Rael Bauer has just released version 4 of RightNote, and in a long email to users he makes a number of interesting points, including the following:

(1) He is introducing a new lifetime license."This is especially relevant as the demand for desktop based information managers goes down, with many people moving to the free, cross-platform and cloud-based services that are available like OneNote and Evernote. From the feedback I receive from existing and new users, I still believe there is a demand for a specialized information manager that provides advanced information management features, that is primarily desktop based and also stores its data locally (i.e. is not cloud based)."

(2) He is moving toward mobile access.

(3) "The Evernote sync is now a pro only feature."

I find the first comment intriguing. I'm sure he's right that single-platform note-takers like RightNote (which I use occasionally) and MyInfo (which I use every day) are feeling intense pressure from big-name programs like Evernote and OneNote. Significantly, RightNote and MyInfo are both trying to move into the mobile world. I hope they continue to prosper, because, like Rael, I believe there is still a need for the more sophisticated tools of organization supplied by RN, MI, and certain other similar apps.

Right, fine, but just one question, of course, if it is not too personal - are you going to buy the lifetime license? I'm wobbling...
Best,
Wojciech

I haven't decided yet. One unfortunate side-effect of CRIMPing is that I seem to spend far too much money on note-taking apps. And the lifetime license of RightNote is seriously expensive (between $99 and $149, depending on what of license you have already). But then again, it may be offered at a discount sometime in the future, and that would certainly tempt me.

My view of RightNote and MyInfo is that they are remarkably similar, though RN does allow you to search the contents of linked PDF files (a very desirable feature). On the other hand, I have been using MI for many years and feel I can move around in it quite smoothly — partly because it has such an excellent UI. But if I were new to both apps, it would be a difficult choice.

Buying a lifetime option when the author just told us that his program might die soon does feel a bit strange.
I would feel like i buy some are grave flowers.

Lets see how much technical debt RightNote has and if it can be transformed into a modern tool.

I agree that Rael's message was not very reassuring, but this is par for the course in dealing with single-developer apps. There is always the possibility that they might go under. The big boys like Evernote and OneNote will presumably not disappear overnight, but on the other hand their technical support is often very poor, and occasionally they veer off in some unexpected direction.

One way of dealing with this problem is to hedge your bets: for example, I use OneNote for my family history notes (it's bright and cheerful and undemanding), Evernote for a Web project I'm doing in collaboration with my wife (its synchronization is superb), MyInfo for scholarly books and articles (I find its clones and attribute columns especially helpful in organizing complex material), and CintaNotes for short lists (very lightweight and speedy).

"MyInfo for scholarly books and articles (I find its clones and attribute columns especially helpful in organizing complex material)"

I wonder if you've compared MyInfo to Scrivener for that purpose? Or if anyone else has an opinion about their relative merits.

It is many years since I used MyInfo. However, it seems to me that it's in an entirely different category from Scrivener's. Of course, tools can be used for all kinds of purposes, but MyInfo, surely, is a PIM, a free-form personal organiser as it says on its website, whereas Scrivener is designed to be used primarily for "long-form" drafting of books, reports, dissertations and so forth - anything, in other words, which is likely to be longer than, say, 5,000 words and which could need re-shaping before publication.

No, I haven't used Scrivener, though I read about it with interest. My assessment (from a distance) would be that both Scrivener and MyInfo can perform two important functions -- note-taking and writing drafts -- but that they have different strengths. Scrivener, I gather, is an excellent writing tool that is also pretty good at gathering and organizing information. MyInfo is surprisingly efficient as a simple word-processor (I've used it in that way from time to time) but really shines as a note-taker.