Tomboy for Mac OS X

Posted by & filed under Linux, Mac OS X, Mono, Open-source. 7,332 views

I find it interesting that the most common search that take people to my site is some variation on Tomboy+Mac. The second most common search group has to do with Open Source Session Initiation Protocol phones (SIP) but more on that later.

I wonder what it is in Tomboy that Mac OS X users crave and that they can’t find in the available applications (from Stickies to more advanced note taking applications).

Tomboy is simple, has small wiki-like features (basic hypertext, some level of rich text formatting), includes a decent search mechanism and a few other nice to have. But doesn’t Voodoopad and others do most of that ?

I believe the reason I liked Tomboy (I no longer use it since I don’t _have to_ run a Linux desktop anymore) is that it was always immediately available to jot down a note or search for something. It felt like you were not changing context and switching out applications to write down a thought. Also and because Tomboy had a very simple file based repository (the .tomboy folder if I recall) I would use the now defunct iFolder to sync up and back up my notes.

Something I do now with Exchange, Outlook, Entourage and my Blackberry. Yes, I am ashamed.

P.S. I wonder how far the Coca based port of GTK+ to Mac OS X is. Haven’t heard much from those guys lately. Is the project DOA ? That would allow Mac OS X users to run Tomboy using Mono without X11.

Update on iFolder: as mentioned by a reader, iFolder has a new lease on life there