?
It doesn’t cost money unless you want certain features, and it uses a proprietary license.
You either pay them to “host” your files or you don’t… It’s not FOSS, sure.
And that’s a dealbreaker for me (the non-FOSS license, not the “pay the devs” part)
I guess my point is that in your example, Joplin is the same. The feature hidden behind a paywall is for them to host the sync function for you. Both Joplin and Obsidian offer that. Yet you can roll your own method using Syncthing, Nextcloud, etc for either of them. If it’s FOSS or not that’s a deal breaker, I get it. I gave Obsidian a pass in that regard since the file format is so wide open and universal.
You may want to keep an eye out on these two as well. Both are missing some features now, but have them on their roadmap:
- not open source yet, but planned
- no E2EE, but planned
- can’t self host the mobile app side of things, but the desktop versions work without an account and use markdown file format like Obsidian (and others)
- Open source
- E2EE
- Can’t self host yet, but on the roadmap. The dev confirmed to me that there would be no fee tacked on for self hosters once released, something that either Standard Notes or Simple Note does (can’t remember which).
If you’re comfortable with self hosting, I recommend SilverBullet: it’s a Markdown-based knowledge management solution that runs as a PWA in any modern browser. It automatically syncs to a hosted SilverBullet server during use when you have an internet connection, and otherwise can run completely offline (provided that you use a browser that supports offline PWAs)
I’m honestly pretty hopeless when it comes to self hosting
Fair enough, it’s definitely not for everyone. It’s a great learning experience though!
In that case, Joplin and something like Syncthing + Git (so that you remain in control of your data) would fit your need, since in essence you’d just be securely and privately passing around all your notes/files over a decentralized network.
