I’ve been a fan of mind mapping for a few years now, and prior to my ditching Microsoft Windows in favour of Ubuntu as my daily platform (a move which was only possible due to a change of job) MindManager was generally the second application I opened after my e-mail client.
I’ve never found a FOSS mind mapping client I like though, so although I’m much happier using Ubuntu on a day-to-day basis I no longer use mind maps. I’ve tried Freemind numerous times, but it never worked quite the way I wanted it to. Aesthetically View Your Mind doesn’t do it for me either. Today I stumbled across PersonalBrain which has some nice features (and free – little ‘f’ – version), but again it doesn’t compare to MindManager.
I think it’s an integration thing – MindManager looked and acted like a Windows application, and integrated with Microsoft Office. Now I’m using GNOME but Freemind and PersonalBrain use Java whilst View Your Mind is QT based.
Close, but no cigar.
However finding PersonalBrain re-kindled my interest in mind maps, and being a good social network citizen I looked for a relevant Facebook group. I found – and joined – one, and this group has led me to MindMeister – an online mind mapping application. Now although I dabble with online productivity applications, I tend to prefer desktop based ones for a few reasons:
- Desktop integration
- Control of data
- Offline use
Being practical though desktop integration is still hit and miss on Linux, whilst offline use is hardly required anymore – I do use my laptop offline, but connectivity is so easy to come by these days. That only leaves control of data, which remains a valid argument. However comprises must sometimes be made, and I think this may be one of those times.
