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Note-taking Software for Unix?

Posted by Cliff on from the ditch-the-pencil-and-pad dept.

donniejones18 asks: "I've been trying to find note-taking software for my university classes, work, etc. but all I can seem to discover is Windows-based software, such as OneNote or GoBinder. I would like to know what software Slashdot readers use for note-taking in Linux? If not, would anyone be interested in working together on this project? Ideally the software would support the insertion of PDFs, images, and other documents for handwritten annotation from a tablet PC, PDA or by mouse from a PC."

11 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. kids these days ... by p2sam · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Being a recent undergrad myself ... What the hell is wrong with the good old fashioned 3 ring binder? Using a note book or PDA is way over kill for the over priced joke of an education that you're getting.

    1. Re:kids these days ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Search your notebooks often?

    2. Re:kids these days ... by deepestblue · · Score: 2, Insightful

      WTF is with the attitude anyway? What's wrong with a 3-ring binder is that you can't search and you can't replicate.

  2. It's called a text file by ratatask · · Score: 5, Insightful

    See e.g. here
    Use tools such as mv(1), mkdir(1) , ln(1) and grep to organize,

  3. Er... by Knara · · Score: 1, Insightful
    I hate to be a jackass, but isn't using a PDA or laptop to take notes a little bit of overkill? I mean, the whole point of notetaking is to jot things down in order to flesh out a concept, or add information that isn't in a book, lecture, etc. Seems like a bit of overkill anyway.

    When I was an undergrad, the profs were just starting to make their lecture slides available before or after the lecture. Then again, I always read the book ahead of time (not all at once, mind you), so the lectures were "additional content" that helped me get more out of the info I already had (in the best case scenario, anyway; sometimes, as many know, it was just a rehash).

    Just don't know if this is the "right tool" for the problem(?) you are having.

    1. Re:Er... by Nasarius · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I always read the book ahead of time

      Precisely. If you want to do well, reading the relevant chapters before lecture is key. Take notes while reading the textbook (I only use this as an aid to concentration, but it can be very useful if your professor follows the textbook closely) and do the problems. Go to lecture with a decent understanding of the material. The notes you take should only be a rough outline to refresh your memory, plus details about difficult concepts.

      Taking copious, multimedia notes seems like a waste of time to me. Anyway, that's just my strategy; I'm sure it won't work for everyone.

      --
      LOAD "SIG",8,1
    2. Re:Er... by Bastian · · Score: 2, Insightful

      On one hand, I agree completely. I used my PDA to take notes for about a year while I was in college. My stated reason was because my handwriting had gotten so bad that I couldn't necessarily read my notes after class, while on Graffiti I can write almost as quickly as I can with a pen and paper, and my accuracy is damn near 100%.

      However, I gave up after that year because it was impossible to draw little diagrams and such. I just improved my penmanship. Tablet PC's never excited me for a few reasons - most notably, they struck me as a device that costs a few thousand times as much as a notebook without providing much added functionality, while also weighing more and being much more fragile. That, and there's a reason why my good ol' quadrille grid notebooks didn't run Windows or Linux.

      On the other hand, I'm actually writing note-taking software as we speak. (Sorry, Cliff, it's OS-X only, though if I ever release it, a GNUStep port might not be too hard.) But the focus is decidedly not to take notes in class. It's meant to be a tool for organizing massive amounts of more research-type notes, keeping PDFs of journal articles organized, keeping everything indexed and cross-referenced, blah blah blah. It's really more of a personal wiki. So I think there is room for note-taking software, just not in the classroom.

      (Heck, if I were a professor, I would probably ban laptops from my classes simply because I remember what a distraction they were to the entire room from when I was a student.)

  4. Wiki? by Professor+Cool+Linux · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just use a lightweight wiki on a local-only apache server.

    I personally use roWiki, mainly because it's easy for me to hack new features onto.

  5. I'd mod +1 Insightful by Noksagt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But I just blew my last mod point.

    43 folders just ran an article about making one big text file, which followed up on an O'Reilly post on the same topic. Bottom line is that one thing all productive geeks share is that they stay organized by just adding stuff to a plain text file. It is a good life hack, which is intrinsically cross-platform & easy to use & small.

  6. Look for a "Computerized screen to write on" by failedlogic · · Score: 2, Insightful

    One of the problems with normal pen-and-paper you can't do keyword searches on your notes. I have messing writing sometimes and cannot read what I wrote. And notes get easily disorganized and even when well organized it can be hard to find the right information come study time. As well, I always end up making a study sheet and it would be nice to just copy and paste what I need while speed reading though it.

    Some of you guys (and gals!) in computer science (prob most of the audience here) might find it practical to type away on a laptop. Or you don't have to worry much about "keywords", thus the pen and paper.

    I'm in 4th year in a Liberal Arts program - and I know of several business, communications and other majors as well that are dying for a better digital notetaking alternative. Since I have a nice desktop system (iMac G5) a laptop is not practical and affordable used ones are either missing things (ethernet), are in need of replacement parts (old HDD), or I don't feel like lugging it around on the bus back from university. And there's no warranty. Overall, though, I don't mind useing a note-pad like program to type in notes.

    I'd like to know if there is a small monochrome display that you can simply write-on that will save all your notes. I've thought of scanning in all my notes but its too tedious. (Please don't suggest an etch-a-sketch, I've already thought of it ;) ... not practical anyways only one page at a time and then I'd have to shake everything off!!!).

    Someone's mentionned the Ace Cad (http://www.acecad.com.tw/eng/application.htm) notepad. To me, the usefullness of this thing is self-defeating. 1) You need special ink and finding it is hard; 2) You still end up wasting paper; 3) it only works on Windows; 4) You can't easily clean up the file digitally afterwards; 5) its $150 CAN. I do like the fact it uses Flash memory as storage. But it loses some of its appeal.

    IMO, Microsoft missed the boat on the Tablet PCs. If they had lowered the system requirements (I'm sure they could have .. I think they purposefully inflated the system requirements so the OEMs could sell more expensive systems), I would have bought one for university.

    A PDA isn't a half-bad idea with a keyboard attached I supposed.Any other suggestions?

    1. Re:Look for a "Computerized screen to write on" by TobascoKid · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'd like to know if there is a small monochrome display that you can simply write-on that will save all your notes.

      You mean an Apple Newton?

      --
      At some point, somewhere, the entire internet will be found to be illegal.