Background

As a senior developer for over 20 years, I’ve created a workflow for note taking that uses MS-Word to take notes, and WinGrep5 to search through my notes.

This has worked fine but in some development environments I’m soley on Unix/Linux and want to find a solution that works in that environment as well as on Windows.

I asked ChatGPT o4 the following:

I’m looking for suggestions to find an app that allows me to store rich text (formatted) along with pictures/screen captures in the following situation.

I’m a linux software developer and want to:

  1. take developer notes in a application that stores data locally
  2. allows me to “grep” (or equivalent) to find data I’m searching for so that I can then open the file in the “app” that I’m using. The find feature must be robust enough to search ALL of my files (potentially years worth of data, 1000+ files) and support regular expressions.
  3. Allow me to paste a screenshot into the document being edited to support developer notes.
  4. The application must also allow me to change my key bindings so that the key bindings can match emacs key bindings. MS-Word allows this. In the past, the Linux OpenOffice/LibreOffice did not.

On Windows, I’ve used MS-Word to edit files. And WinGrep5 to search through files. I’m looking for an equivalent application to do this in Linux.

ChatGPT’s answer

Based on your requirements, here are some Linux applications that may work for you:

  1. Joplin Features: Supports rich text and markdown. Allows you to paste screenshots into notes. Data is stored locally (or synced if desired). Robust search functionality (including full-text search). Open-source and customizable. Limitations: Key binding customization may require plugin support or manual configuration.
  2. Emacs with Org-mode Features: Perfect for Emacs key bindings. Can embed images and screenshots. Org-mode provides rich formatting and structure. Supports searching with regex through files using grep or built-in tools like occur. Limitations: Requires some setup to handle screenshots and rich text formatting.
  3. Zettlr Features: Markdown-based but supports embedding images and screenshots. Full-text search with regex support. Customizable key bindings. Limitations: May require tweaking for Emacs-like experience.
  4. LibreOffice Writer Features: Rich text editor similar to MS-Word. Supports pasting images and screenshots. Customizable key bindings (though not as flexible as Emacs). Limitations: Searching across multiple files might require external tools like grep.
  5. Obsidian Features: Markdown-based with support for embedded images/screenshots. Stores notes locally. Supports search across notes with regex. Key binding customization via plugins. Limitations: Might require tweaking to achieve Emacs-like key bindings.

Complementary Search Tools To complement the above:

  1. ripgrep (rg) or ag (The Silver Searcher): For blazing-fast searches with regex support in your local directory.
  2. fzf: A terminal-based fuzzy finder that integrates well with grep.
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