As a very/too long time participant in tech as a company owner, product designer, professor, consulting design-fixer, and such, I can usually hold my own in tech discussions. Oh.. .add to my resume pissed-off refugee of Evernote. It just couldn't remain content with what it used to be, and all kinds of know-nothings, cubicle meat and taking haircuts happily puked their big ideas on to the people who in good faith used their products when they worked. And... like anyone with the slightest contact with technical product design, wanted nothing to do with the new stuff..... the "ideas" and remorseless/faulty ethics of the new guys. Like... I suspect the Big Metal Spike Airbag Manufacturing Group might never survive even the launch. Other than to note F-Evernote, my larger point here is....
I bailed from Evernote and saved everything in in html files. Did that for many years. I'm searching for a replacement that does, at a minimum, what evernote did originally. All I need. I don't want one GD fancy thing. 35+ years putting out our products, I know to a certainty "fancy" is the shortcut to failure. I have spent weeks bouncing around the info-sphere looking for an E-N replacement and from that time, imagine Joplin is possibly what I need. The descriptions out there though are lacking and do not inspire confidence that I am close to missile lock on that. Can I please ask for an old-guy-simplified answer to just some basic things. In no special order...
Is the android version of Joplin... DONE? Is it just as usable as the desktop? Can I go out into the world with it today and do what I need to do on things/problems from my real life without thinking about interacting with it markedly differently than the desktop? No sweat if not... I just want a solid answer.
While I've probably learned, used and sometimes taught 20-30 programming languages, I flat out refuse to learn one more, or to have to go deep on yet a new way to think about OS etc.. life's too short to not focus on real work... only so many heartbeats left. Do I have to become a practitioner of this markup language to USE the tool effectively? Or get down in the weeds to set up synch in some of these other options? (I was resigned to using dropbox until I saw their entry on trustpilot).
Does Joplin encrypt at rest? If that needs to be narrowed down, is it encrypted at rest on their cloud product? Speaking of synch, and realizing Proton Drive (my only[?] trusted tech company) is technically barred from being en interface, what about designing a secure, intermediate tool that can interact with drive in the way in needs?
I think I found a trustable reply to this (i.e. yes)... but I'm going to ask: If I have to bail out from Joplin in the future for whatever reason, can I easily export to html? And keep my library structure and dates and tags and such?
Nearly everything I've asked has both the true and compliment answer floating around "out there". The world has become unsearchable. And information untrustable with lying sacks called influencers being an actual thing everyplace now. And thus, the default setting when looking at any new tech is also untrustable. I just want to take notes conveniently like I could years ago on another tool and not have to do a deep nuts and bolts technical review of each possibility. My Day Runner worked great forEVER... hmmm...
1.) Is software such as Joplin ever done? Joplin on Android is usable enough for my needs. Try searching online and through the forum to see if your specific needs are met on Android. Explaining your needs here or trying Joplin on Android yourself are also options.
2.) Markdown takes 10 minutes to learn, if that. Check out the Markdown Guide, the Markdown Tutorial, and/or the creator's original guide to learn it. You can take what you learned and use it not only in Joplin, but in this forum, and elsewhere too.
HI muzak and sincere thanks for taking the time to give me a careful and detailed reply... exactly what I needed to drive a a quick decision and get on with life. Joplin seems to be a sincere effort to solve a specific common need, but it looks like I'm out.. not what I'm looking for. Again, thank you.
Some considered personal reactions before leaving... The idea of "product design" to me, has been a hybrid of two optimizations... one technical (works.. does new useful things), one psychological (WANT to use it... removes barriers to use). In my products, no product/rev was allowed out the door if, to become an effective user of the tool, potential users ihave to learn/master a bunch of crap that has zero to do with living their life or doing their job. And barriers aren't your best friend when you're fishing for new customers/users, especially those removed from early adopter skill/thinking abilities. The "how to use" should be mostly self-evident and certainly not need consultation of multiple sources. And having multiple competing sources to consult is its own kind of barrier. People have real work to do, and I love to compete against those who believe otherwise. Again, just a difference in design philosophies but one where I've had skin in the game for decades with a frequently predictable payoff.
About SW being done, I apologize for taking a lazy short cut when I know better. Done is a nuanced thing.. our graduation requirement is raching MVP (minimum viable product) status, which is defined at the outset for each rev.
If I were going to compete against all the products in this space, my first instinct would be... just duplicate what Evernote used to be. 100% compatible. Huge, pissed off installed base who just want to keep doing what they've been doing for 15 years. In all of my "research" on a replacement, I don't recall ever once seeing anyone clamoring for more/fancy. It's been amazing how often my (young) engineers (programmers) just KNEW our installed base really really really wanted a brand new UI and other things that required relearning just to keep doing their job. That huge installed base already knows how to work E-N.
So, again... thank you for giving me the data I need to make a decision. I'll use Joplin desktop to access my notes from E-N. I'll use a combination of paper (Day Runner) and proton mail to capture new ideas when I'm mobile. And delete all my content on E-N while I can still use my legacy app to actually do so. Please don't construe my obviously contrary philosophies as argument, but just a good-faith attempt to participate in a dialectical exchange of ideas. Like we did in tech in the old days. Take good care. Over and out.