I use GitHub's gollum [1] git-based markdown-supporting Wiki for pretty much this. It's easy to add a basic username / password protection. I run it on a Digital Ocean instance that had some capacity left over and have a cronjob push to a private bitbucket repo every 30 minutes for backup. I don't have to create notebooks and can use GitHub-flavored markdown (or other any syntax gollum supports).
That said, I like basic idea of extending magpie with a PDF scraper and email. Maybe it would spare some energy to fork gollum and add extension to it to make it more Evernote-like?
It's very clean, allows markdown, and the best feature is that it keeps your content as files on disk, so even if you stop using the app, you still got your content (not hidden away in a database). Plus you can easily use dropbox, rsync or whatever to sync it. It's a really great app.
I used NoteSuite before, but wasn't too happy with it. It's UI is quirky, tries too hard and gets mostly in your way. Notebooks doesn't fall into that trap. I'm not aware of others but my research into it wasn't that exhaustive, so if there are other decent OS X apps I'd love to hear about it too.
I mostly use Evernote for clipping webpages for later reference (images, pdfs etc). I still haven't found quite an easy to use replacement. Most of the evernote replacements seem to concentrate only on text/lists.
Just a note, any 'Evernote' replacement that uses any sort of markdown or markup language is not a true replacement, but an 'Evernote inspired' project. Most people don't want to learn markup languages. Rich text editors are the well established norm and any true Evernote replacement needs to have one.
> I love Evernote, but I no longer trust my data to cloud providers.
Give https://turtl.it a shot as well. Aims to solve this very problem: Evernote with data privacy. (Disclaimer, I built it. Disclaimer2: not nearly as advanced as Evernote).
So, the Magpie creator no longer trusts cloud providers, yet the software stores data on github. You know that record scratch sound? I think I just heard that.
Yes, I know one could configure one's own github repo and make it accessible, etc. I know that cloud storage is about as reliable as that shaky cousin who's always borrowing "a few bucks for beer, man."
It seems like everyone is attacking the wrong problem. The problem is not the client, that's just a UI/UX issue that's never going to be resolved because, hey, I hate what you like and vice-versa.
Can someone please create a more reliable back-end so we can stop saying things like "I hate cloud providers"? I hate them, too, but I'm not going to redesign the part where the problem ain't.
Magpie source is hosted on Github, because it's open source - it's public. There is no requirement that the git repo you use to store your data be on Github. The git repo for Magpie and the git repo for the data you access through Magpie are not intended to be the same.
I think you missed the part where Magpie can put its repo anywhere, (even on your local machine). But to your point about 'fixing the problem', that problem is already addressed, but not packaged particularly well.
There are already enough 'cloud' providers to provide the necessary diversity, and there is already enough crypto to provide the necessary security. What there isn't is an adapter layer that puts those two together in a way that lets folks like the Author build their favorite UI on top of it.
One such architecture might be a git server on a machine at one's home, which uses fuse to create a replicated secure backend across S3, some VPS, Dropbox, and what ever. Giving the git server on the machine a 'file system view' while creating a replicated and encrypted block back end using a variety of cloud providers.
You could do that with a VPS in the cloud as well, but it has some exposure to infrastructure seizure or damage. By hosting it at 'home' you trade some slightly stronger legal protections for the limitations of your home internet connection.
just a small question here but essentially it would only a local repo? i don't know too much about git but if you don't store it on the cloud, how would you transfer it from computer A to B? (using a repo and not copying folders over)
The problem is the client. With a client that does proper encryption, you could store your data on one of the huge TV screens in Times Square and have complete privacy.
A server should just be a dumb, transparent container. Whether it's Github or some custom-made "super secure" server doesn't matter. The real magic happens in the client.
the problem is where should the client store encryption keys?if one has multiple client on multiple devices,how one does manage all of them?(that's just a question,thanks).
A key generated from a username/passphrase will work fine. Generally you'd use a key derivation function (eg PBKDF2) which turns your auth information into a 32-byte (256 bit) cryptographic "master key." Assuming you can remember your passphrase, then you can easily re-generate your key when you "log in" from any machine.
The paragraph "What isn’t magpie?" clearly lists why magpie is NOT an Evernote replacement, yet on the top of the page it says "Git-backed Evernote replacement".
Stop using the word 'replacement' when in actuality you mean 'clone (wip)'
It doesn't resolve your fear of cloud providers, but Simplenote (http://simplenote.com/) is an awesome, simple Evernote replacer. Especially is you trust the folks at Automattic!
It started as Simplenote, but was acquired (methinks) by Automattic (WordPress) at some point, and the underlying tech was turned into https://simperium.com
I was editing the note about "farts" trying to add a list of foods that cause excessive flatulence (to test markdown support of lists, of course), but after submitting my edit, I was getting 503 errors for a short period of time.
after a few more minutes, things seem fine
edit: it seems that someone was able to remove my hard work and valuable information. Given that this is based on git, is there any way to revert or view previous versions of notes?
That said, I like basic idea of extending magpie with a PDF scraper and email. Maybe it would spare some energy to fork gollum and add extension to it to make it more Evernote-like?
[1]: https://github.com/gollum/gollum