• ArchRecord ( ArchRecord@lemm.ee ) English
      3·
      2 years ago

      Seconded. I’m not terribly happy it’s closed-source, but the team seems quite ethical in their approach to software development and user privacy, and for anyone not in the know about Obsidian, the big highlights that still make it worth it for me are:

      • Markdown formatted notes (standard format you can port across many different kinds of apps, especially useful as an exit strategy if Obsidian ever enshittifies)
      • Plugins & Themes (Add basically any arbitrary functionality or looks you need, from structured query languages to analyze your notes, to automatic image format converters)
      • Note Linking (being able to link your notes like so: [[Name of Note]] (shows as Name of Note in reading mode) so you can easily structure your knowledge, and build relationships between notes
    • JustEnoughDucks ( JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl ) 
      2·
      2 years ago

      Your notes are (or at least were 4 years ago when I last used it) stored in plaintext on your gmail under the notes tag. You don’t hear negative stuff about it because 99% of people don’t use notes for sensitive info, or even things they care about. It is also not a high profile app like messaging apps. It is just something everyone assumes is completely fine.

  • Sʏʟᴇɴᴄᴇ ( Sylence@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 
    4·
    2 years ago

    I have multiple notes apps but one thing that’s prevented me from ditching keep is that I have dozens of old notes which I’d like to transfer to the replacement app.

    I’m pretty tech savvy but have had a look and couldn’t find an easy way to export my notes from keep. Anyone have any advice?

    • hasanhaja ( hasanhaja@lemmy.ml ) English
      3·
      2 years ago

      I’ve spent a lot of time manually moving my notes into Obsidian. Not done yet but it’s quite therapeutic when I sit down to do and I rediscover a lot of cool things I decided to jot down years ago

  • Korhaka ( Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ) English
    3·
    2 years ago

    I just store my notes locally. Using QOwnNotes currently as I looked at a list of FOSS options and picked what I liked the look of. Manage my own backups already so just included the notes.

  • yopp ( yopp@infosec.pub ) English
    3·
    2 years ago

    Sadly there is still no alternative to Notion (it’s not a note taking app, it’s database). Only SiYuan is somewhat close to Notion in its database capabilities, but comes with its own set of issues.

    I would absolutely love to self-host real Notion alternative!

  • stray ( stray@pawb.social ) 
    3·
    2 years ago

    After looking at Notesnook, I don’t really understand the difference. It has features that Google Keep lacks, but if the company were to shut down their servers I would lose anything not stored locally, right? If I delete a file on one device it’s presumably removed from the others upon sync, so couldn’t they remotely delete my files from any connected device if they wanted to?

    I don’t understand encryption in the first place, so this is probably an ignorant question, but can’t the company that runs the software choose to release the encryption keys anyway? My understanding is that encryption only protects my data from interception by a third party.

    Assuming I’m not wrong on those points, isn’t it better to only store files locally, and to share them either on physical media or via a service which won’t store the files long-term? Is the issue of leaked or lost data not inherent in any hosting service?

    Sorry if everything I’m saying is really stupid. I’m not trying to troll or argue in favor of Google services or anything. I just don’t understand how to evaluate any given service’s trustworthiness or safety.

    e: I just thought to check whether Google Keep is encrypted and the internet says it is. Now I extra don’t get it. Very confused.

    • Robust Mirror ( Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone ) 
      8·
      2 years ago

      Regarding encryption, some companies hold the encryption keys, but many, including Notesnook, use end-to-end encryption. This means the encryption happens on your device and the keys are generated from your password and stored locally rather than on the company’s servers.

      In that scenario the company never has access to the keys in the first place, so they wouldn’t be able to release them even if they wanted to.

      Google Keep on the other hand does not use end-to-end encryption for your notes. While it does use encryption to protect data both during transmission and while stored on its servers, Google retains the ability to access the content of your notes. This means that although your data is safeguarded against external threats, Google’s internal systems can still access your information.

  • Libb ( Libb@jlai.lu ) English
    1·
    2 years ago

    I still use a pen and notebook. But I have an excuse: I prefer pen and paper to write (and I’m starting to get old too) ;)

    The only digital note taking app I still use is the one that comes with the E2EE filen.io cloud storage, from Germany. It certainly is very limited but it’s more than enough for my occasional note-taking usage and it’s synced everywhere I may need to access it.

      • Libb ( Libb@jlai.lu ) English
        1·
        2 years ago

        I’m 99% sure they ripped the note editing functionality from Standard Notes.

        Not sure to understand, how could anyone ‘rip’ a note editing feature? Put text in a file (hopefully encrypted since it’s online) is kinda the purpose of all note-taking app… which they all copied from their analog (and much older) version pen + paper. And the vast majority of them do it using Markdown, too. Even sync is available in most note-taking apps (with or without E2EE encryption), or do you have something a little more specific in mind they would have ripped?

        and try to sell them back to you with a yearly license, even if you host your own server.

        That’s one (other) reason I like filen: lifetime plans are available (the most interesting ones are offered for a limited-time once a year during blackfriday). No sub.

    • lightnsfw ( lightnsfw@reddthat.com ) 
      1·
      2 years ago

      I use a pocket notebook for my weekly “todo” list type notes. I have a Obsidian vault for long term documentations and projects and stuff like that. I tried doing everything in obsidian but between having to pull out my phone, navigate to the app and then type on the shitty phone keyboard it was more troublesome than just carrying around actual notebook.