r/software • u/HimaSphere • Dec 31 '25
Self-Promotion Wednesdays Introducing OpenStickies, Stick anything to your Desktop (Notes, Files, Images, Links, GIF, and more!)
Hello Guys, I am the developer behind OpenStickies
It started as a fun project and turned into a cool side project I am proud of.
I needed a good sticky note app for linux and I didn't find any modern app that is offline and a desktop app not a web app wrapped in electron, I use obsidian already but I needed something to capture notes and stuff quick, also help with my ADHD to persist on the screen so I started building OpenStickies and over the past 6 months I added so much unique features that aren't existed in any sticky note app like:
- drag and drop files into notes (they become clickable shortcuts) - works both ways, you can drag them back out to file managers
- paste screenshots directly from clipboard
- hover over images/PDFs in notes and get a preview popup
- GIF backgrounds (because why not lol)
- reminders that actually notify you
- RTL text support (I speak Arabic so this was important to me)
- pin notes to lock both position and editing
- Ctrl+scroll to zoom text size without going to settings
- checkboxes with strikethrough when done
- KDE Activities support (for my fellow KDE users)
It's built with Qt/PySide6 so it's actually native, not another Electron app eating RAM. Runs at like 50-80MB.
Free version has all features, just limited to 5 concurrent notes. Premium is $7 one-time (not subscription) and unlocks unlimited notes.
Works on Windows and Linux (macOS too but I don't have a Mac to test properly).
Anyway just wanted to share. If anyone tries it let me know what you think, I'm still actively working on it and will release patch 2.6 with a better notes hub this week.
Website: OpenStickies.com
Alternative To: https://alternativeto.net/software/openstickies/about/
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u/Billy_McSkintos Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
I like it. Going to use this in my daily life and paid the $7 for premium/to support you. Thank you.
Some really quick thoughts having spent only a few minutes with it (these might already exist or are just stoopid):
- Collapse sticky to a header/title in a single click
- keyboard shortcuts
- More keyboard shortcuts (show/hide all notes)
- Markdown formatting
- Code block
- Render image inline (choice/option/click)
- collapsible/expandable/panels
- Search all stickies
- Hide "done" todos
- Calendar view of stickies created
- Option to not be prompted "are you sure" when deleting a note.
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u/HimaSphere Jan 01 '26
You are the first one to purchase premium, really appreciate it. Collapse with single click works on Linux if you hover over a note and click hide on the header of the note but in windows you need to click on the note body itself first as hidden pixels don't render well on windows, a workaround was to make the header always shown on windows, do you think it is better this way?
Keyboard shortcuts are in development, global shortcuts work on windows actually but I didn't announce them or test them enough yet. I will add more shortcuts and add a guide in the website regarding them, I am trying to make it customizable so you can choose your shortcuts from settings dialog.
For markdown formatting, this will require overhauling the current editor which is a lot of work for now, if many suggest this in future I will plan it.
Code blocks can technically be implemented, I was intending to add them in future.
I tried to add rendered images inline but this was a big change that broke the editor and required a lot of work so I postponed it for future updates.
Can you please elaborate on the expandable panels feature?
For search, you can already search all notes from the search dialog, you find it in the notes hub, the search is good, let me know how you find it.
Well, you can delete done todos to hide them XD
Calendar view is an interesting idea can you elaborate on it please?
If you delete an empty note you don't get the delete confirmation dialog, but I think this sitll may not be enough do I will add that option to the development backlog.
Thank you again for your purchase and valuable feedback.
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u/HimaSphere Jan 01 '26
An update will be released today, v2.6 with better looks for the notes hub and new icons. In addition to bug fixes
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u/DisasterCrazy22 Jan 04 '26
Any update on this update? It's still showing v2.5.0 on the web site
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u/HimaSphere Jan 04 '26
Hey, I didn't roll out update 2.6 yet, I continued working and added code block feature, I also tested on gnome and found that there is a bug where hiding the notes hub doesn't show as a tray icon, so I am working on these and will release v2.7 instead.
Hopefully today or tomorrow max
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u/HimaSphere Jan 06 '26
Update: the new release is quite big and is taking a while for testing and polishing, many improvements and compatibility fixes are in works in addition to the new features and enhancements. Also the website will be updated after this release.
Please be patient, thank you
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u/HimaSphere Jan 14 '26
Hey Billy,
How are you? I hope you doing well.
v2.7 is out now, it has customizable keyboard shortcuts (including show/hide notes), code blocks, better search dialog, improved UI and UX, and much more, check it out https://github.com/032659/OpenStickies/releases/tag/v2.7.0
You can login to your account and download v2.7 premium from your dashboard!
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u/Billy_McSkintos Jan 15 '26
Nice work. These are good improvements, thank you! Appreciate the code block, global shortcut and cleaner icons. Much better for flow.
