With Evernote's business on the rocks, a lot of people are waking up to the fact that commercial, proprietary cloud systems work great (easy, well-supported) but fail badly (lock-in, sudden bankruptcy, loss of years' worth of important data).
If you're just learning that lesson, try Standard Notes, a free, open, encrypted, cross-platform cloud-based note-taking app that is designed to be private, auditable, and eternal.
The encrypted part means you can store data in the cloud and not worry about it being read by the people who run the servers you're using; the open code means that you (or someone you trust) can audit the encryption to make sure that it's performing as advertised; the free (as in freedom) part means you can always pull your data and anyone can set up rival cloud services for synchronizing between devices; and that means that the data is eternal: yours and yours alone, forever and ever.
Standard Notes is available for Mac/Win/Lin, Android and Ios, and runs in a web browser as well.
The project funds itself by offering a premium tier of services (encrypted attachments stored in your Dropbox/Gdrive, access to extensions/themes, 100 years' worth of version history for all docs, automated backup to a cloud drive and/or email, and two-factor auth for more encryption). They charge a mere $2.48/month for all that.
We believe in building software that lasts. To us, it is sad to consider that in the Information Age, the chances are that all information will probably not be there tomorrow. The software that enables all of our thoughts and dreams is now built to such a low standard and at such breakneck speeds and aimed at such ludicrous commercial interests, that its very survivability is in question. Even the biggest software firms can no longer protect our information. The flashiest start-ups close. Formats and standards disintegrate in 5 years or less. Data is turned to dust every day.Our passion is to prove information doesn't have to be this way.
Our revolutionary, paradigm-shifting 21st-century business plan is to keep your information ready for the 22nd century. The notes you write now should be there for you in a 100 years. That's our killer app.
And this is how our applications will survive the apocalypse.
(via Four Short Links)
