DutchPete

True, but even that I think is a nonsense because intelligence in the human sense does not exist (yet?), and neither does an external brain in the human sense. These words are just marketing hype to try to get an edge on the competition. And that's not unique to EN. However, at the end of the day it does not really matter which qualifications one uses, we know the strengths & weaknesses of EN. And like GM says, there does not seem to be a viable, broad-based cross-platform alternative to EN & 1N out there (yet?).

External brain sounds like an amazing feature, but anything that holds your thoughts, documents, sketches, .... can be classified as your external brain. So any note-taking app could qualify, including 1N. In fact, your whole computer could be classified as such. I know we are talking apps here, but "external brain" does not mean anything & is therefore nonsense. I wholeheartedly agree with your last sentence (in bold below).

nvAlt = Mac too Gruber's basic Markdown will only be read by apps that support it, but, like I said, many apps only support a "flavour" (= official name for it I believe), i.e. a variation on it, and those apps therefore do not accept Gruber's markdown. I have tried a number. If I am not mistaken, your planning ahead consisted of leaving EN altogether, except for web clippings. But if all users plan ahead like that EN would have to close shop. GM, I am not trying to be awkward, believe me, but I contest your premise that it is easy to export from EN into a usable format & be up & running within 15 minutes. At any rate, Windows users don't have that possibility, perhaps because EN was originally designed for Mac users so easy export facilities were created for those users. A Windows UI was tacked on at a later stage, by which time easy export for them was forgotten about. Whatever the reason may be, having Windows users' notes up & running within 15 mins is pie in the sky.

1. Your links are for Mac users. 2. Your use of Markdown conventions might work in Voodoo or DevonThink, but many apps use Markdown flavours, which are always slightly different.

EN notes are portable, but only to HTML & MHT, that's not much. I am not aware that you can have plain text notes in EN. And as for up & running in 15 mins: importing HTML into other apps is not that simple, if possible at all. Even if the app allows it, you would still have to do a lot of manual work to make those notes usable as before again. The importing bit into the other app is just the start but that does not mean they are immediately usable, so I would not call that up & running. Plain text notes woud indeed be a lot easier to import & for the user to be & running relatively quickly. But EN does not support PT does it?

Don't forget there are 3rd party apps like that already. I don't use them but this is what I have seen being talked about: * Kanbanote - http://www.kanbanote.com/, with a report on Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/kanbanote-organizes-your-evernote-notes-in-trello-like-1676463684 * Trello - a Kanban app that can work with Evernote via Zapier https://zapier.com/zapbook/evernote/trello/. But direct Trello - EN integration is still only a feature someone requested from Trello - see screenshot below or website https://trello.com/b/ooY1N7GP/braintoss-support-page

@jbenson2: do you know what the maximum note limit is on 1N? does it have equally powerful search operators as EN? Office suite: I find the office suite by WPS more pleasant to use than LibreOffice. It is not open source but feels a lot more familiar to MS Office than LO does. And the WPS Spreadsheets (as it is called) app has 1 big advantage of both MS & LO: tabs. I installed VeraCrypt on my PC a while ago & am very happy with it. For my use case it replaces the need for encryption in e.g. EN.

@Alan: there is nothing new about using Excel & EN, and you do not need to "upload" an Excel file. You can just attach an Excel file to an EN note, like you do with a PDF, JPEG, whatever. That is the beauty & ease of EN in terms of attaching files. BTW, all attachments are stored within EN itself, so you do not need to keep them as a separate copy on your hard drive. When you click to open an attachment from within a note, it is actually opened from within EN. When you subsequently amend & save it, you can close it safely. Next time you open the attachment again from within that note you'll see the amendments are there.

Perhaps JMichael had a point about language - LOL. And maybe Christine was hoping for something more intricate or even useful to her, perhaps she found my use too simple, down to earth. But maybe she will explain that personally

@Christine: no I do not duplicate between the 2 apps, a note resides in either 1 or the other. My redundancy consists of back-ups. I don't understand your remark about my comment being way too much common sense & zen for my tastes. I answered honestly the way I use them, I cannot put a more "intellectual" or "esoteric" spin on it. Sorry.

@Christine: I use EN & 1N in parallel because in many ways they are complementary to each other. For example: tables in EN are pretty useless, whereas in 1N they are excellent. So if I don't want to use Excel to create a table I use 1N. That table can then either stay in 1N or be imported into EN, depending on the use. OTOH tagging is far superior in EN than in 1N, so if I need a note to be tagged I will create it in EN. These are just 2 examples but there are many more situations like that. The point that people need to bear in mind is that neither are perfect, in fact a perfect note-taking app does not exist in my modest opinion. Therefore it is pointless trying to make EN or 1N (or any other app for matter) do something it was not designed for in the 1st place. Many people go down that road & then get frustrated when it does not work out, blaming the app for its shortcomings. I just try to enjoy the best of both worlds, accepting that neither one nor the other will deliver all, but that between them they go a long way towards helping me achieve most, if not all, I need for my use case.

@JMichael: both GM & I independently understood the same from your post, so even if my so-called inferred meaning is supposedly incorrect, you expressed yourself clumsily & got the wrong message across, not just to me (English not being my mother tongue & all that) but also to GM. Unfortunately for you that is your problem, not mine. And as for personal attacks: I have no interest in making personal attacks against you or anyone else. I only reacted to a condescending remark you made, which I take issue with. But if you don't want to stay with your feet on the ground, having lifted off at least try to get off your high horse and treat your forum colleagues with a bit more decorum. That way we would not need to go through all this & can stay with the topic. By the way, It is not the 1st time you disregard common rules of courtesy in a post. Since I was brought up with a different set of values, I will react whenever you lack respect towards me, whether you like it or not. That's me. And to prove that I am not beyond reproach: I have also made 1 or 2 unpleasant posts, but did 1 of 2 things. Either I apologised to the person or I withdrew my post (= deleted it). Common courtesy.

@JMichael: I don't see what the language has to do with it. Your reaction (if you guys want to debate a piece of vaporware, by all means please carry on. I've got better things to do) was uncalled for, you sometimes seem to go off your rocker & answer in an unpleasant, if not aggressive way. And what you call a misunderstanding is not due to the use of English language. I may be Dutch, but my command of the English language is on a par with any higher educated person whose mother tongue is English - not sure if that includes you. Both GM and I had the same appreciation of your initial comment about security/privacy, and if you think GM has a lesser command of the English language than you it is obvious you have another problem than just expressng yourself clearly. So please stay with your feet on the ground and try to have a measured discussion.

@JMichael: I don't even use Dropbox & don't intend to do so. Frankdg suggested looking @ their project so I did, as you did. You decided to comment, so you can expect to have reactions to your comment. I don't intend to waste my energy on something I don't even want, but i do react on this forum to comments I don't agree with or have a view about, without necessarily going into intricate details. If you don't want to get reactions then don't comment, then logically you should not in the 1st place. And if we misunderstood you, it's your problem if you cannot express yourself clearly.

@JMichael: you say But it is way too early to start worrying about security/privacy since it is not even an announced product yet. It is exactly at an early stage that security/privacy need to be put up on the radar screen, and not as an after-thought when the product is already at an advanced stage. If Dropbox wants to enter the PIM market, one way they could distinguish themselves from the competition, rather than being perceived as a "me too" app, is to develop a top notch security/privacy app.