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Notion releases offline mode

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Re: Notion releases offline mode

#141

Post by isodev »

tequila_shot wrote: post #2

I guess for a lot of users like myself using Notion ship has sailed. Most of them have moved to Obsidian, with the new database feature of Obsidian, and it being free, I do not see why users would choose Notion over Obsidian.

In our small (~12) product studio, we switched to Obsidian for team stuff as well and it’s working really well.

Collaboration on the same notes works just fine, even if there is no “live editing” (which we realised is not really useful for us anyway). The fact that notes are just text files on disk has been transformative though - folks use the Shortcuts app, scripts and what not to manage and lookup things.

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#142

Post by louisbourgault »

layman51 wrote: post #42
Illniyar wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard of companies using Obsidian. Notion isn't really marketed or suitable for individuals (even if their free plan says otherwise).

I think you're correct. But I remember back around 2020 when Notion became very popular, it was definitely marketed toward individuals like students, or professionals who wanted to do a lot of planning or organization related to their working/personal lives.

I love notion for school stuff. The databases are just absolutely neccesary for me, and collaboration is a must for me (and without a paid subscription as well). I'm going to check out Obsidian Bases too though now they're out.

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#143

Post by louisbourgault »

Finally! The main aspect of this for me that is important is the ping. It seems like Notion hosts all their services in the US, and since i'm in Australia it somewhat annoys me the time it takes for pages to load. Just downloaded the update and it feels amazing.

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#145

Post by Oranguru »

kwanbix wrote: post #128
Saris wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no tiers or different features, just their own sync service is a paid service, and the commercial license is paid but optional. Otherwise the free Obsidian has everything, and there are other plugins for self hosted syncing that don't use the paid service.

but without syncing is basically unusable, or can I access my texts from my pc and my cell for example?

You can absolutely sync your vault without a paid subscription. Simply save it within your OneDrive or Google Drive folder. Alternatively, you could use Syncthing if you prefer a self-hosted solution.

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#146

Post by wltr »

richardlblair wrote: post #113
tequila_shot wrote: post #2

I guess for a lot of users like myself using Notion ship has sailed. Most of them have moved to Obsidian, with the new database feature of Obsidian, and it being free, I do not see why users would choose Notion over Obsidian.

Notion for my team, Obsidian for myself. We do everything in Notion. Book time off, HR policies, run books, playbooks, knowledge dumps, project management, sprint management. Search is a lot better so it really opens up the use cases. Imo, if you're building a company with the goal of selling it you should use Notion. Get your team to use it, and capture everything about your business. When you go to sell it you have…

And if you not going to sell it from the day one, but rather deliver something you promised to deliver (not necessarily promised to others), you may want to use a set of self-hosted tools. I guess.

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#147

Post by rifty »

atombender wrote: post #124
tequila_shot wrote: post #2

I guess for a lot of users like myself using Notion ship has sailed. Most of them have moved to Obsidian, with the new database feature of Obsidian, and it being free, I do not see why users would choose Notion over Obsidian.

For me, a lot of it is that the "plumbing on the outside" approach of Markdown isn't nice. I don't understand why anyone thinks that seeing and editing format codes all over the place is good UX in 2025. Maybe Obsidian appeals to a particular type of techie who uses Vim and stores all their files locally, compared to someone who isn't technical and just wants "documents in the cloud". I should add that I dislike Noti…

> I don't understand why anyone thinks that seeing and editing format codes all over the place is good UX in 2025

Lightweight markups in most basic usage are essentially punctuation extensions to natural language. It enables the UX in that what feels and looks like punctuation doubles as the effective key command you'd want to know for changing formatting modes anyways. This is why you'll find people like writers who like it.

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#149

Post by spankibalt »

atombender wrote: post #124
tequila_shot wrote: post #2

I guess for a lot of users like myself using Notion ship has sailed. Most of them have moved to Obsidian, with the new database feature of Obsidian, and it being free, I do not see why users would choose Notion over Obsidian.

For me, a lot of it is that the "plumbing on the outside" approach of Markdown isn't nice. I don't understand why anyone thinks that seeing and editing format codes all over the place is good UX in 2025. Maybe Obsidian appeals to a particular type of techie who uses Vim and stores all their files locally, compared to someone who isn't technical and just wants "documents in the cloud". I should add that I dislike Noti…

> "I don't understand why anyone thinks that seeing and editing format codes all over the place is good UX in 2025."

Two neatly separated editing, or one editing plus one preview, mode(s) don't equate to "all over the place".

> "But my main problem with Notion and other document systems is that invariably dissolve into the equivalent of a hoarder's house, full of outdated, hard-to-find garbage deeply buried under other garbage."

I have never used Notion. But if said program does support good enough search as well as tagging functionality (an essential of any KM tool to be considered at least decent), then the "hard-to-find and deeply buried" is on the user for being incompetent at managing (meta) data... which is often enough an inherited problem, e. g. through bad company policies or practices.

And if the tool, in 2025, does not support such essential functionality, the user is obviously also (at least partly) at fault: for choosing it.

> "That's because Notion only has hierarchy."

Easy to avoid as there have been lots of freeform knowledge management tools out there... since the likes of Lotus Agenda. In my experience their freeform-style makes them unpopular with most people for it takes... some... effort (e. g. discipline) to make proper use of them. Such software obviously has to be adapted for any corporate use, which makes them rather unpopular in that space. See below.

> "Where I work, any attempt to carefully "garden" pages is futile because there is no discipline enforced by the tool."

The garden's consistency and associated enforcement ("discipline") is the job of the gardener(s), not the tool.

You don't like Notion's hierarchy-only structure... but then complain about "poorly thought-out folder hierarchies" of the people that use it at your workplace. I mean... whatcha think is gonna happen when you introduce your crowd to powerful freeform KM tools... in a structure that is hierachical (your workplace) and conducts its affairs accordingly? XD

Re: Notion releases offline mode

#150

Post by savolai »

solardev wrote: post #69
savolai wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Notion databases are also the best implementation seamless of ux I’ve seen for relational databases for end users. It could probably be made even smoother but I cannot imagine obsidian being competitive, having used it. Just too much hassle for things Notion handles smoothly. I would like to have more of the content available offline automatically though, i.e all text and image content, and big files downloaded…

> Notion databases are also the best implementation seamless of ux I’ve seen for relational databases for end users. Have you ever tried Airtable? How does Notion compare?

I have taken a glance, the integration between documents and db tables is what makes notion relevant for me in this space though and i don’t see how airtable competes.
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