Bear turns 10, and it still feels like day one

Bear is such a fantastic app. They nailed the editor feel and function early on and then have consistently improved stability and performance ever since.

They worked on a file backed editor at some point called Panda, but decided to scrap it due to the trade offs of not controlling the storage format. Really respect the focus on their core USP.

Edit: Looks like Panda was recently revived under a new name and is currently in beta: https://lettera.md.

The support is super friendly and responsive and sync just works perfectly and consistently.

Their only response to the AI mania has been adding an official embedded cli to interact with the DB safely.

They are currently working on a web client. This has me slightly worried, but it's apparently been a recurring request for people forced to use Windows at work. I trust they know what they're doing.

It just so happens I am looking for a solid knowledge management application. Too bad this is Apple-only.

I've gone from Obsidian, to LogSeq, to Org-mode on Emacs a few days ago, and I think I'm probably going to stay there.

I'm no expert on the subject, but I'm pretty sure Obsidian is winning not because it's great, but because it mostly doesn't suck, and it runs everywhere. I have little doubt that Bear is a better app than Obsidian.

I've been using Bear for a VERY long time. It's still my go-to note taker, but lately I find myself using an AI transcription/note taker tool for meetings with other people. It's the only thing that has me loosening my grip on Bear.

For example, I can ask my AI note taker things to look through all of my meeting notes with a particular customer and pull out some testimonials for my website.

I’ve been building something like bear for a bit, https://blackbear.app. Supports a few more things than notes (sheets, slides, docs, audio and video files, etc.), with the key differentiator being real time collaboration and collocation of files alongside your calendar and tasks. It’s a passion project, love the bear project as well, definitely an inspiring company

I'm gradually replacing most of the software I use with software I conjure myself, and Bear is the reason I'm probably never going to write an editor; it's not clear to me how I could improve it. Emacs is probably out the door by the end of 2027, but I'd be surprised if I wasn't still using Bear for years from now. It's quite good.

Bear is such a delightful app. If anyone wants a fast, native notes app for Apple OSs, give it a try.

What am I missing about Bear? It looks like a close source Obsidian? What is hte magic that I am not seeing.

Is this like a reminiscence, the devs are already building the replacement: https://lettera.md/

I’ve used Bear for years now and it’s great for writing notes and composing essays. I should probably subscribe to Bear Pro but they don’t have a lifetime option and I despise subscription models.

Luckily the paywall is mostly for export tools and cloud backup. The latter I don’t need, and it’s only a minor inconvenience to use Airdrop + pandoc for the former.

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Nowhere on the webpage i could find WHAT IS IT?

I thought this was about https://www.bearblog.dev/