Ask Slashdot: Open Tools For Logbooks and Note-taking?
New submitter leonstr writes: I'm a sysadmin and I like to record my daily work in a logbook: technical notes, work progress, actions from meetings, etc. I started with the word processor on the venerable Psion Series 3a but for about 10 years I've been using Amaya. It's FLOSS, cross-platform and uses an open file format (XHTML). Amaya has its quirks but I really like it; unfortunately it's no longer being updated and I feel it's time to change. So I wonder: what do other people use for recording their work? What works well and meets your requirements?
it's no longer being updated and I feel it's time to change.
This mindset is ridiculous. Why do you "feel a need to change" if it still works for you? Are you expecting remote security vulnerabilities to show up in your note-taking software?
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
Vi
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
Systemd has it built-in. However it stores them in binary (when it stores them at all) but this is better because text is for luddites.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I only take a single Post-It note to meetings. That helps people around me prioritize. Then, once I'm done with the stuff on the Post-It, I recycle it.
(I used to take copious notes and kept them forever but that just pissed people off; there's comfort in having their thoughts from the past forgotten.)
I kick it old school ... I have a stack of lab books spanning the last 20+ years.
I write the date on the page, and start taking notes.
No technology required.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Emacs org mode can do notes perfectly, comes with selective archiving, and you can even schedule tasks and even record what time you spend on what. It's free form, exports to plenty of useful formats, the table mode is plain genius, and, of course, it's Emacs.
Stephan
While Google Keep is cross platform, it isn't FLOSS but I still haven't found anything that matches it.
Pros:
Major cross Platform support: Windows (Chrome app), Mac (Chrome app), Linux (Chrome app), iOS, Android
Offline note taking support
Syncing across platforms
Quick
Multi media input types: Text, lists, audio, image/photo,
Reminders
Can be shared
No services to manage
Cons: :-/
Not FLOSS
No public API
May disappear because it is a good product
No good deed goes unpunished.
This mindset is ridiculous. Why do you "feel a need to change" if it still works for you?
Please point out where he said that it still works for him. Obviously he feels it is not meeting his needs (whatever they are) in some way. He doesn't have to justify changing software to any of us even if there is no objective reason.
Get a notepad of graph paper, and a pen.
Spiceworks gives you helpdesk functionality, inventory, network scanning, purchase tracking, etc... When you are working on something, create a ticket. Log your notes in your ticket. CC your co-workers on notes that are pertinent to their role. You can even "relate" the ticket to the device you are working on so someday in the future you can quickly pull up all tickets associated with that device.
It's free as in cost, and simple to setup. The only drawback is that you need a Windows box to run it on if you previously ran Amaya on a Linux server.
www.spiceworks.com
Notepad, with the first line like this .LOG
That's right, dot log then it time stamps the file every time you open it. What more do you need?
I like TiddlyWiki, it's like a small wiki. I save a file locally and just double-click to create a new note.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Hand-writing your notes increases memory, so a good fountain pen (less pressure on the wrist muscles) and a suitable notepad should do. If you must keep your notes digitally, I get something that syncs up with your mail server, e.g., Notes for Mac OS X.
You could bridge your digital and analogue experiences with a tool like LifeScribe (http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/). This may be an overkill for simple tasks, but it does wonders in meetings when you have to remember.
I'm using TiddlyWiki (http://tiddlywiki.com/) to keep a log of my in-site Freelancer job while taking notes on procedures, knowhows and recurrent chunks of text while having a really useful Journal editor and tags to sort them all.
Its proper use is an iterative process, since the job priorities change daily and the level of information I need (from micro to macro vision) also shifts, so TiddlyWiki is a wonderful tool to use, since, just by applying common sense, the tags structure can be used in unforseen useful ways.
I had reservations regarding the last version (I still miss the double-click edit), but now I feel more confortable with the new version rather than the classic one.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Use Dokuwiki
Note: This solution has been available for many years and will be available for many more years without any changes. Also - there are some benefits where pen and paper (With date) is considered reliable in court - computer notes may not be because of the lack of dating and change control.
