If you do not want to sacrifice most of the functions you love in OneNote than you need to install it somehow in Wine or PlayonLinux or in a WM. The only one which is at least somewhat close is Basket Note Pads which is available for download from the Ubuntu Software Center or the developer's website: Now I tried ALL of the above mentioned alternative apps, but I must say, honestly really nothing comes close to OneNote. I've been using MS OneNote for years now for business and private purposes as well.

Also worth checking out the excellent, native client Everpad.

Also, it looks like the 2010 version is only available as part of 2010, while the 2007 was available stand alone for £80 retail. I personally believe OneNote is overpriced and as usual for Microsoft, single-client only (although they support a web interface now). The collaboration element from OneNote isn't there, but I don't have any need for that anyway. That way, I know from a meeting note if I have any actions outstanding, even weeks afterwards, because when I click on my saved search 'To Do', it pops up all the notes that have uncompleted actions. It supports multiple clients (PC, Mac, Android, iDevice, Web), tagging, sharing, searching, rich text, inline attachments (pictures, music) and crucially (for me) To Do items. Sign up for a free or paid account on the website, then download the Nixnote client software. The only feature it seems to be missing is Ubuntu One synchronisation like with Tomboy, however, if you use the default Notes directory ( ~/Notes), you can synchronise this over Ubuntu One, as your notes as held in files in this folder.

Version Control (using bzr - this should make synchronisation and back up really easy).

Tray Icon (actually an application indicator).

Create Note (from command line for keyboard shortcuts etc.).

Here is the list of default plugins (you may need to install dependencies of some):

Zim is extendible using plugins - such as the LaTeX plugin. Here is a quick screenshot demonstrating some of the features: It has a familiar 'notebook' layout with tabs. Zim supports rich text formatting, links between notes and to external resources, inline images and even LaTeX equations. Zim is a similar note taking application with wiki like features.

Microsoft onenote evernote