Cloudron Forum

The HN thread is interesting: quite a few criticisms of how this app "appears to transmit your usage data without consent (just like the selfhosted Mattermost server [...])" (on by default, can be turned off in the config file), as well as how it is licensed and distributed.

The Athens post: https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/4717/athens-open-source-and-local-first-alternative-to-roam-research-also-like-notion-obsidian?_=1616151737160

The Logseq post: https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/4718/logseq-privacy-first-open-source-knowledge-sharing-and-management-platform-like-notion-roam-obsidian

Repo: https://github.com/logseq/logseq
HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25090176
Open Collective: https://opencollective.com/logseq

Blurb by founder:

Logseq is a local-first, non-linear, outliner notebook for organizing and sharing your personal knowledge base.

Use it to organize your todo list, to write your journals, or to record your unique life.
Logseq is hugely inspired by Roam Research, Org Mode, Tiddlywiki and Workflowy, hats off to all of them!

Demo: https://logseq.com/

The backend code has not been released yet as the founder wants to ensure it meets security standards, so I'm posting to make the community aware of the app (and maybe someone will start working on Logseq so that the founder has the time to test the backend).

Repo: https://github.com/athensresearch/athens/
HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26316793
Open Collective: https://opencollective.com/athens

Blurb by founder:

Hey, I'm Jeff, the founder of Athens Research.

I started Athens after interviewing at Roam Research in March of 2020.

I loved Roam. I thought it could be the most powerful technology for knowledge management ever created.

But some technologies are so powerful that they must be democratized to all.

Not just free, but open — open incentives, open development processes, and open-source code.

I believe networked platforms like Athens will transform the way we use the internet and computers.

And I believe they should be open.

Demo: https://athensresearch.github.io/athens

@marcusquinn said in Notion-like FOSS app:

Looks like it deserves it's own App Wishlist post if you'd like the finder's honours?

Yep, can do the post :).

@marcusquinn @girish
Can I do one post for Athens and one for Logseq? Both are doing the same thing, the difference being that (i) Athens goes with a custom format for storing files, while Logseq works with text files (both markdown and org mode) [edit: Athens also aims to store information in text files in the future] and (ii) can sync via Github (+Gitlab, WebDAV, etc. in the future). Logseq's founder did state that it's designed to be self-hostable, but hasn't released the backend code yet (need to ensure security first), so maybe I should wait before doing that post?

By the way, the founders of both apps are very reactive: might be interesting to drop them a line on Github or Twitter as they might be willing to provide support with the packaging.

@jdaviescoates said in Notion-like FOSS app:

I only had a very quick look but it looks like Athens is like Anytype in that it's not actually a server thing at all, no? i.e. I think it's just a desktop app, not a web app, no?

I agree that it is a bit unclear, I'm going off of the fact that the option to self-host features quite heavily in Athens' communication and approach to monetisation, and the founder did discuss hosting on Sandstorm here (though it did prove problematic), but I might have misunderstood.

If there's still interest around this question, the most promising option right now is Athens, which aims to be an alternative to Roam and Notion (and is getting close to feature-parity).