10 Best Note-Taking Apps for Linux

The note-taking app allows you to take notes on the go, whether you're in class or studying, reading somewhere, at work or in a meeting. There are many note-taking applications that can be installed and used on Linux systems.

In this article, we'll take a look at the top 10 open source note-taking apps that you can use on Linux systems.

Joplin

Joplin is a premium, functional, customizable and secure open source note-taking and to-do app that runs on Linux, Windows and macOS on laptops or desktops, and Android and iOS on mobile phones and tablets. It is also available as a terminal or text application.

Joplin supports multiple languages and allows you to take notes and access them securely from any device. It allows you to organize your notes into notebooks, supports multimedia notes and attachments (images, videos, PDF as well as audio), supports advanced text searches, tags, and external editors.

It also supports alerts (notifications) for cases, End-To-End Encryption (E2EE) encryption for security, allows you to save web pages and screenshots as notes using the web clipper extension available in Firefox and Chrome browsers, and supports synchronization with cloud or file storage services such as Joplin Cloud, Dropbox and OneDrive.

Plus, it supports customization with custom themes, plugins, multiple text editors (Rich Text or Markdown) and more.

Installing Joplin on Linux

The recommended way to install Joplin on a Linux system is to run the following wget command, which downloads and runs the installation script:

$ wget -O -  | 
sudo bash

Simplenote

Second on the list is Simplenote. As the name suggests, it's the easiest, if not the easiest, way to keep track of all your notes on Linux, Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android systems, as well as a web browser. It's free, open source, supports tagging, shareable to-do lists, and also supports tagging. It syncs all your notes across devices and allows you to publish your notes online.

Installing Simplenote on Linux

Grab the latest version of Simplenote from Github repository in the releases section and install it like this:

----------- On Debian-based Systems -----------
$ wget -c 
$ sudo apt install gconf2  & sudo dpkg -i Simplenote-linux-2.21.0-amd64.deb 
----------- On RHEL-based Systems -----------
$ wget -c 
$ sudo rpm -i Simplenote-linux-2.21.0-amd64.deb

Boost Note

Boost Note is not just a note-taking application, but an open source document-based project management tool for development teams and operators (DevOps). It offers a customizable workspace based on the developer's needs with an IDE-like user interface.

Boost Note supports real-time collaboration anywhere, anytime (web, desktop, and mobile apps), a powerful markup editor, and multiple views. You can also integrate it with tools like Github, Gitlab, Trello, Jira, Slack, Zoom and many other apps (up to 4000+).

It also provides comments and mentions, support charts, a dashboard, rich document customization features, and easy searchability. In addition, it offers bi-directional document linking and supports embedding third-party content. It also offers a public API for programmatic document management.

Installing Boost Note on Linux

Boot Note can be installed on Linux as a .deb, .rpm or AppImage package as shown below:

----------- On Debian-based Systems -----------
$ wget 
$ sudo dpkg -i boost-note-linux.deb 
----------- On RHEL-based Systems -----------
$ wget 
$ sudo rpm -i boost-note-linux.rpm

Or set it as an AppImage as shown in the picture:

$ wget 
$ chmod a+x boost-note-linux.AppImage
$ ./boost-note-linux.AppImage

Standard Notes

Standard Notes is a free, open source, secure, end-to-end encrypted note-taking application for digital enthusiasts and professionals. It is simple, convenient and easy to use, with various themes. It is cross-platform and works on Linux, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android systems and in a web browser.

Standard Notes allows you to capture activities using note types (markdown test, plain text, tasks, to-dos, code, spreadsheets, and more). In addition, it has smart views, subfolders, authenticator, password protection, passcode, face ID and fingerprint lock. It also supports data import and export and comes standard with sync across all devices and end-to-end encryption.

Installing Standard Notes on Linux

Standard Note is available as an AppImage, which you can download from the project's official website, make it executable, and run it like this.

$ chmod a+x standard-notes-3.142.1-linux-x86_64.AppImage
$. /standard-notes-3.142.1-linux-x86_64.AppImage

Trillium Notes

Trillium Notes is a free and open source hierarchical note-taking application designed with a focus on building large personal knowledge bases. It is available as a desktop application for Linux and Windows, or as a web application hosted on your Linux server.

