- cross-posted to:
- opensource@lemmy.ml
- selfhosted@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- opensource@lemmy.ml
- selfhosted@lemmy.world
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43147928
I built a note-taking app because the one I wanted didn’t exist. Clean UI, local .md files, no cloud, no account.
Built with Rust + Tauri 2.0 + SvelteKit. Full-text search powered by Tantivy. Graph view, AI writing tools (bring your own key), Obsidian import, version history.
Available for Linux (AppImage, APT, AUR), Windows, and macOS. Source: https://codeberg.org/ArkHost/HelixNotes
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Do I get it right that this is like Obsidian, but free and open source?
How does it compare to Obsidian? Does it have note linking using square brackets?
Not to be rude or anything like that, where I’m going is not the “we already have obsidian, why you made this” but “currently obsidian is one of the few non-FOSS things I use in Linux, would be happy to replace obsidian with this if it’s a good substitute”.
I don’t use obsidian plugins, so I understand that HelixNotes doesn’t have this whole plugin ecosystem and can’t replace obsidian for people that rely on plugins, but for me it’s fine.
Is android app coming?
Yes, local-first markdown like Obsidian, but fully open source (AGPL-3.0).
Note linking with square brackets - yes, supported. Graph view too so you can see connections between notes.
If you don’t rely on Obsidian plugins, you’ll feel right at home.
Android is on the roadmap, but the desktop experience comes first. Still early days.
Thanks, gotta try this!
Well, there’s Markor on android, so even without a dedicated android app, I can use Helix Notes + syncthing + Markor on the phone and ditch obsidian if it’s good.
That’s exactly the way I do it. However, the mobile app is something that will be made in the near future.
Have a look at Trilium. Anything Obsidian can do, it does better. And syncing is native.
Can you tell me more? Is it FOSS? Is it electron? Is it a UI for a folder of markdown files? Is there a native android app? What is “native” syncing? Do I have to pay for some kind of cloud?
You can see by yourself at https://triliumnotes.org/
It’s FOSS, it’s web so you can use it hosted, or local first as an electron app, or both and then they will sync together.
It is NOT a UI for a folder of markdown files, because that’s silly when you expect from your system to hold relationships, metadata, rich note types, notes to coexist in multiple places, etc. Since it’s FOSS, and since you can sync your notes real-time and distributed across machines, there’s nothing wrong with this.
You can use the web version on Android as a PWA, but it won’t sync offline. There are workarounds to run a local server on your device for that use cases (not ideal in terms of user-friendlyness, but gets the job done).
You don’t need to pay anything to anyone if you host it yourself or if you keep it local. There is no official hosted plan, some people offer to do that for a tiny fee at https://www.pikapods.com/ (never used them, some people say they are decent).
Can trillium store all files in markdown/plaintext?
How is the theming by trillium? I use a light tan interface because it is much easier on my eyes, personally than high contrast white or eye-straining dark themes.
Can trillium store all files in markdown/plaintext?
Content is stored in a SQLite db (with options to export to markdown & al.), Trilium is open source, so there’s no lock-in and you get the best of both worlds.
How is the theming by trillium? I use a light tan interface because it is much easier on my eyes, personally than high contrast white or eye-straining dark themes.
You can totally reimplement the whole UI if that’s your thing, everything (or close-enough) is a note in Trilium, including themes and other JS/CSS notes that will override or extend parts of the application, like add-ons would elsewhere.
In case anyone is interested, AppImage won’t launch in Q4OS 5.8 (debian based distro), errors are GCC_13.0.0 not found and GLIBC_2.38 not found (which is surprising, I thought appimages ship all required packages together.
Linux is such a mess when it comes to binaries. For all its bloatware Windows made much better choices to bundle everything in the executable.
Known issue - the AppImage is built on Arch so it works on Arch, Fedora, openSUSE, etc. For Debian-based distros, use the APT repo or download the .deb directly
Is it related at all to the Helix editor, same shortcuts etc, or is it just a naming coincidence?
It’s just a naming coincidence. It has nothing to do with the Helix editor.
Oh ok, seems really cool though!
This awesome, thank you for your contribution to the open source space!! I have been looking for something like this for a while :), more powerful than apostrophe, more aesthetic than neovim. This fits the bill, thank you!
