Note managers
20/05/08 08:14 Filed in: Software
I've written about Mac note takers and managers,
a
long time ago (but not in a galaxy far, far
away), but this time I'm not so much writing
about them, this is more what they tell us about
the state of mac development.
Boy there are an awful lot of note managers for OS X.
I'm in a good position to know this since I collect software and I think I've probably tried them all and have license keys for a lot of them. Just off the top of my head I can think of Mori, Journler, Mac Journal, Devon Note/Think, Yojimbo, Eagle Filer, SOHO Notes and Together. That list just covers the traditional 3 plane email client type apps! There are others such as NoteBook, Tinderbox and even humble old Stickies.
I've tried most of these and have actually used, long(-ish) term Devon Note, Mac Journal, Yojimbo, Mori and Journler (in that order). I've still not found the perfect note manager, but Journler is pretty close and since I now have nearly 500 different entries in it, there would have be a very compelling reason for me to make another change!
So what does this huge range of different apps for one apparently simple task tell us about the state of OS X development?
Well I think it is very good news indeed. It shows that there are lots of small independent developers out there that are turning out lots of high quality software. This can only be good for the platform. And I'm sure I've said this before, but the reason that there are so many developers out there is that Apple make it easy to create good quality code. They give us lots of useful and powerful API's we can call and perhaps more importantly they give us a full set of development tools free with the operating system!
Also I think it shows the kind of people that use Mac's. Most mac users are mac uses by choice. I suspect most PC users have to use PC. So the average mac user (if there is such a thing) is using there machine to do stuff they want to do. Creative stuff, which is where the note managers come in.
Okay having such a large choice does make finding the one that is right for you a little tricky, but since they are all available for free trial you can play and see which one is best for you, but what ever you do don't put to many notes in until you've found the one. When I went from Mori to Journler I had to manually copy 250 notes across!
I'm in a good position to know this since I collect software and I think I've probably tried them all and have license keys for a lot of them. Just off the top of my head I can think of Mori, Journler, Mac Journal, Devon Note/Think, Yojimbo, Eagle Filer, SOHO Notes and Together. That list just covers the traditional 3 plane email client type apps! There are others such as NoteBook, Tinderbox and even humble old Stickies.
I've tried most of these and have actually used, long(-ish) term Devon Note, Mac Journal, Yojimbo, Mori and Journler (in that order). I've still not found the perfect note manager, but Journler is pretty close and since I now have nearly 500 different entries in it, there would have be a very compelling reason for me to make another change!
So what does this huge range of different apps for one apparently simple task tell us about the state of OS X development?
Well I think it is very good news indeed. It shows that there are lots of small independent developers out there that are turning out lots of high quality software. This can only be good for the platform. And I'm sure I've said this before, but the reason that there are so many developers out there is that Apple make it easy to create good quality code. They give us lots of useful and powerful API's we can call and perhaps more importantly they give us a full set of development tools free with the operating system!
Also I think it shows the kind of people that use Mac's. Most mac users are mac uses by choice. I suspect most PC users have to use PC. So the average mac user (if there is such a thing) is using there machine to do stuff they want to do. Creative stuff, which is where the note managers come in.
Okay having such a large choice does make finding the one that is right for you a little tricky, but since they are all available for free trial you can play and see which one is best for you, but what ever you do don't put to many notes in until you've found the one. When I went from Mori to Journler I had to manually copy 250 notes across!
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