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My Perfect Toolbox if All Applications were Cross Platform
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Posted by notreadbyhumans
Jul 10, 2010 at 01:00 PM
Chris,
You are very effusive about OmniOutliner. I wondered what aspects of this app really stand out for you?
Posted by Tom S.
Jul 10, 2010 at 01:29 PM
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>Welcome, Chris. That’s a very good way to introduce yourself here.
>
>I would also
>suggest, if you haven’t already done so, that you check out Curio for Mac OS. I think
>Curio is a little closer to OneNote than CircusPonies Notebook, though neither is an
>exact fit. Curio has the benefit of being able to incorporate Evernote notes.
>
>Curio
>is available here: http://www.zengobi.com/
I might argue that Curio is a little farther away from the ON notebook paradigm, but I won’t. I think we all see different things in these applications.
I thought Curio was really interesting. Many, many features. My problem with it was that I kept running into bugs when I tried it. It could be that I was just using the wrong features through bad luck. But I kind of got the impression that the developer was adding features almost as they occurred to him rather than thoughtfully building the program slowly from the ground up. It’s a common trap in my experience.
I admit that I could be way, way off on this. The program is certainly worth a try.
Like you, I strongly recommend PersonalBrain. Wonderful, cross-platform program. Solid as a rock. The only disadvantage here would be that it’s less likely to take advantage of the Mac’s native features.
Tom S.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jul 10, 2010 at 02:54 PM
Tom S. wrote:
>I might argue that Curio is a little farther away from the
>ON notebook paradigm, but I won’t. I think we all see different things in these
>applications.
>
>I thought Curio was really interesting. Many, many features. My
>problem with it was that I kept running into bugs when I tried it. It could be that I was
>just using the wrong features through bad luck. But I kind of got the impression that
>the developer was adding features almost as they occurred to him rather than
>thoughtfully building the program slowly from the ground up. It’s a common trap in my
>experience.
>
>I admit that I could be way, way off on this. The program is certainly
>worth a try.
>
>Like you, I strongly recommend PersonalBrain. Wonderful,
>cross-platform program. Solid as a rock. The only disadvantage here would be that
>it’s less likely to take advantage of the Mac’s native features.
Hi, Tom,
I should have been clearer when I was making the comparison between Curio and OneNote. The reason I think Curio is a closer match to OneNote than Notebook is that you can paste pretty much anything onto the pages of Curio, much as you can with ON. Notebook has some of that capability, but I don’t find it quite as versatile as Curio. No question that Notebook carries the notebook metaphor farther than Curio, farther even than ON. They are both very capable programs.
I haven’t had the bug issues with Curio you mention, but certainly do not dispute your experience. Curio had been developed at a pretty breakneck pace… one that seems to have slowed down a little of late.
Steve
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jul 10, 2010 at 11:12 PM
Hi Chris and welcome :-)
Very interesting post; “cross-platform” has been in my mind for sometime, though in my case I work between Windows and Linux so my list would be somewhat different. Also, web and/or mobile access is becoming more and more important for me. In this regard, iPhone/Mac users are really spoilt and Android users are getting there soon!
My contributions:
- I came across Simplenotes http://simplenoteapp.com an iPhone / iPod touch / iPad application that looks like a very light version of Evernote. Information can be synced and accessed via the web, and third party developers have provided several offline desktop apps (mosly for Mac) and other goodies http://simplenoteapp.com/extras including a nice client for Windows http://www.resoph.com/ResophNotes/Welcome.html I think it is ideal for people that only want text notes, especially on netbooks, because the Evernote client is really heavy.
- Zimbra Desktop http://www.zimbra.com/products/desktop.html looks like a capable replacement for Outlook in Windows, Mac and Linux; I’m only just trying it out though.
- Notecase Pro http://www.virtual-sky.com/index.php is my favourite cross-platform ‘classic’ outliner
- Treesheets http://www.treesheets.com/
is my new favourite bird’s eye view 3-D notebook
- Simidude http://www.agynamix.de/products/simidude/ is
an excellent cross-platform clipboard; I don’t know what I’d do without it
- Mindmanager versions exist for Windows and Mac but not Linux; an alternative is Xmind http://www.xmind.net/ but I don’t like their subscription oriented pricing for the Pro version.
- Last but not least, I concur with the positive words on Personal Brain; I also believe that the web version and syncing will eventually become a very important feature
Posted by Chris Eller
Jul 12, 2010 at 03:27 PM
notreadbyhumans wrote:
>Chris,
>
>You are very effusive about OmniOutliner. I wondered what aspects of this
>app really stand out for you?
I find OmniOutliner to be a very flexible application. When all I need is a simple outliner, it performs beautifully; when I need something much more complex with columns, mixed media, etc. it performs beautifully.
Too many of the applications I’ve played with seem to ultimately trend towards overly complex (everything but the kitchen sink). The think I like about OmniOutliner is that it has a lot of capabilities, but it does not clutter the interface with seldom used features.
Again, I am new to Mac OS and I am finding this to be true about many Mac apps.
CE