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Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

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Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#121

Post by shampto3 »

I've been using Obsidian for the past week. Here are my thoughts:

I love that this is basically just markdown with wiki links. I'm not too concerned about Obsidian going out of business and my notes not being useful anymore. Contrast that with Notion (which is great in many other ways), where I store my data on their cloud and even though I can export to markdown not everything is actually markdown (e.g. tables) so they just put a link to their site instead.

I also love that since this is locally stored, I have control of how I store my data. I have a private git repo, and just occasionally commit and push my changes.

I wish it were open source, that way I could feel better about the wiki links being useless if they go out of business. It's not a blocker for me though, since my notes are fairly straightforward and I mostly just use the links for table of contents files.

The downside of being locally stored is that it isn't cross-device capable. This limits me when I'm taking notes on my iPad. That said, I don't take many notes on my iPad so if I need to I can just manually transfer my notes when I get back to my computer. I can understand though that this would a be a show stopper for some people.

Overall, this solution works for me. I have high hopes that it will continue to improve and become even better than it is now. Thanks to the team for the hard work!

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#122

Post by O_H_E »

alexmingoia wrote: post #116

For the people complaining it’s not open source: Why does that matter ? It’s not like your markdown disappears if they do. You would just have to write software or purchase another software with the same conventions.

Since Obsidian is one-time purchase and offline-first, you would continue to use it as you were. Them going down should only affect future updates. Plus you would be able to continue writing plugins (when the API is released) to extend it if you want.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#123

Post by ericax »

mleonard wrote: post #71

Very interesting I'm going to try it out. What's the app written in? It has a VSCode feel to it (which is great!)... Any chance it's built in typescript like VSCode too? I'd love to write a JavaScript extension or two to customise it in the future if that's the case. Can you share what it's built with and what the future extensions will need to be built with? Thanks!

Yes, it's TypeScript and we're loving it! :)

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#124

Post by Veen »

ericax wrote: post #119
Veen wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is quite an odd choice. It makes sense to tier based on features, but tiers based on how or when people use an app is bizarre. Am I supposed to monitor myself so I don't read a note in Obsidian while I'm doing commercial writing work? (Also, their license page could do with some proofreading)

The idea is that if you're creating value with Obsidian, your employer should expense that, ideally it shouldn't impact you financially. If you're working for a non-profit for example, it's all free. > (Also, their license page could do with some proofreading) Interested to hear more! We did a few rounds of proofreading, did you find any typos?

That doesn’t work for freelancers.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#125

Post by ericax »

JSavageOne wrote: post #68

Would be nice to see a live example, I can't tell from the website what this actually does or how it would be useful to me

Sorry but because it works on a local folder, online demo is unrealistic.

I would recommend installing, opening an empty folder, and going to Settings - Help to grab our hel & demo folder to play around with it and get a feel.

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#126

Post by ericax »

christiansakai wrote: post #76
ericax wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also a skeptic. Although nothing is forever, we want to get closer to forever than all the other note-taking apps. We'll likely make a formal guarantee to open source in the case of us shutting down. Didn't realize that was a possibility until today.

How would you guarantee that your guarantee is guaranteed? (not a troll question even though the wording seems to imply so)

Need to consult a lawyer on that, maybe it needs to be notarized somehow?

There have been some attempts to do this (by other apps), we can look into their approach as well.

And yeah no offense taken, don't worry about it :)

Re: Show HN: Obsidian – A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

#128

Post by throwaway_pdp09 »

ihodes wrote: post #104
imglorp wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since roam was lamented, obligatory boost for org-roam: https://github.com/org-roam/org-roam

I love this, and used Deft and org-mode for a long while, but formatting and inline images aren't something that's non-hackily possible to do in Emacs. Would love to be wrong about this.

A quick search suggests it's doable https://duckduckgo.com/html?q=org%20mode%20pictures
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