about personal note taking

i'm always looking into improving my note taking.

i like clean interface, simple file format, wiki-like approach, cross-platform compatibility on windows and linux (so that i can take notes at work too), preferably desktop-app (as opposed to web-app), stability, proper undo, version control, opensource.

here's a short overview of some stuff that i like

1. zim wiki

this is my personal favorite for now.
pros: it's desktop-app, it's wiki, it has clean file format, it supports version control through svn and bzr, great GUI design and usability.
cons: buggy undo, weak formatting (e.g. no italic+strike together), no working windows build available at the time of this writing, sometimes editing produces unexpected results.

2. basKet note pads

used for sime time, before switching to zim.
pros: probably, one of the most advanced desktop note taking app in the world, fast, stable, feature-complete
cons: too bloated for my needs (i only need text notes with basic formatting, while basket is much more like complete zoho suite); i don't like qt and kde apps; i don't like their 2.0 direction

but that app definitely worth to be mentioned.

2. vim + Viki/Deplate

pros: same common file format used by zim, favorite editor with convenient shortcuts, etc.
cons: major concern is non-WYSIWYG

3. regular (non-ajax) wiki engines

e.g. mediawiki

pros: all the regular pros of wikis (like availability from everywhere)
cons: web-apps are generally clumsy for taking personal notes; no offline modes, no WYSIWYG, etc.

4. zoho wiki

pros: available from everywhere (including over https), works in a way very similar to zim, ajax provides almost desktop speeds, convenient sharing, multiple skins, some gui customizations, etc
cons: no offline mode, no direct access to files, backup files are HTML (not really backups), proprietary (no control over data).

6. luminotes
update from 2009-03-07, thanks to Dan for link

pros: same as zoho wiki, but has better performance (at cost of flexibility though); has some proprietaty windows-only offline client (which works in browser anyway, if i got it right, have no way to try it out); opensource server in python (based on posgresql)
cons: (compared to zoho) no way to change text colors, collaboration features are for subscribers only (probably one gets them for free with own server); also, it seems that server is contacted too frequently, e.g. every time when you hover buttons on the left side.

hope that helps :)