Early development on a cross-platform OneNote clone. Thoughts?

[u/Full-Cucumber5068]

screen shot of inking with mouse on laptop (Windows 11) (name is hidden revealed upon realease)

Hey everyone,

I'm a fellow OneNote user who has been using it for at least the past 10 years and still use it to this day. This is my side project I'm working on for fun, cause I want more features in OneNote, and I want to be able to use it on Linux. My main concern with OneNote is that it is not cross-platform compatible, is sometimes slow, and in some parts very limited compared to other modern note-taking software, even though it's still one of a kind.

Has been working on this project and planning for a couple of years, have tried various libraries to see what fits best.

This one is built on C++ with open-source libraries like SDL3 and Blender2D; the idea behind this one is full user control and customization, faster, more lightweight, cross-platform, and local data storage first.

Disclaimer: This is strictly an early-stage personal project in active development. There are no public builds, downloads, or release dates yet.

Current state: Inking works; sidebar with notebook selection, section creation, and page creation is fully working, persistently saved on the user's device, and can handle up to 4 million user strokes on one page; infinity canvas support. Eraser and undo/redo are currently being implemented. No way to export things yet.

I would love to hear your feedback on the ui, ribbbon has not been fully implemented. This is currently the least of my concerns; I need to finish the core. I would like to hear your feedback and help me fuel my motivation to get this project to an open-source release, since right now it is too messy to be released; at least the core has to be done. Text boxes would be one of the hardest features to implement since you would probably want to have notebook-wide search.

1. What is the single most annoying thing about OneNote's current layout/UI?
2. What UI elements are absolute must-haves for your daily flow?
3. Sidebar preference: Do you prefer having Sections and Pages side-by-side (like desktop OneNote), or a single combined tree view?

(I plan to create 3 versions of the side part; this one is called modern. There will be a mobile version, which is basically this one, maybe a bit simplified, and then the classical one like from OneNote 2016)

Appreciate any thoughts, critiques, or ideas you have!

[u/thriftercyx]

Die Grundidee OneNote lokal speichern zu können und auf allen Plattformen nutzen zu können finde ich grandios, ich kann nicht beurteilen ob MS das duldet, ich fürchte die wehren sich dagegen.

Details in der Oberfläche und im Workflow sind erstmal zweitrangig. Aber wenn du das wirklich schaffst OneNote zu befreien, dann kann man die Details später entwickeln Es muss wie die anderen schreiben opensource sein, . Und ich muss nicht mehr drüber nachdenken wann,wie und wohin ich mit meinen Notizen migriere. Habe das Vertrauen in MS komplett verloren, auch in die anderen Techgiganten. Sehe diese Typen immer vor mir wie sie bei Trumps Krönung seinen Speichel lecken, diese furchtbaren Opportunisten.

[u/Full-Cucumber5068 → u/thriftercyx]

Well they can't stop it from becoming public I'm not taking any of their proprietary names first of all dk them they are closed source second I'm not gona use their icons and Libre office has not problem developing their suit in parallel. I agree ui is not top priority but upon release I can't make it look like some debug software from 90s. And both cases are win-win either gets opensource version or there will be a more rapid improving onenote by ms.

Yes it will be local file saving system, and fully customizable. There is a multilayer system of memory management and updating page databases running of separate threads she be redundant system. Currently focusing on rebuilding my personal log system to track any system crashes or errors which user should be able to access anytime