Comment on What are some FOSS programs that are objectively better than their proprietary counterparts?
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 5 days ago
Sorry, Joplin is a nightmare. I want something that stores Markdown in flat files, not a database with changing versions where one version of the db doesn’t work in another version.
I tried to port the database over from another system, but the new version of Joplin wouldn’t read from the old version’s database, and it would corrupt the database when I tried to open it. What a crock of shit. I had to figure out how to dump the data from the tables using sqlite.
I use nb now instead. It is a bit wonky because it uses NodeJS, but you can view and edit files in a web browser, and it saves each entry as a .md file, which is the sane and rational way to do it. So, if nb ever fucks off, I have all my work in a directory of Markdown files, not some broken-ass sqlite database.
Joplin does have an automatic backup plugin. Which I recommend enabling for obvious reasons.
Also, moving to different versions is kinda tricky sometimes. No matter the software, when moving from very old version to a new one, I always keep the old one around until I’m certain the stuff was moved over cleanly.
But yeah, having the notes in a database is definitely not as robust as the plain text storage. Wish Joplin would just let you say “I have a git repository”.
Thanks for bringing this up. I almost thought to try Joplin again, from this post. But for me, having my files as files for me to use as I please etc, is too important. I guess the Joplin way works for some.
scheep@lemmy.world 5 days ago
That’s why nowadays, I use Joplin for quick notes (where folder structure doesn’t matter) and Obsidian (unfortunately closed-sourced) for larger collections where it does matter, I have to try alternatives like trilium soon, but Obsidian is just really good. NB seems interesting, I might have to try that as well