Moving to better open source notes
There have been a lot of note-taking apps for Linux over the years, most notably BasKet for KDE and Tomboy for Gnome. Perhaps you’ve used a personal wiki to collect thoughts and webpages to clear your mind and be more productive.
Chances are that you’ve also used the Evernote app to “Remember everything”. This proprietary app runs on Windows, Mac, and has mobile apps for iOS and Android. Until recently, it also ran on Linux via Wine, but corporate priorities changed. That left the field open for a new open source contender. Enter Joplin.
Named after the 20th-century composer Scott Joplin, the king of ragtime music, this JavaScript app from Laurent Cozic runs on every platform you can think of (if you count Linux on mainframe). Joplin is a very handy modern replacement to your existing note-taker. Nick Peers introduced Joplin (and Standard Notes) in LXF254. In this article, I’ll go a little deeper to show you how Joplin can take good care of your ideas, wherever you may get them.
Ragtime?
Download Joplin at https://joplinapp.org. Scroll down to the Installation section, and you’ll see the desktop apps. Click the Get It On Linux button to download an AppImage, or use the script provided:
Save the script to a file, as you can run it to update the app to a newer version. You can also install a portable app to store and run from a thumb drive, which is handy if you switch machines often. On first launch, a Welcome notebook offers a quick tutorial for Joplin.
