10 ms·

Magpie – Git-backed Evernote replacement

101 points by charlesthomas 12y ago

r0muald 12y ago
I could not find a demo. It would help a lot if there was a working demo.
- charlesthomas 12y ago
  That's a really great idea. I'll have to work on setting that up. edit: here is a demo: http://magpie.sknkwrks.net/ http://magpie.sknkwrks.net/
  - snicker 12y ago
    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?
    - charlesthomas 12y ago
      This post is getting more traction than I anticipated, and Magpie was not intended to have more than one user at a time.
      - laurent123456 12y ago
        By the way, it looks there's a security issue - it's possible to search and view all the notes without being logged in. Edit: also it's listing all the files in the .git folder. I guess it should be excluded from the searches.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
orthecreedence 12y ago
> I love Evernote, but I no longer trust my data to cloud providers. Give https://turtl.it 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). That said, Magpie looks really cool.
- drivingmenuts 12y ago
  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.
  - wtetzner 12y ago
    It's backed by a git repo. I didn't read anywhere on there that it stores the repo on github.
    - deeteecee 12y ago
      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)
      - sosborn 12y ago
        You can host the repo on any accessible server. Github is an option, but so it a VPS under your control and not open to the public.
zellyn 12y ago
It would be lovely to have this running on top of Camlistore, rather than git. A little more automatic, linkable, etc.
- charlesthomas 12y ago
  I'm not familiar with Camlistore, I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the suggestion.
corbinpage 12y ago
It doesn't resolve your fear of cloud providers, but Simplenote (http://simplenote.com/ http://simplenote.com/) is an awesome, simple Evernote replacer. Especially is you trust the folks at Automattic!
- fonnesbeck 12y ago
  Simplenote seem to have abandoned Markdown, as it is only arbitrarily implemented in the web app. This makes it less compelling for me.
- devindotcom 12y ago
  I use simplenote religiously and the new apps are great, but it's not really a replacement for evernote.
  - andrewflnr 12y ago
    What, do they finally have a real Android app?
- yitchelle 12y ago
  Simplenote looks great. Any idea how they make money? On their front page, it says "Backups, syncing, sharing — it’s all completely free."
  - lips 12y ago
    It started as Simplenote, but was acquired (methinks) by Automattic (WordPress) at some point, and the underlying tech was turned into https://simperium.com https://simperium.com
moonlighter 12y ago
If you like a native app (OSX, iOS and Windows), take a look at http://www.notebooksapp.com http://www.notebooksapp.com 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.
- pastylegs 12y ago
  This looks great. I've been looking for an offline alternative to Evernote for a while now. Are there any other decent Mac apps I should consider?
  - moonlighter 12y ago
    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.
EvanAnderson 12y ago
Be careful with the demo! I noticed somebody creating "notes" w/ XSS (albeit just an alert) while I was playing with it.
- simcop2387 12y ago
  Definitely. I just embedded autoplaying youtube videos: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3KANI2dpXLw?autoplay=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> http://magpie.sknkwrks.net/kjhkjh/hkjhkjhk http://magpie.sknkwrks.net/kjhkjh/hkjhkjhk
erikb 12y ago
I'd love some screenshots in the docs.
lsinger 12y ago
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? [1]: https://github.com/gollum/gollum https://github.com/gollum/gollum
- general_failure 12y ago
  Is your code for adding auth public? I would love to have the same setup
  - lsinger 12y ago
    See here for Basic Auth: http://stackoverflow.com/a/13357591/633167 http://stackoverflow.com/a/13357591/633167
- lsinger 12y ago
  Oh, and nicely wrapped in Fluid [1] as a site-specific browser with a nice icon [2]. [1]: http://fluidapp.com http://fluidapp.com [2]: https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/71619/book_moleskine_notes_pure_icon https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/71619/book_moleskine_notes_...
rwbt 12y ago
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.
- cheepin 12y ago
  Ever tried Dragdis?
  - jclos 12y ago
    Dragdis looks amazing, but do you know of any offline alternative? I don't trust anything that lives purely online anymore.
hliyan 12y ago
Seems "Magpie" is a common name for Git-related projects: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7378345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7378345
DrinkWater 12y ago
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)'
joshdance 12y ago
Cool project, looks fun. 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.

