Hey folks! I’m completely new to Lemmy and still figuring out how everything works around here… But I’d love to share a project I’ve been building.
It’s called VOID (Versatile Open-source Infrastructure for Developers) - an open-source, local-first second-brain (note taking app but more powerful) application that combines the flexibility of Obsidian with the powerful organization of Notion.
Unlike many other tools, VOID is not just another note-taking app. It’s built with the idea of being a true second brain that you fully control. No vendor lock-in, no hidden cloud, no feature walls. Everything is open-source, customizable, and designed to adapt to your workflow instead of forcing you into someone else’s.
I’m currently building it with Rust, Tauri v2 and Vue.js. For certain plugins and configs, it also supports SurrealDB as a database.
check it out on my GitHub
There’s already many foss notes apps.
What none of them do well is syncing and collaboration without paying for hosting or self hosting. Joplin lets me workaround this with 2 Dropbox files (1 per profile, 1 being a shared profile) and it’s a pain. And the Dropbox file isn’t encrypted.
An encrypted API access file I can shove anywhere and use would be lovely as an option. Anyway I can share across users would be lovely.
Not to pick on you here, but you’re surprised that nobody is bulding an app for free and then paying for a server to also give away for free? Open source devs already struggle to make ends meet - now they’re supposed to operate at a loss?
No, not at all. It’s an absolutly fair trade to pay for that service if they’re hosting my data.
Buuuuuut, if OP wants to make yet another notes app and hit a corner that isn’t yet covered, there are features of Google Keep that are not yet replicated well from a semi-DIY low cost perspective. AFAIK, I can self host to sync with some FOSS apps, but did too technical limitations on my end, I can’t reliably self host. So I have to use workarounds.
But of I can just use an API accessable file, and that data is encrypted, OP is a step ahead of Joplin. If I can collaborate with that API access without needing 2 profiles, that’s 2 steps ahead.
You could use syncthing so no hosting is needed and no reliance on storing your data on 3rd party services. Though you would most likely have the same level of pain as Dropbox since they work similarly (although you did not specify what is it that causes you pain).
Because with Joplin you have to close the app to change profiles. And Joplin is a touch janky, so getting others to collaborate requires a steep learning curve. I really like Joplin, but not everyone in the house is as generous, apparently.
I was looking at Syncthing the other day, actually, but I need all users to cloud sync outside the house, so it’s not really able to do the same thing as Joplin with the dropbox syncing.
What about Notesnook’s monograph functionality? Unless you mean sharing as in collaboration not publishing
I mean collaboration, I’ll edit. Thanks for asking.
For free hosted collaboration you could use Cryptdrive or Proton Drive. They’re more “office suites” but plenty of people use word processors to take their notes.
I’ll look into Cryptdrive, but Proton doesn’t allow API access to Drive files.