I recently finished reading a book by Tiago Forte - “Building a Second Brain”. I instantly noticed the complete disregard for user privacy and security when it came to choosing the right note taking app. So here I will share some better options that actually respect you.
NOTE: some of the apps are mentioned on the official website of the book, but there is no accent on them being FOSS.
Note taking apps
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Joplin - Has loads of great integrations with different apps and systems. Is available on all devices. I would argue its the closest one to Obsidian, in the way it organises and manages notes.
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Affine - Integrates AI features that let you summerize your notes, has an interactive whiteboard similar to logseq. Is marketed as a Notion replacement. Only problem is that there is no phone app for it (yet).
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Zettlr - Arguably the most professional tool in this list. It Uses regular markdown, making it extremely versatile. Sadly doesn’t have a phone app
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Notesnook - A modern and advanced knowledge collection tool. Its in very active development. New versions are made multiple times a month. Marketed as a FOSS Evernote alternative.
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Quillpad - Very simple and straight forward phone note taking app.
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logseq - Arguably the best app for the 2nd brain setup. Uses a slightly strange version of markdown, but that allows for extremely productive and efficient workflows and great project planning. All thanks to an infinite canvas board that is fully integrated with the rest of the notes.
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Markor - My 2ndBrain app of choice (on phone). Its a minimal app that doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any way. It gives exactly enough for a simple, yet effective notes system
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Anytype - This is a slightly crazy one. Its entirely object oriented. Every note has a “type” which defines the structure and nature of the note. For example: you can have a type “Person”. Each note with the type person will be a somehow significant in your life. Then you can have a type “list of People” which you use to make a list of your coworkers. In this example, the “List of People” can only hold objects of type “People”. Marketed as a FOSS Notion repalcement.
Todo apps
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Tasks.org - Feels like a modern and polished todo tool with many built in sync options (even the proprietary ones)
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ntodotxt - Personal todo app of choice. uses the todo.txt format
This list is not complete. If you have any other software to add, or some remarks about software already present, feel free to contact me. on matrix: @fedorvin:matrix.org