views:

886

answers:

17

We all know that having a good note taking tool is important as a developer.

However, OneNote and Evernote forces us to be locked in to a particular vendor.

Anyone know of good open-source tools, or even other method of taking notes w/o being "locked-in"?

EDIT: I should kick myself in the head for not specifying. Taking text notes is easy. I'd love to be able to write ink notes ( I use a tablet ), add images,and sketch GUI ideas.

+21  A: 

Pen and paper.

Roger Lipscombe
Open source hardware and software.
Will
Besides pen and paper locks you into the physical reality
Vinko Vrsalovic
Pretty old-school. :-) Organizing paper is a hassle though.
Till
You can put all your notes on google calendar later...
Diones
Oh snap! http://stackoverflow.com/questions/229762/what-single-software-development-tool-do-you-think-holds-the-most-value#229774
Stewart Johnson
I've tried several different ways to organise my notes. I've tried OneNote, I've tried index cards, I've tried sticky notes, I've tried Notepad.In the end I always come back to an A4 lined pad and a fine-point gel pen.
Roger Lipscombe
+5  A: 

Use a text editor and save as a text file. Guaranteed no lock-in whatsoever.

OJ
I use WinKey to add windows keyboard shortcut that brings up vim with a "notes" file.
Mark Biek
+1  A: 

It might help a little bit if you elaborated a little on what features you want from a note-taking tool.

Emacs with outline-mode is one option.

JesperE
+10  A: 

Try the one file tiddlywiki for which you can get even shared hosting here.

André
A wiki is probably the best suggestion. Allows more structure beyond a simple text file and cross-linking content/topics, etc..
Till
Just checked this out. Wow.
Vivek Kodira
+1  A: 

(Or another personal Wiki system with vim, just google it).

Plain text all the way...

Zsolt Botykai
Surely this is "vim lock-in" ? :)
OJ
Don't worry, I'm sure emacs has a vim emulator.
Aaron Maenpaa
And as these are just plain text files...
Zsolt Botykai
A: 

Notepad and/or VI

CobolGuy
and/or emacs if that's your preference. I've tried both vi and emacs. I used to be an emacs guy, but I'm moving (slowly) to the vi camp. Eventually, I hope to settle in the middle and get somewhat familiar with both.
Thomas Owens
A: 

Well, I should reconsider Evernote. As it has a public API it's not that much of a walled garden and I wooudn't mind the "locked to vendor" thingie :) Evernote API

Tom Deleu
I love evernote. But you have to pay them if you exceed their bandwidth limits.
moogs
Something less featured, but forever free would be nice.
moogs
Also, it requires that you upload notes to their server. Which might be a problem with notes for work.
Kibbee
+3  A: 

Evernote doesn't force you to be locked in. You can export all your notes as plain text or HTML.

Hates_
you're absolutely right. evernote portable might be the way to go..
moogs
Except that it's not opensource as questioned.
Zsolt Botykai
@zsolt - read it again, i didn't limit the question to only open source tools.
moogs
But then you're locked into HTML. :D
OJ
I would love to have a symbian version of evernote...
Osama ALASSIRY
A: 

One more vote here for Vim.

It is open source, available for multiple platforms and there is no lock-in, because the files are accessible with other text editors (except when encrypting with the built-in mechanism, but that would be deliberate lock-in).

Drawbacks:
It might have some slight disadvantage in ease of use and is not really able do handle filetypes other than text.

HS
+2  A: 

FreeMind mind mapping editor

Patrick Cuff
+2  A: 

The open source xournal is what I use. It also lets you annotates PDF files, by using them as a background instead of the more normal blank, lined, or gridded. Very similar is gournal

There are also the java apps in the same space: jarnal and notelab

Try the ones that work on your platform and see which you like. I don't believe any do handwriting recognition, which is a shame, but they all seem to be pretty usable.

wnoise
+1  A: 

While it's not exactly a note taking tool, I create my notes using OpenOffice and save them in my Dropbox folder so that they're available on every pc I log into. It then syncs those notes onto every PC you have it set up on.

Alternately, you can use Google Docs.

Bit Destroyer
A: 

"TodoPaper is a simple, lightweight, and easy to use to-do list application for Windows." plus it's based on plain txt files.

tamberg
A: 

Vim + VimOutliner + (optionally, for security) gnupg.vim

Jeremy Cantrell
+1  A: 

I've always used Notepad for quick stuff. From Microsoft:

To create a log file in Notepad:
1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Notepad.
2. Type .LOG on the first line, and then press ENTER to move to the next line.
3. On the File menu, click Save As, type a descriptive name for your file in the File > name box, and then click OK. When you next open the file, note that the date and time have been appended to the end of the log, immediately preceding the place where new text > can be added. You can use this functionality to automatically add the current date and time to each log entry.

It's simple, but only works with Windows > 2k.
You should also check out What do you use to keep notes as a developer.

TonyUser
A: 

Pen and a nice Moleskine Notebook

TJ
A: 

I usually use a mix of a spreadsheet program (export to csv in event of lock-in fear) and a plain text editor, with one file per project, or a folder for projects with more notes. I usually use a sheet of paper as quick notes, but always commit all notes to disk before allowing more than a full-single sided sheet of paper to be filled.

Brian