Tomboy notes

The Tomboy notes application works on Linux, Mac, Windows, and other operating systems because Tomboy is based on the Mono alternative to Microsoft's .Net, making the combined Tombuy/Mono a resource hog if Tomboy is the only Mon application on your computer. Gnote is a clone of Tomboy and does not require Mono. Is Tomboy useful? Usable? Is Gnote better?

If Tomboy is installed on your computer, start it now. In Ubuntu, Tomboy is under Applications, Accessories. You can easily install Tomboy in Linux using the Ubuntu Software Centre or the Synaptic package manager or equivalent. Install gnote while you are in the software download page.

This page is based on Tomboy 1.4.2 installed in Ubuntu Linux 10.10 and is a 2.8 MegaBytes download. There is a version 1.6 released but not installed by Ubuntu. 1.6 appears to contain mostly error fixes for the Mac version. You can read more about Tomboy at projects.gnome.org/tomboy.

Tomboy reviews say Tomboy is slow because of Mono. Tomboy is fast enough on my little netbook when there are few applications open. Tomboy is using 13.7 MB of memory with no notes open and only two notes in Tomboy. Assume it hits 15 MB with a few notes. That is one 60th of the total memory in my notebook or one 30th of the memory remaining after opening some basic everyday applications. The Tomboy functionality suggests it should use only 2 or 3 MB of memory. If every application used 10 MB more that it needs, my netbook would be swamped.

The equivalent Gnote, version 0.7.1, is a 2.1 MB download, uses 6 MB on disk, and uses only 8 MB of memory, a 6 MB improvement over Tomboy. Gnote is slightly faster to initially load.

Both Tomboy and gnote do the same thing when you close them, they stay in memory and leave an icon in the menu. You can select the icon to start a not or view existing notes. The Tomboy has some tiny user interface advantages for a new user starting the application for the first time. Frequent users on small or slow machines will prefer the snappier Gnote.

Both Tomboy and Gnote have the same editing system for the note. Neither separates the title from the note. Changing the note title is a disaster reminiscent of those Javascript based editors used to edit Web site content but without the option to see the underlying text. To change the title, you have to select the title text without selecting the title format controls, which are invisible. The slightest error merges the title with the body text. The whole thing is so primitive, I find it hard to believe people use it.

Both Tomboy and Gnote accept plugins to change the applications. Tomboy, as the older application, has more plugins. Hopefully there is one to fix the title. I could not find one listed at the Tomboy web site.

I will not bother using Tomboy any more. If you cannot easily name the note, why bother? Gnote is just as bad but faster, more efficient, and less overhead, with the overhead the important factor for an application that sits in memory for every second you use your computer.

The add-ons are mostly for dragging a selection from an application to create a link to an item in the application. There is an add-on to create a link to a mail item in Empathy, a mail application I do not use. Some of the external applications do not work on other operating systems and there are no add-ons for the equivalent applications you would use on the other operating systems, making Tomboy less useful on other operating systems.