I’ve been on a bit of a tear recently, switching to new apps and services. What triggered this recent stint was the upcoming renewal of my Cloudron subscription. I was on their Premium plan, which costs $180 per year. If I was running a business or had more demanding needs, I suppose I could justify the expense. But with how I use the server, it felt like it was a little much.

Cloudron does offer a free plan, but with some limitations ­— the only one that would impact me is that it’s limited to two apps installed at a time. When I started exploring alternatives, I only had five apps installed and I was pretty confident I could get it down to just two — Mastodon and Pixelfed — without much trouble.

With the help of my Umbrel Home, which is an excellent home server solution, and its integration with Cloudflare Tunnels, I was able to downgrade to Cloudron’s free tier fairly easily. The following are the migrations I made that allowed me to do so:

Homer to Heimdall

Homer is handsome selfhosted dashboard. And it’s a great option if you want something that’s static, but it becomes tedious to manage if you’re adding or removing services on a regular basis.

Homer doesn’t offer a slick frontend for managing anything, it’s setup through configuration files. So if you want to add or remove a service, you have to grab your existing configuration file over FTP or the like, fire up a text editor, add or remove as necessary, and then upload the new configuration file.

Heimdall, on the other hand, can be configured right from your web browser and even offers support for a number of self-hosted services. No need to hunt down an image to use for each link’s icon, there’s a good chance Heimdall already includes one.

Heimdall also offers built-in authentication, which is nice for dashboards that are accessible on the open web.

The biggest downside with Heimdall is that the default design is a little rough. But luckily, it has support for custom CSS, which can be used to customize the design to your heart’s content.

Miniflux to FreshRSS

I’ve used FreshRSS in the past and actually migrated to Miniflux from it because I was experiencing some issues with feed refreshes. After spending a bit of time with both, I probably prefer Miniflux.

In order to downgrade my Cloudron subscription to free, though, I needed to get down to just two apps — I had to make some cuts. So I decided to simply move from Miniflux on my Cloudron to FreshRSS on my Umbrel.

Although I prefer Miniflux, I don’t actually spend much time in the web interface. Instead, I’m using it as a backend to sync RSS apps on my devices — Reeder Classic on iOS, NetNewsWire on macOS, and NewsFlash on Linux.

Wallabag to Linkwarden

Wallabag worked quite well for what it did — saving links for later. But the design feels incredibly dated, regardless of what theme you choose for it. In contrast, Linkwarden is a relatively new project and sports a refreshingly modern design.

Linkwarden also offers some features that Wallabag doesn’t, most notably the ability to save archived versions of webpages in a number of formats — screenshot, PDF, Archive.org snapshot, and more. I have mine setup to save an HTML copy of each webpage I save to it.

There is already a browser extension available for Linkwarden and the project’s developers are also working on a mobile app. For now I’m using a third-party client — My Links. The app has some occasional visual bugs that I’ve noticed, but it’s a fairly competent client and it’s better than the options available for Wallabag.

Non-Cloudron Migrations

Those three migrations got me down to just two apps on my Cloudron, which allowed me to cancel Cloudron Premium and downgrade to their free plan. That extra $180 each year would be better spent on additional payments toward our mortgage principal or something.

I will say, Cloudron is an excellent piece of software, though. And I would have continued paying for their Premium subscription if I had a need for more apps on a virtual private server. It does such a great job of simplifying the installation and management of selfhosted software.

While I was in the process of exploring alternatives to my Cloudron apps, I also found myself looking at other software I was using and whether I could make some switches there as well. I ended up making the following migrations:

iCloud to Dropbox for Ulysses

Every time I’ve tried to fully lean in to Linux and utilize apps and services that I could use seamlessly between my iPhone and Linux machine, Ulysses was a massive blocker. The app is just absolutely incredible to use and I’ve built my entire writing and publishing system around it.

I’ve tried dozens of other writing apps, but nothing was able to match the fit and finish of Ulysses.

The solution I came to is actually quite elegant, though. Rather than moving off of Ulysses entirely, I would simply swap out the backend service I was relying on for sync. For years I was just using iCloud — it’s the default for Ulysses and worked like a charm.