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
Back when I was in support I used to open up Notepad and put .LOG on the first line. When you do that, every time you open Notepad it puts the time and date on a line for you. It was quick and easy to do that while on the phone. I'd use this to make notes regarding things that didn't really belong in the customer log, or for semi-personal work related research kinds of things. I always figured that if it mattered to me or anybody, I could hack up a quick script to parse it into some other format. It never mattered.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Yellow sticky death all over my monitor/walls/doors etc + a ticketing system which I should really use to do things properly but 20 years of postit notes has kinda stuck.
I'm old school the way you are...
Site logs are a terrific means of communicating and they've saved my butt many times. I've used elog very, very successfully:
https://midas.psi.ch/elog/
Works for me. Awesome program, it's basically a marriage of a mind map and a spreadsheet with infinite depth.
With keyboard and pen
I kept a log for many years using Emacs + text files in a format easy to look through with dired, and easy to grep if necessary. Occasionally, I could find some old command or something I used, but after several years I realized I was keeping mostly write-only notes I never went back to, and stopped. But if you want to do it, there's nothing really better than a text editor because you can paste in commands and other things verbatim. Eventually, if you use something enough, you can script it.
Nothing to add after the first two posts.
They nailed it.
However I have a similar question. I'm looking for an eInk device with a touch screen, that allows pen input.
Not pen input as in handwriting, but hitting the keys of the 'virtual keyboard' with a pen (or the rubber side of an actual pencil).
File format as text would be sufficient. RTF would be a bonus but not necessary.
Any ideas? (I own a Nook and two Kobos, but they lack such text processing software, I already came to the bollocks idea to make me an eBook with a few thousand pages with just one word per page and abuse the 'note taking' feature of most readers, would work fine on an iPad, did not test it on my Kobo ... where is it when you need it?)
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Zim from http://zim-wiki.org/.
Zim is a graphical text editor used to maintain a collection of wiki pages. Runs on Linux, MS Windows and Free/OpenBSD.
I use it with ownCloud (used to use Dropbox) to use it from several geographical locations and keep the wiki pages synchronized. I also use triple #s to begin my comments in config files (and double #s for the original config info) if I include documentation there, making it easier for any admin to grep for any and all changes I have made and then compare it to what the default was. Then just copy and paste all the info into my Zim wiki for the log.
When you change things, you can never have too much documentation for why you did it.
If you're working with GNU/Linux, consider Zim, the desktop wiki.
Some points for Zim:
... then just use a simple text file. Come up with your own scheme for title, date and time and it will work.
Either as single file with search, or with multiple files and grep(1).
The only really working alternative that I've found are:
* a paper notebook. easily available when you have only one hand free because you're on the phone, and don't want to unlock an electronic device
* sending yourself notes via email, and use your favourite email client for management.
If I'd want to live in a Microsoft world, I'd probably use OneNote.
YMMV, I'm curious about other options mentioned here.
- Hubert
Check out Trello (https://trello.com). Not FLOSS, but a free cloud-based note-taking, project managing, checklist-managing, attachment storage, team-usable swiss army knife. No clue how this thing is still free (shhhh). I use it for just about everything you mentioned. It supports taking notes (called "cards") in Markdown format, sharing individual notes or entire "boards" with others, organizing and labeling notes, and attaching files. About the only thing it's missing is a drawing/sketching tool and better notification alarm options. If I need to refer to something scanned, written, or otherwise graphics, you can attach unlimited files to each card or paste links in your notes. The mobile apps are identical to the web-app version, so you can take it with you to meetings on a tablet/laptop, and then come back to a workstation and see all of the updates on the web version.
Many years ago, I started taking all my 'text-editor-alike' notes, setup up a wiki (dokuwiki plug, but there's definitely others like Mediawiki, ect.) and added a bit of light wiki markup to them equaled instant, half-ass-looking pro-like documentation with an authentication/group control wrapper around it (e.g. local accounts or AD/LDAP tie-in).
I don't know what organization you are in or what you can/cannot setup on a whim --- but that's what I'd do. It's SUPER cool to hear you actually care about documentation and daily note taking, ect., but the step beyond IMHO is a searchable and share-able interface to it.
And even taking documentation with you is a cinch --- I just recently changed jobs and I was able to take 8+ years worth of documentation/notes/you-name-it that wasn't company specific or had a NDA attached to it, tarball it up, set up a new wiki, unpack it and I was done.
