Install the latest version of Evernote on Linux

Evernote is, by huge difference, the best note-taking app out there today. Its wide selection of functions makes it an essential tool in the daily lives of many of us.

Some of its features are: ability to write notes with a rich text editor (similar to Microsoft Word o LibreOffice Writer), classification of notes by notebooks and labels, clients for web, PC, mobile and tablets with synchronization between all of them, possibility to attach any type of file (up to 25 MB in the free version), save web pages with your browser extensions (with smart self-tagging), take screenshots and photos and archive them automatically, take voice notes, create lists of tasks and reminders, share notes and edit them in group, etc, etc, etc ...

The downside for users of Linux is that, despite being available for a wide variety of platforms (even WebOS), Evernote does not have a native client for Linux and they don't seem interested in developing it. The community has created some clients such as NixNote o everpad, which however are still quite far from the official client. Another option is to use the full web client, something not valid for those looking to access their notes offline.

In such a way, the best alternative to use Evernote on the desk of Linux is to install the client Windows through Wine, which has the disadvantage that if it is done in the common way it does not always work.

As it is, I'm going to show you now the method I use to install Evernote on my GNU / Linux with Wine and which has been the most effective so far.

Instructions

The first step is download the client from Evernote for Windows and save it for later use.

Now we are going to install the application PlayOnLinux found in the official repositories. For example, for the case of Ubuntu, Linux Mint y Debian would:

sudo apt-get install playonlinux

Once installed we start it. We will see a window like this where it tells us that because it is the first use it has to prepare some things and such:

In the purest style Windows we click on Next (or «Next»Without the second« i », because whoever translated the interface of this version that I am using wrote it wrong: P) as many times as necessary until that screen is removed.

Then we go to Tools > Manage versions of Wine:

In the next window, on the left side, we select the version 1.4.1 and click on the button indicated to install it:

We wait for you to download and install it, and if everything went well, we will see how it now appears on the right side:

We close that window and press the button Install:

At the bottom, we click Install an unlisted program:

This screen opens up that tells us things that I know they will not read, so we just click Next:

Now we select Install a program in a new virtual drive (you already know that at the end of each step you have to Next, so from now on I'm going to skip it):

It asks us to write a name for the application that we are going to install. We put Evernote:

We mark Use another version of Wine:

We select the version that we had installed, 1.4.1:

We click on Explore and we look for the installer of Evernote for Windows that we downloaded at the beginning:

Now the installer window of Evernote. It looks horrible, I know, but once installed it will look better.

The following steps do not require further explanation, we simply accept the license agreement (although we have not read a damn thing either), we follow the instructions of the installer and in the end we agree to Evernote with our username and password.

At the end we will see how the window of Evernote already installed and starts to synchronize the notes that we have in our account. PEERO, there is a detail. If you pay attention you will see how the progress bar of PlayOnLinux keeps moving from side to side:

That is why I had already spoken to them some time ago: PlayOnLinux needs us to close Evernote To finish the wizard, otherwise it does not take for granted that the installation has finished, nor will it allow us to create the necessary shortcuts to use it from now on.

So what we have to do is open the System monitor from our desk and end any process related to Evernote:

This will cause Evernote closes abruptly, but it doesn't matter. Now the assistant PlayOnLinux it already asks us if we want to create shortcuts. We will select the most essential, Evernote.exe:

He asks us to give him a name, we simply put him Evernote:

Once it is created, it asks us again if we want to create another. We press the first option to indicate that we do not need any more:

Finally the wizard will close and the shortcuts to Evernote in the menu of PlayOnLinux and on our desktop. If we want it to also appear in the applications menu like any other program, we simply copy it to the shortcut directory by pasting these commands in the terminal:

cd Escritorio
sudo cp evernote.desktop /usr/share/applications
sudo chmod o+r /usr/share/applications/evernote.desktop

Conclusions

Although thanks to this procedure we can use the official client of Evernote in our GNU / Linux in a more or less decent way, the experience will not be the same as it is in Windows nor in the rest of officially supported systems. Some parts will not look quite right, plus you will lack the ability to take screenshots, and you may have glitches from time to time.

However, it is the best option that exists today, at least until Evernote realize that In GNU / Linux they also have a large community of users who demand -and deserve- a native client like everyone else (the excuse that they lack resources is no longer credible in view of how much they have grown and more than $ 225 million that have accumulated in financing), or until the clients developed by third parties evolve enough to match the official one. Or why not until a superior alternative to Evernote that does support Linux officially.

Meanwhile, those who want Evernote develop a client for Linux they can ask you at your forum or directly per ticket.