Ulysses offers native Dropbox support, though. What I’ve done is move all of my existing writing to Dropbox as markdown files. I can create new documents and edit them from Ulysses just as I’ve always done, but I can also access them from my Linux desktop using Dropbox’s desktop app.

This piece you’re reading right now was primarily written in Apostrophe on my Framework 13 and then edited on my iPad in Ulysses. The sync was just as smooth as it was when using iCloud, but I can access and edit from all of my devices now, not just those that were manufactured by Apple.

This will also, hopefully, make it easier to migrate away from Ulysses if the need were to ever arise. As long as the app I’m moving to supports syncing to Dropbox.

iCloud to Dropbox for File Storage

After migrating to Dropbox for my writing, I was pretty impressed with the service. I thought it was worth giving it a try as a cloud storage provider, in place of iCloud.

Dropbox offers 2GB of storage on their free plan, but I must have acquired some additional storage on my account back when you could do so through referrals. My account has 3GB of storage available on it, which is more than enough for my needs.

I migrated everything from my iCloud Drive’s Documents folder to Dropbox and haven’t looked back. What’s nice about using Dropbox is that it offers excellent integration on iOS and Linux. I can favorite a folder for quick access in the iOS Files app and bookmark that same folder in Gnome’s Files app on my Framework laptop.

There is a limitation of three devices connected to your Dropbox account, but that only applies to their application. The Ulysses integration I mentioned above and any other third-party integration does not count toward that limit.

Luckily, three devices is plenty for me — I can have my iPhone, iPad, and Framework laptop connected.

1Password to Vaultwarden

Switching password managers was, by far, the most daunting migration I made. Access to every account I have relies on a password manager. It needs to be secure while maintaining ease of use to ensure it gets utilized effectively.

I’ve tried Vaultwarden in the past, but ended up bailing on it because I wasn’t ready to tackle migrating myself and my wife, Becky, to a new password manager. We had a shared vault in 1Password with a bunch of passwords that we both need access to. Migrating myself is a big enough task, migrating both of us is even larger.

But this time, I decided to buckle down and just make it happen.

I could have exported my login credentials from 1Password and imported them into Vaultwarden, but instead, I chose to migrate each login individually. This gave me an opportunity to prune some accounts, update some account email addresses, and just generally audit the whole lot.

An unintended consequence of migrating my data in this way is that I became much more comfortable with the software. Something that wouldn’t have occurred if I just did a normal import from 1Password.

After the migration was complete, I ended up with about 12% less logins than I started out with — some of those were eliminated because the service had closed down and some of those were accounts I deleted myself.

I was able to cancel our 1Password subscription, saving us $60 each year, and I’m pretty happy with the whole setup. Since Vaultwarden is the selfhosted version of Bitwarden, we’re able to make use of their great suite of client applications. We have the Bitwarden browser extension and desktop app on all of our computers and the Bitwarden mobile app on our iPhones.

The design of Vaultwarden/Bitwarden overall isn’t quite as nice as 1Password, but it’s not that much of a dropoff. The overwhelming majority of the time we’re interacting with the software through AutoFill on our iOS or the Autofill feature of the browser extension. And those interactions don’t involve much user interface from the app/extension, so it doesn’t feel like much of a change at all — especially on iOS where we only see Bitwarden for a second or two while Face ID authenticates.

Overall I’m very happy we made the move and I’ve even considered opening up our server to close friends and family if they’d like to make use of it as well. Although, I’ll probably want to live with it for a while first, just in case there are any unexpected snags.

I’ve settled into Simplenote as my primary note taking app, but truthfully, it’s a bit more complicated than that. I use Ulysses for writing that ends up here on Initial Charge, Day One for journaling, Edit for ephemeral notes, Things for notes associated with specific tasks, Apple Notes for collaborating on notes with my wife, and I use Simplenote for everything else.

There isn’t any one app that does everything I want so I’ve ended up with a handful of apps that all loosely serve the purpose of “note taking”. I can understand why someone would want to find the One App to Rule Them All, but I kind of like having a variety of apps instead. It helps me to focus. And I get to fully configure each of the apps so they’re tailored to what I use them for.