At most if you really hate the wiki, just write a few reg-ex commands to mostly strip off your markup business and you're left with what you've started: ASCII text files again.
I still take notes on paper. Why? Because anything important in those notes will be in some form of office communication a few hours or days after I've written it down. If it's a reminder to do something it goes into my phone as a reminder or to-do item, or as a calendar item. Because I have to keep in contact with colleagues and supervisors electronically, I have a searchable medium to find old project info, contacts, calendar items, reminders, etc. It's worked very well for me for more than 20 years. Of course, I also keep files of my paper notes for stalled or dormant projects. I don't pack rat every scrap, but do keep important things. Other than that, it's somewhere I can search and find in no more than a couple hours if I have to dig up backups.
Zim Desktop wiki is a multiplatform personal wiki. It has a built-in Journal feature that creates a page for each day, as needed - when you access a day in a calendar it creates the page for that day and you can write in it. Searching works within pages. I'm using it for at least 3 years now and I can not live without it.
Works well for me
I use keepnote, I like it
If it works for you, why change?
But if you must change, I recommend using Markdown. Tons of FOSS editors out there, and it's actually simpler than HTML. And also, in a pinch, readable and editable in simple text format.
Glad I could help.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
In college I found i was unable to keep a standard notebook because I never found myself opening it to actually write anything. I looked online for a solution but there was nothing that really fulfilled the logging need. I ended up writing one that was a multiple platform system, which every X amount time, configurable in a web interface, a windows written in C with GTK would open on the desktop or phone, requiring you to enter a message so it could log it back to the server. the system used multi stage encryption and had a web portal where you could view, but not edit, all the messages. It had user accounts and pretty much everything you'd need to keep a rocking lab book.
http://tiddlywiki.com/
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it yet.
I use RedNotebook
http://rednotebook.sourceforge.net
It has a nice graphical user interface, simple markup, supports tags, and stores the logs in text files.
I have a similar situation, I looked at many options but I have several restrictions (but not being FLOSS...)
- My information may be used for patent purposes, so therefore, reliable timestamps are crucial
- Due to volume of information, must be easily and reliably searchable.
- For confidentiality reasons, can NOT rely on online/public service (e.g. Evernote)
Some options:
[1] Keynote-NF (https://github.com/dpradov/keynote-nf) : My only complaint about this is related to keeping time/date stamps. I can write a macro to insert date/time stamp, but will they hold up in court? Not sure.
[2] Microsoft OneNote : It is actually pretty close to everything I would want, except... not FLOSS, only on Windows and the date/time stamp issue again.
[3] e-mail yourself! Especially many e-mail applications now support HTML or RTF format e-mail, tagging, searching, automatically filing into folders, searchable, etc. It can be FLOSS, e-mail records tend to stand up in court nowadays.
[4] Lotus Notes : using the Journal database/application. Not FLOSS, but that's about it. Can be used on Windows, Linux or Mac I believe. It can require secure login to access if you've got it set up correctly. It's as easy to use as any word-processor, it can be set to log changes to the database. All sorts of info about any journal entry are kept, including create, mod, read, who read or modified it, etc. and it may actually have a chance at holding up in court. Just to be sure, I keep it on a drive which sees daily backups. As a bonus, it is capable of indexing even attached files (depends on format) for searches.
I selected [4], but if you're not up for grabbing a Notes license (mine came with the computer and at work as well), I would probably go with [1] or [3].
I've used MS Word for my log book for many years. I use the classic MS Word file format, not the newer XML-like format; since many programmes on every computing platform that's ever existed are able to open and read the classic MS Word file format. In addition, MS published the file format and so it's well understood and newer editors will always be able to create an import filter for MS Word files.
Emphasis mine. Also note that it is present tense.
Emphasize away. Something can work and you can like it and it still doesn't meet your needs. For example I like GIMP and it works fine but I have photo editing needs that it simply cannot handle so I have to use Photoshop instead. I like plenty of tools that I no longer use for one reason or another. Might be lacking needed/desired features. Might be a security problem. Might be incompatible with a particular operating system. Etc.
He does if he wants a suggestion that better meets his needs. He didn't need to justify his decision until it became an Ask Slashdot.