Trilium Notes features fast and easy navigation between notes with full text search and note lifting, link maps, link maps for visualizing notes and their links, and a touch-optimized user interface for mobile devices and tablets. In addition, it implements powerful encryption of individual notes.

It supports notes arranged in arbitrarily deep trees, rich WYSIWYG note editing, source code editing with syntax highlighting, note versioning, note sharing on the web, and diagram sketching with built-in Excalidraw. In addition, the program supports scripting and REST API for automation and much more.

Installing Trilium Notes on Linux

To use Trilium Notes on your desktop, run the following commands to download the .deb package from the page latest release and then install it as shown in the figure.

$ wget -c 
$ sudo dpkg -i trilium_0.58.7_amd64.deb

Alternatively, download the binary release from the latest releases section, extract the package, and run the trilium executable as follows.

$ wget -c 
$ tar xvf trilium-linux-x64-0.58.7.tar.xz
$ cd trilium-linux-x64/

TagSpaces

TagSpaces, designed primarily as a privacy-enabled cross-platform file browser, also offers note-taking capabilities. It's free, open source, and runs on Linux, Windows, MacOS, and Android systems. As the name suggests, it helps you organize your files and folders with tags and colors.

It has an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, allows you to add tags and descriptions to files and folders, create digital notes as regular files, view and preview files, and many other premium features.

Installing TagSpaces on Linux

On Debian and Ubuntu derivatives, you can download and install the .deb package as follows.

$ wget - 
$ sudo dpkg -i tagspaces-linux-amd64-5.2.2.deb

Alternatively, install the AppImage like this.

$ wget 
$ chmod a+x tagspaces-linux-x86_64-5.2.2.AppImage
$ ./tagspaces-linux-x86_64-5.2.2.AppImage

CherryTree

CherryTree is another free and open source hierarchical note-taking application that runs on Linux, Windows, and MacOS systems. It has rich text and syntax highlighting, support for multiple languages, and stores data in a single XML or SQLite file.

Embedded files, simple spreadsheet work, spell checking, import and export functions, tree node drag and drop, and more are also supported.

Installing Cherry Tree on Linux

CherryTree is available as a snap that you can install from the Snap store, for example, to install it on Ubuntu, run the following commands.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install snapd
$ sudo snap install cherrytree

Alternatively, install the latest stable package for your distribution from the official website of the project.

Notable

Notable is a portable, powerful, free and open source note-taking application that runs on Linux systems (as of this writing). It has Zen mode, a multi-write editor, a split editor, tag support, import and export features, attachments, to-dos, code blocks with syntax highlighting, and more.

The package also includes a built-in cheat sheet and a tutorial for learning how the application works.

Installing Notable on Linux

Notable is available as .deb, .rpm, snap and AppImage packages that can be downloaded and installed from the official website.

$ chmod a+x Notable-1.8.4.AppImage
$ ./Notable-1.8.4.AppImage

QOwnNotes

QOwnNotes is a free and open source cross-platform plain text file note-taking application that comes with Nextcloud/ownCloud integration. It's a native app optimized for speed and takes up little CPU and memory space. It supports sync services like Nextcloud to sync notes across devices. It runs on Linux, FreeBSD, Windows and MacOS.

Key features include importing from Evernote and Joplin, sharing notes, support for hierarchical note tags and subfolders of notes, recovering deleted notes, spell check support, Vim mode, script support, portable mode, and more.

QOwnNotes also offers a browser extension that allows you to add notes from selected text, take screenshots, or manage bookmarks.

Installing QOwnNotes on Linux

On Ubuntu 18.04 or later and its derivatives such as Linux Mint, you can install QOwnNotes as shown.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pbek/qownnotes
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install qownnotes

You can also install it as a bind from the bind store as shown in the picture.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install snapd
$ sudo snap install qownnotes

The lichens

Created as an open source alternative to Evernote, The lichens is a cross-platform note-taking app with a markdown editor and encryption support.

It has a Pagedown-based markup editor, synchronization with cloud storage services such as Dropbox and RemoteStorage, three editing modes, WYSIWYG control buttons, syntax highlighting, and key bindings. It also supports MathJax and is web based.

Installing Laverna on Linux

$ wget  -O laverna.zip
$ unzip laverna.zip
$ cd laverna
$ ./laverna

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