➝ Source: thenewsprint.co

I’ll still be using my publishing shortcuts from The Toolkit because it makes it easier to move to a new text editor, but this is a very welcome update from Ulysses.

➝ Source: wordpress.com

Marcus Fehn, writing on Ulysses’ weblog:

We have always tried to be backwards compatible as best we could. Sometimes, this meant supporting four years worth of old systems, for the very small number of users still on one of these systems. While it didn‘t hurt much, it still hurt, because with every new device, every branch of every OS, we had to come up with (and maintain) explicit solutions for the old systems. At present, Ulysses runs on iOS 10 or later, as well as OS X 10.11 El Capitan or later. Some stuff was tricky.

Going forward, we will switch our policy to a simple rule of thumb: Support the current system, as well as the one that shipped before. It’s much more efficient, and it helps us move a bit faster. So once the new systems are live this fall, any new version of Ulysses will require either iOS 12 or macOS 10.13 High Sierra.

Marcus goes on to explain a bit more about why they’ll be supporting High Sierra after Catalina releases this fall — mostly because some of their users still use 32-bit apps. But I absolutely love how open and honest the folks behind Ulysses are about this. As we move further into an era where subscription-based apps are the norm, more developers should be making these sorts of policies public.

Matt Gemmell:

The important point is that, if you’re able to readily switch to a different app when your current one changes its payment model, then… do it. Just vote with your wallet, and don’t worry about it. To write a pissy review of an app you liked yesterday, in an attempt to vengefully damage their business, is pretty reprehensible, right? It’s like giving one star on Amazon because the delivery was late. Don’t be a child. Move on.

Ulysses made it very easy, either subscribe or don’t. And if you aren’t interested in paying for a subscription, it doesn’t mean you have to quit using the app entirely. The version you had before the subscription announcement will continue to work until a future operating system update breaks something. And that isn’t likely to happen until iOS 12 is released next year.

Eddie Smith, in response to the “why do I have to pay (again) for software I’ve already purchased?” arguments, in the wake of Ulysses’ move to subscription pricing:

The software you paid for is still “yours” in the sense that it is fully functional (as you paid for it) and will continue working indefinitely. You “own” it, and it’s not going away.

Will it work forever? Hell no. Software isn’t the same as a cast iron skillet. Software isn’t going to work the same 100 years from now. It’s probably not even going to work 100 weeks from now without being nursed through the vagaries of operating system updates, security patches, and user-expected support. When the developer of a cast iron skillet is done, they’re done. When the developer of a piece of software is done, they’re out of business—because if a developer quits, so does their product.

I love this analogy.

Max Seelemann, writing on Medium about the thought process behind their new business model:

I am not exaggerating in saying that this was the hardest decision in our whole time as professional software developers. After all, we have a system which currently works — after 14 years we are still around, Ulysses is still “a thing”, it’s even going better than ever before, and there are no immediate signs which hint at a change coming soon.

So why bother at all then? Well, we need a good way forward before we run into trouble. We want to make sure the app will be around for years and years to come. We want to heavily invest in its development, and this requires the right setting for our team, our families and our users. Writers want to rely on a professional tool that is constantly evolving, and we want to keep delivering just that.

I’m not a huge fan of subscription pricing, but Ulysses is the best writing app I’ve ever used and I don’t plan on switching anytime soon. The pricing is about as fair as one could expect when compared to what other companies are charging. I would have preferred it be $20-25 a year, but they didn’t come to these price points flippantly. And I can certainly appreciate that they’re offering the yearly subscription at a reduced rate for a limited time.

From the Simplenote weblog:

Today we’re excited to announce that Markdown support has been added to the latest update of Simplenote for iOS.

To enable Markdown for a note, just tap on the ‘Markdown’ button in the note info panel. You can then swipe on the note editor to view the Markdown preview. Once you’ve enabled Markdown for a note, all new notes you create in the future will have it enabled by default. We hope you enjoy this handy new feature!

I’ve been using Simplenote ever since I moved away from Vesper last year. It’s a great app, but unfortunately, this new Markdown support is far from robust. There’s no inline previews or shortcuts to help with the syntax, which I would consider to be essential features. I’ll continue using Simplenote as my notes app of choice, but I’ll keep my Markdown writing in Ulysses.