The reason why he wants to change doesn't matter. What matters is what his needs are going forward. All he needs to do is to outline what his projected use case is. Help or don't but your opinion about his reasons for switching are irrelevant.
Tiddlywiki is a stand-alone HTML5 app that stores all the 'pages' (or 'tiddlers' as they are called) in one file. It's clean, super easy to use, simple to backup (just copy one file), has simple search capability, custom 'tiddler' metadata fields, transclusion of pages within pages, and can be customized with just HTML and JavaScript, There's a Firefox extension called "TiddlyFox" that automatically saves the changes back to the file when you make edits. I use an SSH (RSA key, not password) protected server and mount the remote folder with sshfs using a custom shell script to check if I'm connected to the server (if not, it establishes a connection) then it opens the tiddlywiki .html file from the remote mounted filesystem in Firefox. You can also export/import JSON, HTML, and a few other 'wiki' data formats. You can also carry it around on any device (phone, tablet, etc) if you need a portable off-line copy. It works on all platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) because it's just a plain old web page - no special software is needed.
Huh huh. He's taking a log. Heh heh.
from Wikipedia
"OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is an XML format for outlines (defined as "a tree, where each node contains a set of named attributes with string values" . . .
"The OPML specification defines an outline as a hierarchical, ordered list of arbitrary elements. The specification is fairly open which makes it suitable for many types of list data."
I use two outliner programs: OmniOutliner and Notebook for Mac (proprietary). I've used outliners since the original More program from back in the dark ages (and still have notes from there and from my Psion 3a). The important thing about OPML is that when your software is no longer supported, you can move your data to another compatible platform.
Surely there is an open outliner using OPML. If not, this is a great opportunity for some developer.
...omphaloskepsis often...
You joke now, but I'm sure this "feature" is in the works.
I've been using it a few years now
The last release was the 3rd of this month
http://treeline.bellz.org/
What is TreeLine?
Do you have lots of sticky notes lying around with various useful information jotted down? Or many lists of books, movies, website logins, personal contacts, or things to do? Can you find them when you need them? Well, I often couldn't. So here's my answer.
Some would call TreeLine an Outliner, others would call it a PIM. Basically, it just stores almost any kind of information. A tree structure makes it easy to keep things organized. And each node in the tree can contain several fields, forming a mini-database. The output format for each node can be defined, and the output can be shown on the screen, printed, or exported to html.
I use LaTeX reports on a webserver instead of a paper lab notebook. One, I can't lose it. Two, paper is filthy and I work in a cleanroom. In the lab I am never far from a computer with putty or RDP.
Plaintext means I can grep years worth of reports to query what is effectively my cyborg memory. I use hyperref to create pdf hyperlinks, images are no problem. Provenance concerns are handled by my build script which commits everything to a git repository multiple times per day. If I want to scribble stuff without publishing it I just comment it out. The documents are available on the webserver for anyone to see.
I'm doing all note-keeping either on paper or as plain text files.
Much discussions and many flame wars have centered around open v. non-open _software_, but I would argue it is much more important
to use an open _data format_, since data typically outlives the software that processes it (and plain text is the most compatible, interoperable,
durable format ever, full stop).
I'm using UTF-8 UNICODE but most files are ASCII since there is no need to use that many non-ASCII characters anyhow; if you can't say it
in plain English without special characters, you should stay silent, to paraphrase Wittgenstein.
The best Editors so far have been XEmacs (FOSS), Sublime (cheap; single license payment for all platforms), and Atom (free/FOSS).
Atom and Sublime are actually very similar re: look & feel, and (X)Emacs, well enough has been said about it, I suppose.
If you're taking meeting notes, make sure to list who attended the meeting, who was excused and who was absent without sending excuses, who took the
minutes. Begin your notes with the list of agenda items followed by the minutes proper, and finish it off with action items. Each action item should have exactly one primary owner (e.g. "* Arrange meeting w/ Al, Bob, Chris, Dan and Ed -> Ed" i.e. Ed owns the task; he may delegate but he is responsible that it gets done).
Send out the minutes after the meeting and assume no objection means people sign off on it.
-J
I've been using Google Docs lately to share my notes with other people. They can add comments on specific items that show up on the side of the document, and you can respond or resolve the comment to hide it.
