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Ask Slashdot: Open Tools For Logbooks and Note-taking?

Posted by timothy on from the russians-used-a-pencil dept.

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 Amaya has its quirks but I really like it; unfortunately it's no longer being updated and I feel it's time to change.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?

13 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. Change just because? by fisted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    it's no longer being updated and I feel it's time to change.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?

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    CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
    1. Re:Change just because? by leonstr · · Score: 4, Informative

      Submitter here. It's got a crash bug I can work around to avoid and I think XHTML is a dead end. And yes, I wondered what else was about. I normally have one file per year so I thought if I was going to change for 2016, it was time to see what the options were. Thanks all for suggestions so far!

  2. Vi by MagickalMyst · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Vi

    --
    Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
  3. Emacs org mode by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

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    Stephan

  4. Google Keep by Hydrian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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 :-/

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    No good deed goes unpunished.
    1. Re:Google Keep by sanf780 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      So far, Google Keep has not been abandoned yet. I am using Google Keep myself. However, I keep my notes short lived: money I owe, DVDs I lend or borrow, etc. I will not miss it much if it is gone, that is, when Google decides that such a great application with no advertising is not aligned with their goal of increasing revenue.

      Another non FLOSS service is Evernote. It is popular enough that some mobile applications use Evernote under the hood.

      Another non FLOSS is MS OneNote. Some of my colleagues use it for work, because it comes with MS SharePoint 2013.

    2. Re:Google Keep by NewWorldDan · · Score: 5, Informative

      I would similarly also suggest Microsoft's OneNote for all the same reasons. It's probably the best Microsoft product that you're not using. Since I operate in pretty much a straight up Microsoft environment, that's what I use. Keep and OneNote are both fantastic products.

  5. Re:Post Its by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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

    Ummmm .... tough?

    My notes are my record of what happens. They're my CYA in case someone demands we do something stupid, or comes back later and tries to claim something else was agreed upon. And they're how I know what was decided and what I need to be doing.

    Too bad if your good notes are a problem for someone later on who doesn't want the things they've said remembered. I'm not saying that "John said that Sally has a bad haircut" is something you write down. You're not trying to be the National Enquirer here.

    But if John says he'll deliver the document to Sally, and that he agrees with your proposal ... you sure as hell record that.

    Because when John tries to blame it on you later on, you flip back to your notes and say "nope, says right here". Because we're all met that particular John guy who tries to rewrite history and claim he never agreed to that.

    In fact, with sales guys, and VPs and the like, I make an extra point of making sure they see I'm writing it down. Because they're the most likely to suddenly develop a case of remembering things differently than actually happened.

    I'm not there to provide comfort for people who would rather people not remember what they said.

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    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. Notebook and Pen? by MerlynEmrys67 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

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    I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
  7. As a general rule I don't make logs, but... by istartedi · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

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    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  8. Re:Post Its by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry, your notes probably don't mean shit to a VP looking to assign blame

    This is why grownups who have meetings have someone send meeting minutes.

    Specifically because there are far too many assholes in the world to not take steps to a) cover your ass, and b) hold people accountable.

    I've lost track of the times that 2-3 people all pull up the meeting notes and day "nope, you were the one who decided we wouldn't do that".

    Keeping VPs from weaseling out of stuff/assigning blame later is a valuable life skill.

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    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  9. Re:The reasons don't matter by leonstr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, if I *do* have to justify it: the latest release from 2013 is for Windows, Mac and Linux. I can't get it to compile on recent Linux distros, it won't run on new Mac OS versions, there are features I have to avoid to workaround crashes on Windows. Features that I'd like will never be added and problems I encounter will never be fixed.

  10. Liking something != meeting needs by sjbe · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.