Cherrytree Note-taking for Linux

I've been using the excellent KeepNote for more than three years now, having installed the utility on my Ubuntu, openSUSE, and Mandriva machines. However, after switching to Fedora, I discovered Cherrytree on the Fedora wiki page. After running the utility through its paces, I was severely impressed with its functionality and had been meaning to write a review on the utility.

Cherrytree recently received a €200 from the nice people over at Distrowatch due to the developer's efforts at producing great open source software. Cherrytree and the developers definitely deserve it. The utility is loaded with tons of practical features that were missing in KeepNote. There were no installation issues (e.g. Python) and legacy compatibility issues (KeepNote would occasionally require you to install a newer version if you were opening a KeepNote file produced using an older release). Despite opening large text trees, Cherrytree was fast and dragging and dropping text trees didn't slow it down. Plus, it had no interface issues on either a LXDE or Unity desktop. Although some dialog windows are somewhat cut off in small netbook screens, the application was still usable.

Some of the features I was particularly impress with were the following:

• Cherrytree imports Notecase, Basket, and KeepNote files. I've used all three of these note-taking utilities in various Linux distributions over the years and I was wary about importing them into Cherrytree at first due to XML issues. However, once Cherrytree successfully loaded a huge KeepNote file seamlessly, I knew Cherrytree was a winner. If you've used Notecase, Basket, or KeepNote previously and need to consolidate all the text into one interface (while retaining the tree structure), then Cherrytree should be your first choice!
• Links, images, and text formatting. Although the previously mentioned note-taking utilities handled linking and formatting very well, Cherrytree made the process simple and straightforward. Copying and pasting text and images, creating links, and general text formatting is brilliantly executed. Moreover, users can also print and save nodes, subnodes, or the whole tree to plain text, PDF, or HTML - other utilities can only do one or the other.
• TOC generation. I personally hate working with table of contents, even on commercial applications such as Adobe InDesign or Dreamweaver. Like the ePUB editor Sigil, Cherrytree can create a simple TOC without much effort.
• Cherrytree packages are available for openSUSE, Ubuntu, and Fedora. It's always a plus on my book when you don't have to download the source or install an application manually (not that there's anything wrong with that).

The cutesy theme of cherries may put off serious users, but the colorful interface is misleading. Cherrytree is extremely useful for users who need a Microsoft OneNote alternative on their Linux desktop. Besides, the cherries can be replaced with nodes via Preferences (though why would you?).

Congratulations Cherrytree and devs, you guys deserve the €200 - you get to keep the cherry and eat it too!