Of course this is Google, so there's always the chance they retire it, though I think Docs and Sheets are likely to stick around as long as Office does.
I know that you asked for Open Source tools, but if others are going to propose Notepad and Microsoft products, let me mention Notecase Pro.
It comes in flavors for windows, Linux, and Mac. There are constant updates. There is a user community developing plugins. You can write in different fonts, with font colors and background colors. You can embed screenshots.
It is a hierarchical note manager. The price is reasonable, you can get a single user (any number of computers) perpetual license, or pay more and get a multiuser license.
It is not open source though.
pgmer6809
Just wondering if anyone else uses the alternativeto.net site for questions like these? You can filter by platform and license type, 'vote' for applications you find particularly useful, suggest new alternatives...I don't know, I've found it useful in the past *shrugs*
FYI, here's the open source alternatives listed for Amaya on the alternativeto site for all platforms (sorry about the trail-offs in some of the descriptions, but I'm not digging down that far):
KompoZer
This application has been discontinued. "The project seems to be discontinued. Latest stable version, 0.7.10, was released on 2007 and last development version, 0.8b3, on 2010, but the program is still downloadable from the official website."
Bluefish Editor
Open Source by Olivier Sessink, Daniel Leidert | Mac, Windows, Linux
Bluefish is a powerful editor targeted towards programmers and webdesigners, with many options to write websites, scripts and programming code. Bluefish supports many programming and markup languages, and it...
BlueGriffon
Open Source | Mac, Windows, Linux
An HTML editor based on Mozilla rendering engine. Supports some CSS3 features and since recently has a built-in SVG editor.
NVU
This application has been discontinued. "Development stopped in 2005"
Quanta Plus
This application has been discontinued. "The project stopped at version 3.5.10, released on June 2, 2009. It can be still downloaded from Slax.org"
ACE (Ajax Code Editor)
Open Source | Web / Cloud
Focused and built towards coders, web designers, and web builders, ACE (Ajax Code Editor) can help users get familiar with how the coding is and it's basic structure. This web app is useful for those with...
Openbexi
Open Source by openbexi.com | Windows
OpenBEXI is a WYSIWYG HTML builder using the magic of HTML5 and CSS3 . By resizing, dragging and dropping various HTML widgets it is easy to build a web page. All texts using the DOJO editor, pictures...
"I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
Tomboy is .net-based and comes on openSUSE (where I have used it for all of my notes for many years). Not sure on its ongoing maintenance, but I see (good) changes from time to time, and the format is an easy-to-parse XML. Being .net-based, I presume it also works on lesser OS's.
I'm using Remarkable - a markdown wysiwyg editor, and its doing great for me. Been half a year
Jrnl http://maebert.github.io/jrnl/ command line journal keeper with tags and stores in plain text, with option to encrypt using gpg.
I finally settled for this :
Yes, it is not an open source solution (even if some parts may be open source); but I am not dependant on any company or its format. If SimpleNote goes bankrupt or starts behaving evil, I can switch to DropBox for file sync (or any other similar service).
It is not as sexy as Evernote, but I am 100% sure that I will be able to access my notes in 20 years.
BTW : I first typed this in MarkDown...
http://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/
* Available for Linux and Windows (written in Python, so Mac is probably also possible)
* Uses zipped xml files (encryption possible)
* Notes organized as a tree
* Simple formatting
* More or less active development
I started using http://tiddlywiki.com.
Its basicly a local wiki with tagsm that I can post to the web if required.
Some of plugins available are also very usefull.
The capacity of making list based on tags is really usefull.
Its a shame that the documentation to build more plugins its pretty bad and requires someone to look at the code of other plugins in order to do something.
I've been using Keepnote (http://keepnote.org/) for reporting technical details in the security industry for assessments. It's FOSS, cross-platform and supports HTML formatting/screenshots. Another nice feature is the HTML export option. Only downside may be a Python dependency issue that may arise during installation.
Basically it's a front-end to LaTeX. You can export various formats from it, and PanDoc allows one to get to pretty much anything.
I use it on a small tablet PC and it allows handwriting input.
If I need a math equation I write it out in Infty Editor: http://www.inftyproject.org/en... and paste in the LaTeX code.
