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Comment by pixelmonkey | Hacker News Reader

I personally think Tiddlywiki is a fascinating project and I even used it professionally for a few years. But, these days, I think you likely do better with either a Dropbox directory full of Markdown files or installing the free tool Simplenote everywhere (mobile/desktop) and using its support for notes/Markdown. It's true that if you go with these simple schemes, you lose wiki-style linking. But, I've found that YAGNI applies here.

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I personally use ZimWiki[1], with it's files synced across devices using SyncThing[2]. Setup to install both took barely half an hour and it doesn't really need any maintenance now.

[1] http://zim-wiki.org/

[2] https://syncthing.net/

My fiancée has been using zimwiki over syncthing for years now, been really simple and stable.

(I use org-mode, but that requires some investment …)

For team use take a look at the open source wiki we've been working on, simple, BSD licensed, well designed and works with Markdown: http://getoutline.com

It looks good but I saw they require Slack developer which is a no for me

> Outline requires the following dependencies:

> Postgres >=9.5 > Redis > Slack developer application

Either Google or Slack will work, I've updated the README to reflect that

That doesn’t really solve the problem.

The recent Facebook debacle should be example why.

There is also vimwiki for vim users.

vimwiki is great, but $DEITY forgive me I started using OneNote so I can paste in screenshots and now I can't give it up. Too bad it doesn't support vim keybinds.

I tried spacemacs/org/gtd for a while but there was too much yakshaving, sync was hard and still no embedded images.

Well there is yak shaving with org mode but it can do inline images. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27129338/inline-images-i...

Markdown offers image markup, so orgmode and vimwiki offer you that.

Tiddlywiki is BSD licensed.

How does Simplenote make money?

Subsidized by Automattic, the creators of Wordpress.com and the (large, 790+ employee) company that is main commercial sponsor of Wordpress open source project. https://automattic.com/

The iOS, Android, and Electron/desktop app is open source, but the server-side environment is proprietary to Automattic. But, the app supports simple zip export of all your notes, which is nothing more than a directory full of plain text files and a JSON file representing the (optional) revision history. I believe the Automattic team operates the service for free because they use it as a testing ground for development frameworks that then cross over to Wordpress.com and other projects.

I received few marketing emails related to a topic that I had mentioned only in a Simplenote note and also started seeing online ads for few days. It might just be coincidental but since then I have moved to Notes.app temporarily and I am looking for a replacement - a third party minimal and private note service.

Anyone reading this thinking a "bunch of markdown files" sounds like a good idea should really look into org-mode. Trust me.

The bunch of markdown files sounds great, the emacs part puts me off. I don't want to learn emacs to store random thoughts.

Is that an accurate concern?

I learnt emacs for org-mode and magit. If you see what org-mode can do and you find that attractive, learning emacs will just happen. Learning emacs will set your life on a new course filled with joy. At least that's what happened to me.

I started using org-mode just because this seems to be a best solution for "I want just a simple todolist in my terminal, but with pretty bullets." It kinda feels like using a bazooka to kill a fly :D

Yeah, but the nice thing about it, and emacs in general, is you use as much as you want and the rest just stays hidden away until you need it.

I used the great org-mode for many years, but the lack of a good option to view and edit my notes from mobile pushed me to Evernote, which I'm happily using since, even though I miss the simplicity of text files and the power of git.

For me that's a reason to ditch my mobile, not ditch org-mode.

I just have checked orgzly and it impressed me. It has really progressed since the last time I checked it.

So, now I have to think about the possibility of reverting back to org-mode after a couple of years of heavily using Evernote.

I've used EverOrg[0] to convert my evernote files to Org files, retains the attachments (images, PDFs, etc) wonderfully too.

[0]: https://github.com/mgmart/EverOrg

Also you can just use github and some macros to auto commit changes on save. This way you can edit from mobile and desktop and you will have index and history capabilities

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