Tomboy for Mac OS X
Comments(23)
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
I can speak for myself. I searched for Tomboy+mac because I wanted something like Tomboy, and wasn’t sure what’s out there. I’ve been on Mac for many years now, but I’m still discovering new things, including those you linked to here. Thanks!
Doesn’t have the wikiness, but Notational Velocity is fast and simple. I use Quicksilver to invoke it with F6.
I’d drop it in a second for a faithful Tomboy port tho.
I came to locate tomboy because I use Linux and a Mac and would REALLY like to have the tomboy notes available on both platforms… alas…
This is the second time I end up here…
I am one of those ppl thinking like you, no context-switch just for a note. That is what makes Tomboy so superb… Will probably try som quicksilver+something combo like the guy above… But I miss my tomboy!
How about all those other ones cost money, and are not nearly as extensible/flexible as Tomboy?
Surely but Tomboy doesn’t run on Mac OS X, or at least, not with the native UI.
I found you because I just recently started using OS X and have found the note situation severely crippling to keeping track of simple todo type things or random thoughts. I also want it because I use Linux on different computers and want to take advantage of the new Tomboy built in synchrinizing. Tomboy notes are so easy and just make sense.
Sure, but how difficult could it be to rewrite Tomboy in Cocoa or Java or something that would run in Java, why wait for GTK+? You know? Let’s start a Mac Tomboy page at sourceforge, I bet we have the app done in a week. Of course I can barely say Hello world and new Cow.Daisy Daisy moo or whatever Out.println “moo, moo” but really how complicated of an app can Tomboy be?
I was actually on your site looking for Mac+SIP+Open Source, but I’ve found sidenote to be a great free alternative to Tomboy for the Mac. Since it just involves moving your mouse to the side of the screen and then typing, it’s pretty good for not disrupting your flow. Otherwise, I use QS + text files for quick notes.
I use various computers depending on where I am. I happened to be on my Ubuntu laptop and came across Tomboy. Tomboy has a real basic way of linking notes, very much like on a web site (which is what I develop for a living) and I thought it would be a good way for people to flesh out their initial ideas for their own site. I liked the fact that you could export your notes to html. So I decided to see what platforms Tomboy would work on… and here I am
This seems like a perfect time to plug my free service NOTEZAR – it’s an OS X widget (with complementing web interface) that stores your notes online.
I’m working on a version 2 that will have a number of tomboy-like features (hyperlinking, search, formatting); if NOTEZAR isn’t good enough for tomboy users now, it will be soon.
(notezar.com)
The big thing for me is that tomboy SYNCS – so I can take my notes with me from work to home – and with tomboy for mac, from my Linux PC at work to my Mac at home/on the road. Sure I can use a wbeapp, but the drawback to that is I have to be online to use those apps.
Tomboy allows me to take notes, plug in later, sync, and have that data on all my linux boxes/instances. Tomboy+Mac makes that more useful…
Yup, you sure got the google rank for it. The thing that’s great about Tomboy is its ease of use and what I call “in your face” accessibility. I HATE mac dashboard widgets, the whole dashboard thing comes in slow, it covers your entire screen, etc. It’s horrible. Having another item in the dock also not great. Having an icon in the bar up top like tomboy? PERFECT. It allows you to continue to work in whatever you have open, and also take notes without going anywhere. So you can transcribe what you’re looking at or whatever. None of the apps I’ve seen for Mac do that. They are just poorly designed. Linux is an OS built for development and work. I’ve always fought with it’s looks because it prefers productivity over style…but that’s changing now, with openGL desktop that blows away OS X and Windows. It’s just too bad I’m on a Mac at work…I just feel like I’m typing on a playdough keyboard and feel suffocated by the interface of OS X. It’s not fast. It’s just dumbed down. Anyway, thanks for the useful links and coming up #1 on Google.
Have you guys looked at Evernote ? Sure the UI is not minimalist but with an iPhone client coming, server sync and clients for Mac & Windows already, it’s been pretty good to me.
Orph just discovered that it finally happened:
http://armstrong-clan.net/dump/tomboy-mac.png
Seek and ye shall find:
Tomboy Preview for Windows and Mac
As for me, I am a linux user since the times of Slackware 0.93 and I got in use with Tomboy a year ago or so. As many others, I have recently acquired a brand-new iMac and the first thing I wanted to see on my Mac box was tomboy which I find a must.
This page has been very very helpful so t-h-a-n-k-s a lot. Go to the link suggested by Benjamin Melancon. Tomboy runs smoothly in my computer right now.
Besides, I do sync my tomboy notes with a Dropbox folder (https://www.getdropbox.com/home) after creating a symlink from .config/tomboy to the Dropbox/tomboy dir so that I can access my tomboy notes from anywhere with any OS. Nice
Thanks again,
I was looking how to import my Tomboy notes in the Mac Stickies, which I never tryied yet (btw, the best ever is knotes, is the simplest one!).
or you could just download the mac version
http://projects.gnome.org/tomboy/download.html
Doesn’t seem you can link to new notes. Now that I have an unmanageable wall of text, I am looking for Tomboy.. Will check out the other links, TIA!
you mention that the iFolder project is defunct. it has a new lease on life and is hosted here
http://ifolder.com/ifolder
And I want tomboy as I have a wealth of notes on my linux install that I want to share with my mac using tomboy’s sync features
I use dropbox to sync my tomboy notes all over the place.