I tried many note-taking apps and finally settled on Notable[0]. It's simple and you can point it to a folder with markdown files and attachments. Plus, you can just sync the folder using any syncing service, and use Noteless[1] on Android. The tagging support is superb, you can cross-link notes, render math using katex, and export to pdf.

Because of the simple folder structure, you can also use vim+fzf to search/navigate/create/edit your notes. The notational-fzf-vim plugin[2] is superb for that.

For web-clipping, I just use the markdownload[3] extension in firefox and save the markdown file in the notes folder.

Why not joplin? Mostly because joplin stores notes in an sqlite database instead of a simple folder structure making it not easily accessible by normal unix tools and editors.

Why not obsidian? Was never able to grok obsidian. Pointing it at my existing notes makes it just show up as a huge mess of unstructured notes. I guess it needs some effort to organize and link existing notes. In notable, I can tag a note as Books/CS, and CS/Books, and it'll show up in corresponding folder-like structures in the left panel. Can't do that in obsidian.

0. https://notable.app/

1. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.redsolver....

2. https://github.com/alok/notational-fzf-vim

3. https://github.com/deathau/markdownload