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OneNote alternative to make a knowledge base

Hey Privacy people,

I am looking for a OneNote alternative for all my campaign notes for my tabletop RPGs. I was looking at Obsidian.md as an option and wondering what their data collection is like?

Fot all my personal and private notes I use standard notes but the free version is not quite roboist enougj. I can't afford to pay premium any time soon I need a free option I can use.

Any suggestions ?

qpsLCV5 ,

I'm using Trilium notes. it's simple enough and does what i need. Used to use Obsidian but wanted something open source, and with Trilium you can self-host the sync server for free (even comes with a handy web-ui).

Note that it is much simpler than obsidian, but for me it's plenty. It was easy to import my obsidian vault into it, and it allows exporting as .md files which work fine back in obsidian too.

Recently the dev said he's putting it into maintenance mode, so no new features will come to Trilium. There's a community around Trilium Next that wants to keep expanding it, but personally i hope Trilium stays as it is and is maintained for a long time.

You_got_my_goat ,

I had this exact problem a whole ago, trying to find an alternative to OneNote. I went through many of the other suggestions in this thread but settled on Trilium.

Super easy to setup in a docker container.
Self hosted so I control my data and access. Can by accessed via reverse proxy when I'm out and about.

Notes can be a mixture of text, pictures, code (with formatting based on language)

They are arranged in a directory structure with notes inside other notes under chosen topics down the left, and open notes are in tabs along the top, much like One Note.

The chrome extension allows me to quickly snip and send back screenshots or Urls of sites I'm on, and the android app let's me make quick notes which are filed away by date for later organisation (when I get round to it...)

The only thing it doesnt support, that I wish it did, is multiple users. I don't see why you couldn't just make another container for each user, just not very practical if you have a lot of users.

fireshell , (edited )
@fireshell@lemmy.ml avatar

org-mode/org-roam-ui in Emacs with PGP support synchronization via git in forgejo

sem ,
@sem@lemmy.ml avatar

OrgNote. The project is still quite raw but the developer works hard and the overall idea and philosophy behind the project is perfect for me. Fully compatible with emacs org-roam, most probably compatible with logseq. There is a "fully managed" free version with PGP support or an option for a self-hosted server.

Project: https://github.com/Artawower/orgnote
Manifesto: https://github.com/Artawower/orgnote/wiki#manifesto

GameMuse OP ,

I will look into this is the relates to org mode?

sem ,
@sem@lemmy.ml avatar

It is based on files in org format. But it is not related anyhow to org-agenda and planning. It is an only obsidian-like note-raking system with web+mobile+desktop and some blogging capabilities (public/private notes, etc.)

667 ,
@667@lemmy.radio avatar

Obsidian, but I’m not competent to comment regarding their privacy. You can air gap the install and have it on an isolated machine.

It’s hella customizable, and there is broad support specifically for using it with TTRPGs.

Lemongrab ,

On linux for the Obsidian Flatpak, you can deny it having internet and filesystem permissions using Flatseal.

GameMuse OP ,

Oh perfect I am very new to Linux so didn't even really know about flatseal is there any guides or videos how to use flatseal?

Lemongrab ,

I assume it has documentation, otherwise you can look at the Flatpak docs to see the equivalent terminal commands that are available in the GUI. Flatseal is pretty intuitive in my experience.

GameMuse OP ,

Thanks for the advice

elevatingprana ,

You can read Obsidian's privacy policy. Basically, everything remains on your device unless you pay to use the Obsidian Sync. I switched from Standard Notes to Obsidian last year and I haven't looked back ever since. You can use Syncthing to synchronize your Obsidian Vault across multiple devices. All you need to do is add the Vault directory to Syncthing, that means you need to first make a dedicated folder in your filesystem for the Obsidian Vault which you will be required to do anyway while setting up Obsidian.

Tundra ,

crypt.ee

just_another_person , (edited )

Joplin is pretty good for organizing notes.

GameMuse OP ,

I tried Joplin but the layout confuses me. I don't get why there is two windows one for text and one for code ?

just_another_person ,

It's a Markdown editor. You write markdown in one, and preview in the other. Or, you can just turn the preview off.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

You can switch to the WYSIWYG Editor in the settings

digdilem ,

Agree, and I switched over a couple of years ago. Only yesterday learned about Mermaid graphs and was impressed that Joplin does them natively.

akilou ,

Proton just bought Standard Notes, so keep an eye out for changes there. Otherwise, I use Obsidian but I have it sync to my home server so I can access the same data from my phone and computer.

GameMuse OP ,

As a proton user I am keeping my eye on this and hopeing I will get access to this.

akilou ,

Same.

chirospasm ,

+1 for StandardNotes. It's been a wonderful product.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

As long as it stays FOSS, you don't need to worry. You can even self-host Standard Notes if you don't trust their cloud service: https://standardnotes.com/help/self-hosting/getting-started

fmstrat ,

Outline is self-hostable.

Vertelleus ,
@Vertelleus@sh.itjust.works avatar

Anytype

makeasnek ,
@makeasnek@lemmy.ml avatar

There are many open source wiki softwares: zim, dokuwiki, etc.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Obsidian is pretty good, it shouldn't collect any data by default. But you can also check out Logseq, an open source Obsidian alternative.

jelloeater85 ,
@jelloeater85@lemmy.world avatar

I've never seen anything fishy from them, many people trust them for their work notes.

It's all .md files you own.

GameMuse OP ,

Thanks for the advice

Scipitie ,

As they are closed source no one can tell you their true privacy policy. It seems better than average from what I've read but you never know...

Personally I use logseq and sync the files via a Nextcloud instance. I can only recommend it, although I also recommend spending an hour to learn the tagging and linking logic and reading through their guide on what's possible.
I still only leverage a minor part of the potential myself.

One that is closer to onenote (I think, never used onenote) is Joplin.

GameMuse OP ,

Thanks for the advice

Hobbes_Dent ,

Have you looked at World Anvil? It's been a long time and I don't remember what the free vs. paid tier comparisons were, but I thought it was pretty slick.

Edit: Didn't realise the community I'm in. I have no idea the privacy state of World Anvil but I'll edit if I come across it.

GameMuse OP ,

I am unsure of their privacy but I find their site a bit too clunky.

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