A whiteboard is a kind of console that you can attach to your desktop computer and use to write down ideas very quickly. Writing directly on the screen makes it seem more like modern technology and thankfully, there are several different applications that you can use for this purpose.
[ You might also like: Best Flowchart and Diagramming Software for Linux ]
Perhaps more importantly, these applications are cross-platform and work flawlessly on touch screens as well although there’s yet to be a proliferation of touchscreen systems exclusively meant for running Linux – only the JingaPad really comes to mind.
1. Rainbow Board
Rainbow Board is a whiteboard that comes with other tools for making it easier to create and communicate ideas. You can use it to create presentations, brainstorm, sketch, and make notes.
Although it’s a free design tool, it is also useful for professional designers. When you create a drawing, the app creates a simple file format that can be saved and imported into Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape.
You can use Rainbow Board to make a drawing on a whiteboard and share it with your friends or colleagues. You can also use it as a tool for writing down your thoughts. The app is not exclusive to Linux as it’s also available on the App Store and Google Play Store as well.
2. Lorien Whiteboard
Lorien Board is a whiteboard that’s designed to help people brainstorm, share ideas and make drawing easy. The whiteboard features a dry erase surface that’s textured, stain-resistant, and has easy-to-use dry erase markers.
It also has a magnetic back so the board sticks to metal surfaces and a Clippy pad that keeps the board from slipping around while in use.
Lorien Board is an open-source project that can be used by anyone to create their own whiteboards. It uses the Godot game engine, which is an open-source software created by a group of developers.
Godot is free and open-source software that allows you to create interactive applications and games. This is a computer program that uses the Godot engine available in the open-source community.
3. OpenBoard
OpenBoard is a company that provides whiteboards and projection systems. Their boards are designed to be easy to use so that they can be utilized in school, at work, and in meetings.
The board is Made in the USA and is an open-source whiteboard, which is available for Windows, macOS, and the Linux family of operating systems.
The board has a variety of features that you can use to get the most out of it. There are text-to-speech voices, a spell checker,s and other features. The board is fully Linux-based and is available in several different colors, including whiteboards and blackboards. There are many different ways to use a whiteboard.
You can use either the board as a backdrop or to display your own images and text. As evident in its popularity, this is a great way to create a professional-looking presentation. There are also mobile variants of the OpenBoard whiteboard app that you can use on your phone and tablet.
4. RNote
Rnote board is an easy-to-use and simple application that allows you to write, publish and share white-board-like notes with your users.
The application also comes with many different features like auto-capture for illustrations, line-drawings, or text boxes, or simply a bubble and a checkmark for easily adding files that are easily reminiscent of the Google Keep app.
Rnote is an open-source application that allows you to easily use whiteboard-like notes, drawings, and annotations in Linux. It’s also a great application to use for school projects, both for students and teachers.
5. Excalidraw
Excalidraw is an online drawing and whiteboard tool specializing in creating graphs and diagrams, commonly used to explain data science and logic flows.
Since the Excalidraw program is web-based, it can be used in pretty much any browser, therefore, making it device-agnostic and perfect for just about any Linux environment with a modern browser. Excalidraw does a good job of being its own mouthpiece.
6. Xournal
Xournal is a digital notepad application that allows you to draw, write, and paste. It’s like a digital whiteboard.
You can have your notes on the app, which can then be synced with your desktop version for easy access. You can also share your notes with other people, making it easy to collaborate on your work.
Xournal is a modern digital whiteboard. It doesn’t require you to use your laptop or desktop. You can use it with touch or stylus-enabled devices. You can also use it on your mobile device.
It’s a good way to work on your notes and synchronize them across devices which in turn drastically improves your productivity. The ability to erase content on the fly and import media files are added benefits that go beyond the average whiteboard app.
7. Hoylu
Hoylu is an online whiteboard tool, a collaborative project management platform. The online whiteboard application is also a Kanban board but does not include the tabs that can be found on a conventional whiteboard.
It makes use of Google Drive for file sharing and file search. Hoylu – although not advertised – has the ability to be a Kanban board, but it also provides some other functionalities such as file sharing and searches.
This can be found in the ‘Risk Assessment‘ section. This is a free-form platform that provides an easy way to organize your work in Agile, Scrum, and other frameworks.
Its file shareability and other interactive features are very useful not to talk of its web orientation which makes using it just as flexible as some other contenders on this list.
Conclusion
Whiteboard applications are a great way to maximize your productivity in a world geared towards a WFH (work from home) culture.
Interestingly, such applications have always been available but people tend to gravitate towards the traditional options that may offer a more rudimentary approach to taking notes but hardly satisfies the need for easy accessibility across devices which is what the items on this list will do.
Ever used a Whiteboard before? Feel free to share some tips on how to maximize the potential of such applications in the comments.