If I need a diagram, I draw it up in Corel Grafigo, InkScape, Macromedia Freehand, or Dia and include it as a .pdf
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Honestly, a lot depends on whether or not you want FLOSS or non-FLOSS, paid on non-paid etc. Not to mention how much actual work you want to put into your system.
I have two, both of which are nominally "free". The first is OneNote that I use for work. It syncs across all my devices and works really well for someone who uses a Windows tablet as I can both write notes with my stylus and draw diagrams. This functionality alone makes it a stand-out awesome system for me as typically in the kinds of meetings I do (with customers) it's usually frowned upon to sit there with a screen in front of you and a keyboard, but if you have a pad flat on the table and can be seen to be writing notes, drawing diagrams etc. it makes a customer feel that I am much more engaged in the conversation. Believe me, I've seen it when my peers are tapping away at their keyboards the customers tend to look to me for input or information because they feel my colleague is not engaged. Some of my colleagues use pen and paper, but I find my method works best for me... I don't run out of ink or paper... though occasionally I do find my battery in my stylus dead. Oh... and even if I lost my tablet I'd still have my notes.
For my personal stuff I used to use Evernote because it was cross-platform. I didn't need handwriting... occasionally need pictures in a note etc. I even paid for premium for a while and I do still have many of my personal notes in it... though I use the free service now.
What I'm migrating to for personal notes is OwnNote which is an app for OwnCloud. This is a FLOSS environment that is free... but to set it up you do need a server that's on the Internet or at least accessible on your local intranet. The down side is a lack of fat client apps... offline sync and the like. It means that you need to be online to write notes. Now, there's an app for Android and one for iOS, but not for Windows or Linux (that I'm aware of, anyway). This means offline usage is pretty much out. Having said that, the API is open enough and I have enough coding skills that I might throw together a fat client at some point, or I might just wait until someone else does it and contribute. It hasn't been a big problem as yet simply because I am typically online wherever I need to take notes for personal consumption.
I host mine on a server at home and I deal with the front-end connectivity by having an OpenVPN network with a Linode fronting it using NGINX. This is overly complex, yes... I also host my own mail server and web site (still!) so this makes my life easier... but you could just as easily front it on a consumer-grade home connection using DynDNS or some other similar service. Of course, the nice thing about this setup is that it also gives me DropBox/OneDrive functionality that's private and owned by me. It's nice to have ALL my documents stored in a "cloud" because I can selectively sync across all my devices, and then I have a script that backs the whole thing up twice a week to S3/Glacier. Yeah, that's also an additional cost but it's cheaper and more convenient to me than a lot of the alternatives. And yes, my S3/Glacier backups are all encrypted :)
this new android plain text note app supports markdown and tasker automation, etc, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appmindlab.nano, not open source *yet*
Is the best I have found so far. The web clipping tools and search are particularly important to me and work very well.
If you want to go the handwritten route, throw livescribe into the mix too.
This might be of interest: http://rednotebook.sourceforge.net/
I am not sure it meets your needs, but I have started trying simplenote. I would like to find something a with automatic data and times and version control or change tracking without some big production.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Check out aChaos. I am the developer for it and haven't really advertised it before. I wanted a cross-platform, WYSIWYG notebook that stores data offline. aChaos stores notes, lists, and attachments. The notes are stored in a SQLite database, so you can search outside of the app if you want.
There are not a lot of users, but I do use it about every day. If you find any issues, please submit them.
Wiki. Wiki wiki wiki. It's easy, it's portable, it's hypertext format makes cross referencing great. It has search, it has timestamps, it has version control. It has security.
I run MediaWiki with MySQL on a CentOS VM on VirtualBox that runs on my workstation and I use that for any notes or information that I need to keep. Nightly backups go to a drive that's backed up. I have a VirtualBox "appliance", based on the MediaWiki VM config that restores from the most recent Wiki backup when it boots. That "restore wiki" is also on backed up storage.
For me. A disaster recovery scenario only involves installing virtualbox, importing the "restore wiki appliance" and starting it back up.
I use Zim for just this purpose.
forget the attachment to FLOSS, MS OneNote is simply superior to everything else out there. I picked up a copy of OneNote 2007 for 20 bucks, it looks ugly as sin on windows 10, but it works just fine and with clip to onenote, it integrates cleanly with firefox
Snowden and Manning are heroes.