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Show HN: Files.md – Open-source alternative to Obsidian

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Re: Show HN: Files.md – Open-source alternative to Obsidian

#361

Post by system2 »

throwatdem12311 wrote: post #288
system2 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not note-taking apps. They can't link notes to each other. They are heavy. I personally do not know anyone using VS Code for note-taking.

Can’t you just link markdown files together with regular hyperlinks? Claude Code is my “note taking app” these days and it does a great job organizing and linking my markdown notes together, and I just open the folder in Zed and render the markdown if I need it.

You will regret when claude decides to wipe all your notes in the name of organization.

Re: Show HN: Files.md – Open-source alternative to Obsidian

#362

Post by bityard »

dcuthbertson wrote: post #264
bityard wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, we know that it's impossible to remember everything. Humans are absolutely terrible at accurately recalling things that they observed even a few minutes in the past. But we also can't remember nothing and just dump _everything_ into the second brain, otherwise we'd have no map, no context, no way to even know how to look for what we need in the moment. It would be like taking a random teenager off the street, h…

> Well, we know that it's impossible to remember everything. Yet it's possible to remember a lot. Those who pass "The Knowledge" test are truly inspirational. See this 60 Minutes report on London's Black Cab drivers [0] [0]: https://60minutestonight.com/the-knowledge-60-minutes-report...

Remembering and learning are very different activities, however. It is pretty impressive what people can learn! And some of us do have superior knowledge of what appear to be "useless" trivia as well. (Ever seen Jeopardy?) But it is very well-researched and understood that _most_ of us have very bad memory and recall compared to a computer. One popular hypothesis is that every time a particular memory is recalled, it is slightly changed until it bears little resemblance to the original event, or even the earlier memories of it.

Re: Show HN: Files.md – Open-source alternative to Obsidian

#363

Post by bityard »

jlos wrote: post #318
bityard wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading their other comments, they are under the mistaken impression that every line of code written by a human should have a dollar sign attached to it. No consideration given that lots of people contribute voluntarily to open-source projects or even release their projects/code for free because they enjoy writing code and engaging with the broader open source or free software community.

> every line of code written by a human should have a dollar sign attached to it. Every line of code that adds value should have some of that value should GO BACK INTO THE PROJECT. I'm against the idea a successful product should be open source, even when you have full conrol of your data and they only charge for convenience. Its an assinine philosophy that makes for WORSE products. Your projects would do better with…

I'd argue that after 25 years, he waited FAR too long for his hobby to somehow turn a profit and would probably be in a much better place now if he'd had gotten a real job a couple decades sooner. "1. Write a bunch of code. 2. Wait for money to flow in." is a terrible business model.

It's also the case that most open source projects just simply do not provide the value that their authors think they do. Think of all the paintings, books, and music ever written. Not the ones you've seen, I mean ALL the ones ever created by any human anywhere. Only a small percentage of what is actually produced ends up being good enough for people to talk about and/or pay actual money for. Software is no different. (And is in fact almost certainly much worse.)

I never want to be paid for writing code, that would take all the fun out of it. But I wish you all the best!

Re: Show HN: Files.md – Open-source alternative to Obsidian

#366

Post by finghin »

zakirullin wrote: post #198
finghin wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never thought about this before, and it hasn’t been mentioned significantly in the vast amount of AI threads I read here. But it’s a really good point as skeptical as I am (in mid-2026) of AI first codebases

BTW, this is not an AI codebase :) It was mostly crafted by hand. Let's say, I've saved some "complexity space" for LLM to add features on top. In other words, the project has dumb-simple code right now, and it is ready to hold some amount of "tech-debt" from an LLM.

Interesting and probably prescient approach, good luck

Re: Show HN: Files.md – Open-source alternative to Obsidian

#367

Post by falcor84 »

inopinatus wrote: post #252
falcor84 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've always viewed Obsidian as the inverse of an open core product. I'd like to hereby propose the "open shell" development model.

We don’t need a special term for interoperable.

A software system can be fully interoperable without any part of it (other than the interface) being open. In my definition, an Open Shell software solution is one in which a company makes it clear that they're focusing on building and selling (or making money from hosting/supporting) only the "Core" functionality, while exposing all of the higher level functionality as open source plugins and fostering a community to make it as easy as possible for others to improve these and maintain them over time. And preferably, the company would also pledge never to offer its own closed source functionality outside its definition of the core.

Re: Show HN: Files.md – Open-source alternative to Obsidian

#368

Post by chr15m »

thingortwo wrote: post #334
chr15m wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It saves to sqlite though, not markdown files you can edit on disk.

Why is that a problem if you are already going to be using specific software to interface with your notes don't you want it stored in an optimized foolproof format that is also one the preferred format recommended by library of congress? And if you want always direct edit access and do it often why not then a simple plain text since either way you will be dependent on the software if you like the additional features…

Yes it's often a problem. I am a Joplin user. Many times I have thought "X would be so much easier if these were just Markdown files on disk." Joplin has an API you can use, but it's annoying. Files on disk would be better.

> if you want always direct edit access and do it often why not then a simple plain text

I like the Joplin UI and features. I also have use-cases where I want plain text access outside Joplin. Obsidian shows its possible to have both (but I also want software libre).

Re: Show HN: Files.md – Open-source alternative to Obsidian

#369

Post by asyncze »

troyvit wrote: post #337
hogwasher wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't use their sync service, all your vault files are local only, and there isn't any mysterious telemetry happening in the background. If you do use their sync service, it's end to end encrypted with your own local-only password, so Obsidian doesn't have a backdoor to your encrypted remote files either. If you don't trust Obsidian's sync service, but want to sync files, you can sync your files in any other w…

> If you don't use their sync service, all your vault files are local only, and there isn't any mysterious telemetry happening in the background. I think the parent's point is that Obsidian could add any tracking they wanted and -- unless you're examining their TOS or your network closely -- you might never know. However: > Obsidian's business model is just selling the sync subscription service. There's no ads compon…

[dead]

Re: Show HN: Files.md – Open-source alternative to Obsidian

#370

Post by bwat49 »

smokel wrote: post #341
manny_rat wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to hear more about this, did you use a GUI library? Does it perform well?

Not the one you're replying to, but "my" system is an Angular application that makes heavy use of CodeMirror. One instance for the base editor, and one instance for the currently active cell. The other cells are rendered to HTML through a different code path (no CodeMirror involved there). For rendering mathematical formulas it uses MathJax. A global context-based keyboard handler such as the one in VSCode allows for…

I've vibe coded a codemirror table editor (as a plugin for joplin) using a nested codemirror instance for the cell editor, in my case using joplin's built in command to render markup for the inactive cells: https://github.com/bwat47/joplin-rich-tables

it works well but I'm not much of a programmer and probably ended up with a crazy over engineered architecture lol

I was surprised that there weren't any existing libraries for this (there is one now but it was created after I started work on my plugin: https://github.com/ckant/codemirror-markdown-tables)

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