Tomboy Notes

What is Tomboy Notes?

Tomboy started in 2006 as a simple, freeform note‑taking application for the GNOME desktop. It grew quickly, offering Markdown‑style links, tags, and a web‑based sync service. Over time, the project lost momentum and the last stable release dates back to 2015. The community largely moved to GNOME Notes or other modern alternatives.

The app is aimed at users who need quick, local notes without a heavy editor. It works best for short to medium length notes, quick reminders, or drafting ideas. Its interface is minimal: a list pane on the left and a rich‑text editor on the right.

Compared with Evernote or OneNote, Tomboy feels more like a simple text editor than a full‑blown notebook. It lacks cloud sync by default, advanced formatting, and cross‑platform support, but it runs natively on Linux and keeps everything local.

Best for: Users who want a lightweight, local note‑taking tool without cloud dependencies.

Key features of Tomboy Notes

• Rich‑text editing with bold, italics, and lists
• Internal linking between notes
• Tagging system for organization
• Export to plain text or HTML
• Optional cloud sync via TomboySync
• Search across all notes

Tips for Windows users

When moving from Evernote or OneNote, export your notes as plain text or HTML from the Windows app and import them into Tomboy by dragging the files into the note list. Tomboy uses plain XML files stored in ~/.local/share/tomboy/; you can copy them directly if you want to preserve formatting. Keyboard shortcuts differ: use Ctrl+N for new note, Ctrl+S to save, and Ctrl+L to link. The workflow is linear: create a note, edit, then use tags or links to connect ideas.