Evernote is a popular note-taking application. It was a revolutionary product at the time of its launch. Since then, there have been several such application that allow you to save web clippings, notes etc into notebook formats.
For years, the desktop client of Evernote was not available for Linux. Evernote promised a Linux application some time ago and its beta version is finally available for Ubuntu-based distributions.
Non-FOSS alert!
Evernote Linux client is not open source. It’s been covered here because the application is made available on Linux and we cover popular non-foss applications for Linux users from time to time. This helps with regular desktop Linux users.
Installing Evernote on Ubuntu and Debian-based Linux distributions
Go to the following page on Evernote’s website:
Scroll down a bit to accept the terms and conditions of ‘early testing program’. You’ll see a ‘Install Now’ button appearing on the screen. Click on it to download the DEB file.
To install the application from the DEB file, double-click on it. It should open the Software Center app and give you the option to install it.
Once the installation completes, search for Evernote in the system menu and launch it.
When you start the application for the first time, you’ll need to log in to your Evernote account.
The first run brings you to the ‘Home screen’ where you can organize your notebooks for even quicker access.
You may enjoy using Evernote on Linux now.
Experiencing the beta version of Evernote Linux client
There are a few annoyances here and there with the software being in beta.
As you can notice in the image above, Evernote Linux client detected the dark mode in Ubuntu and switched to dark theme automatically. However, when I changed the system theme to light or standard, it didn’t change theme application theme immediately. The changes took into effect only after I restarted Evernote app.
Another issue is about closing the application. If you click on the X button to close the Evernote application, the program goes in background instead of exiting.
There is an app indicator that seems like a way to launch a minimized Evernote application, like Skype on Linux. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. It opens the Scratch Pad for you to type a quick note.
This gives you another note taking application on Linux but it also presents a problem. There is no option to quit Evernote here. It is only for opening the quick note taking app.
So, how do you quit the Evernote application? For that, open the Evernote application again. If it is running in the background, search for it in the menu and launch it as if you are opening it afresh.
When Evernote application is running in the foreground, go to File->Quit Evernote.
This is something the developers should look to improve in the future versions.
I also cannot say how will the beta version of the program be updated in the future. It doesn’t add any repository. I just hope that the application itself notifies about the availability of a newer version so that users could download the new DEB file.
I do NOT have a premium Evernote subscription but still, I could access the saved web articles and notes without internet connection. Strange, right?
Overall, I am happy to see that Evernote finally made the effort to bring the application to Linux. Now you don’t have to try third-party applications to use Evernote on Linux, at least on Ubuntu and Debian-based distributions. You may, of course, use an Evernote alternative like Joplin that are actually open source.