Raspberry Pi 4: Chronicling the Desktop Experience – Taking Notes – Week 25

Last Updated on July 22, 2020

This is a weekly blog about the Raspberry Pi 4 (“RPI4”), the latest product in the popular Raspberry Pi range of computers.

This week, I’m examining software that lets you turn a Raspberry Pi 4 into a low power writing machine. There’s a ton of open source notes software available for Linux. Tons and tons in fact.

I’ve traversed through each of the notes applications listed in this Group Test of the best free and open source note taking software for Linux. I’ve summarized my findings on the last page of this blog post. Out of the 22 applications, Raspbian hosts packages for only 8. For the other 14 applications, you’ll have to compile the source code for yourself.

It’s not practical to look at all the applications in any great detail. Instead, I’ve examined the 4 highest-rated notes programs from an RPI4 perspective. These programs are Joplin, Zim Desktop Wiki, CherryTree, and Tusk.

Joplin

Joplin is an excellent open source note taking application with bags of features. There’s desktop, mobile and terminal applications. With this application, you can take notes, make to-do lists and sync your notes across devices by linking it with cloud services including Nextcloud, Dropbox, WebDAV and OneDrive. The synchronisation is protected with end to end encryption (E2EE). E2EE is a system where only the owner of the notes, notebooks, tags or resources can read them. It prevents potential eavesdroppers – including telecom providers, internet providers, and even the developers of Joplin from being able to access your data.

Sadly, there’s no Raspbian package available. And there’s zero support from the Joplin developers. They refer users to their Discourse forum, which offers absolutely no guidance specific to the RPI4. You’ll be effectively entering into uncharted territory.

UPDATE – 22 June 2020: After some experimentation, it’s possible to compile Joplin on the RPI4.

I’ve detailed the steps to follow on the next page.

Zim Desktop Wiki (“Zim”)

Of the 4 notes applications I’m covering, Zim is the only program with a Raspbian package, offering version 0.68. That’s an old release. Installing the Zim package also installs python-enchant and python-gtkspellcheck. python-enchant provides a set of Python language bindings for the Enchant spellchecking library. python-gtkspellcheck offers a powerful spellchecking library written in pure Python for Gtk based on Enchant.

A menu entry for Zim is added to the Accessories. On the first run, you’re prompted to create a new notebook.

I’m very happy with Zim’s performance on the RPI4. Memory usage is really light. For example, opening the project’s FAQ in the program uses around 29.6MB of RAM. It’ll run fine whatever RPI4 model, including the 1GB model. CPU usage is also minimal. Great stuff.

When I get more time, I’ll try compiling the latest version given that the Raspbian package gives an old version.

CherryTree

CherryTree is a hierarchical note taking application, featuring rich text and syntax highlighting, storing data in a single xml or sqlite file.

Like Zim, it’s written in Python. Unlike Zim, there’s no Raspbian package. Fortunately, getting CherryTree up-and-running on the RPI4 is simple. Follow the steps detailed on the next page.

CherryTree is ideal for the RPI4 in many ways. It’s got low system requirements, with really minimal memory and CPU usage. And more importantly, it’s got lots of features. My favorites are that it provides lots of import options from other notes-based software, it can export to PDF and HTML, there’s syntax highlighting supporting several programming languages, with multi-level lists, and much more.

CherryTree runs really smoothly on the RPI4. Even with the 1GB model, it almost purrs on the tiny machine. It’s definitely software that should be added to the Raspbian repositories.

Tusk

Tusk is an unofficial, featureful, open source, community-driven, free Evernote app

Again there’s no Raspbian package available. I followed the installation steps on Tusk’s GitHub page with a few tweaks detailed on the next page.

If you’re thinking of running Tusk on the 1GB RPI4, think again. Tusk is a memory guzzler. Even with just a simple note open, memory usage is close to 400MB.

Personally, I tend to avoid software solutions that aren’t open source. While Tusk is open source software, Evernote is proprietary freemium. But if you’re hooked on using Evernote, Tusk at least provides an option for the RPI4.

Summary

A common leitmotif is that the ARM architecture used by the RPI4 creates issues that you don’t encounter with Intel architecture. There’s very few open source developers who support ARM. With an Intel/AMD machine, you’ve got more support from open source developers and contributors. And if there’s not a package for the Linux distribution you use, there’s other possibilities such as cross-platform packages (snap, AppImage etc). Whereas with the RPI4, if you don’t have a package from your distribution (in my case Raspbian), you’re left to your own devices and must compile the software for yourself. This can range from a trivial exercise where you just follow a few simple steps to a convoluted, painful, and ultimately exasperating experience.

Most of the 22 good/recommended open source Notes programs are bereft of a Raspbian package.

Fortunately, Joplin, Zim Desktop Wiki and CherryTree work really sweetly on the RPI4. Tusk also runs fine on the tiny machine, but I wouldn’t want to run it on the 1GB model. Electron and Chrome are not helping to give a lightweight application.

There are other notes programs with Raspbian packages such as Hnb, Keepnote, Kjots, nobleNote, and more. I’ll probably explore a few of these. And if you want a full-blown wordprocessor, this was covered in Week 6.

Next page: Page 2 – Joplin, CherryTree, Tusk: Starting up

Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Main page
Page 2 – Joplin, CherryTree, Tusk: Starting up
Page 3 – Survey of Notes Tools

Read all my blog posts about the RPI4.

This blog is written on the RPI4.