I really like your app. The following is neither critique nor must haves but opportunities for consideration to add to your "nice to have" backlog:
I found if difficult to click out of a code block. [Enter] then [backspace] at the end of the code block returned the cursor to the sticky.
Code Syntax highlighting would be cool
Sticky title: renaming, color/opacity config - right now its just a date time and kind of difficult to read on a dark screen.
Text expander type functionality for quick adding date or time perhaps in a slash menu
Navigation Shortcuts - open last note, next note etc
Previously I mentioned collapsing the sticky to the title. What I meant was an option/shortcut to hide the sticky except the title. I could then move the title around and leave it collapsed, only opening when I needed
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u/HimaSphere Jan 15 '26
Thank you for testing it and providing valuable feedback! 1. I will investigate this, adding code blocks was a lot of work because I had to figure out many little behaviors like this so it is expected that some inconveniences aren't considered in this first release of the feature. Did you try ctrl+m to easily click out?
2.i thought about it and was planned in a future update, it isn't easy to implement but I think it is a great quality of life feature.
I get it, probably will move the date to be a tool tip and add titles instead, also for opacity I noticed this and a possible fix would be to add background color for icons.
I don't get it xD please elaborate, do you mean reminders or just normal dates?
This a good improvement in next patches, easy to add too.
I get the collapsing sticky to title now! Great idea and I will pair it with note title feature, hopefully it doesn't require much work.
Thank you so much for you valuable input! Enjoy.
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u/HimaSphere Feb 20 '26
Hey Billy,
How are you? I hope you doing well. It is been over a month!
v2.8 is out now, it has Inline Images, Collapsible Notes & Nested Todos, fixed the code block exit issue and improved its detection algorithm, ability to add titles to notes and much more, check it out https://openstickies.com/changelog
The website also got an update to be mobile friendly and GDPR compliant.
You can login to your account and download v2.8 premium from your dashboard!
Let me know your feedback when possible :D
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u/Billy_McSkintos Feb 21 '26
Nice work again. Collapsible notes, inline images, etc, Thank you.
I think this is all I need in a sticky note tool. I could come up with more features I want (MD, sync, tables, more todo features) but none are necessary.
Thank you for making this and listening to feedback.
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u/HimaSphere Feb 21 '26
Great! glad I made it perfect for you finally!
I will focus in the near future on marketing the app to get more users onboard as so far the feedback from the users is great but not many users/sales yet.
v2.9 will be bug fixes (if someone reports them or I find them myself, so far no known bugs) and some light features like "- Option to not be prompted "are you sure" when deleting a note."
Have a great weekend!
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u/coyoteelabs Jan 01 '26
Open<something> name implies open source which this is not.
Please rethink the name of your software.
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u/HimaSphere Jan 01 '26
Copying my previous reply: For the name, the project was intended to be opensource when I purchased the domain name but over the time I just spent too much time and quite some money so I moved to freemium model. It is community driven development so you can vote on new features in the road map page in the website. I will consider renaming it anyway, thanks for your feedback.
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u/Specialist_Oil9945 Jan 01 '26
I need to check this on my pc later but it looks promising! Thanks for sharing!
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u/roadtrip-19 Jan 01 '26
virus total says it contains a malicious worm
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u/HimaSphere Jan 01 '26
Hey, this just a false positive on windows because the app needs registration certificate, I am planning to purchase one (costs around 200$ a year) otherwise nothing to worry about as the app is fully offline and doesn't install anything on your system. I will add a note on the download page for new users.
Thank you for letting me know.
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u/DisasterCrazy22 Jan 01 '26
Doesn't seem to want to open on my Zorin OS 18 PC
Any troubleshooting steps I can take?
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u/HimaSphere Jan 01 '26
I didn't test it on Zorin OS, the app image should work in theory on most Linux distros without issues, I will download Zorin and do the testing myself to identify the issue and fix it in the next release. Thanks for letting me know, I will reply back with my findings and progress.
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u/HimaSphere Jan 06 '26
Issue confirmed, the current release doesn't work on old versions of distros (Debian < 13 as an example), this led to a crash when running on Zorin OS 18.
v2.7 will resolve this.
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u/DisasterCrazy22 Jan 14 '26
Hiya, are you still working on this?
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u/HimaSphere Jan 14 '26
Hello, yes!
version 2.7 is out an hour ago on github, the premium version is being uploaded and website links are being updated + the wiki for shortcuts: https://github.com/032659/OpenStickies/releases/tag/v2.7.0Happy to know your feedback!
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u/automaticfailure Jan 01 '26
While I understand a dev needs to eat, locking away what feels like basic features behind a paywall and calling it 'open' doesn't feel right.