101 points by charlesthomas 12y ago

r0muald 12y ago

I could not find a demo. It would help a lot if there was a working demo.

charlesthomas 12y ago
That's a really great idea. I'll have to work on setting that up. edit: here is a demo: http://magpie.sknkwrks.net/ http://magpie.sknkwrks.net/
- snicker 12y ago
  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?
  - charlesthomas 12y ago
    This post is getting more traction than I anticipated, and Magpie was not intended to have more than one user at a time.
    - laurent123456 12y ago
      By the way, it looks there's a security issue - it's possible to search and view all the notes without being logged in. Edit: also it's listing all the files in the .git folder. I guess it should be excluded from the searches.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

orthecreedence 12y ago

> I love Evernote, but I no longer trust my data to cloud providers. Give https://turtl.it 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). That said, Magpie looks really cool.

drivingmenuts 12y ago
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.
- wtetzner 12y ago
  It's backed by a git repo. I didn't read anywhere on there that it stores the repo on github.
  - deeteecee 12y ago
    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)
    - sosborn 12y ago
      You can host the repo on any accessible server. Github is an option, but so it a VPS under your control and not open to the public.

zellyn 12y ago

It would be lovely to have this running on top of Camlistore, rather than git. A little more automatic, linkable, etc.

charlesthomas 12y ago
I'm not familiar with Camlistore, I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the suggestion.

corbinpage 12y ago

It doesn't resolve your fear of cloud providers, but Simplenote (http://simplenote.com/ http://simplenote.com/) is an awesome, simple Evernote replacer. Especially is you trust the folks at Automattic!

fonnesbeck 12y ago
Simplenote seem to have abandoned Markdown, as it is only arbitrarily implemented in the web app. This makes it less compelling for me.
devindotcom 12y ago
I use simplenote religiously and the new apps are great, but it's not really a replacement for evernote.
- andrewflnr 12y ago
  What, do they finally have a real Android app?
yitchelle 12y ago
Simplenote looks great. Any idea how they make money? On their front page, it says "Backups, syncing, sharing — it’s all completely free."
- lips 12y ago
  It started as Simplenote, but was acquired (methinks) by Automattic (WordPress) at some point, and the underlying tech was turned into https://simperium.com https://simperium.com

moonlighter 12y ago

If you like a native app (OSX, iOS and Windows), take a look at http://www.notebooksapp.com http://www.notebooksapp.com 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.

pastylegs 12y ago
This looks great. I've been looking for an offline alternative to Evernote for a while now. Are there any other decent Mac apps I should consider?
- moonlighter 12y ago
  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.

EvanAnderson 12y ago

Be careful with the demo! I noticed somebody creating "notes" w/ XSS (albeit just an alert) while I was playing with it.

simcop2387 12y ago
Definitely. I just embedded autoplaying youtube videos: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3KANI2dpXLw?autoplay=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> http://magpie.sknkwrks.net/kjhkjh/hkjhkjhk http://magpie.sknkwrks.net/kjhkjh/hkjhkjhk

erikb 12y ago

I'd love some screenshots in the docs.

lsinger 12y ago

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? [1]: https://github.com/gollum/gollum https://github.com/gollum/gollum

general_failure 12y ago
Is your code for adding auth public? I would love to have the same setup
- lsinger 12y ago
  See here for Basic Auth: http://stackoverflow.com/a/13357591/633167 http://stackoverflow.com/a/13357591/633167
lsinger 12y ago
Oh, and nicely wrapped in Fluid [1] as a site-specific browser with a nice icon [2]. [1]: http://fluidapp.com http://fluidapp.com [2]: https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/71619/book_moleskine_notes_pure_icon https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/71619/book_moleskine_notes_...

rwbt 12y ago

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.

cheepin 12y ago
Ever tried Dragdis?
- jclos 12y ago
  Dragdis looks amazing, but do you know of any offline alternative? I don't trust anything that lives purely online anymore.

hliyan 12y ago

Seems "Magpie" is a common name for Git-related projects: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7378345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7378345

DrinkWater 12y ago

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)'

joshdance 12y ago

Cool project, looks fun. 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.