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Why I Like Obsidian

ddanieltan.com

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Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#181

Post by jimmytucson »

antiframe wrote: post #159
jimmytucson wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, clearly I touched a nerve :) But I still don't know what Obsidian gives you besides letting you write in Markdown instead of HTML. And that is basically a Markdown to HTML converter, as you pointed out.

You are dismissing what people are telling you. Several have pointed out that Markdown is easier to read and write when taking notes. For example, lists where each item has an additional ~14 keystrokes per item, links which have an additional ~20 keystrokes. Your answer was that that doesn't matter. If that's your view, you are welcome to it, but that's why /other/ people choose Markdown over HTML for notes.

Not dismissing it at all. My original comment asks that very question. I was just wondering if there's anything else that Obsidian offers besides Markdown syntax, since hyperlinking documents and application-agnostic data formats are also features of HTML.

I don't understand where all the feelings are coming from. :)

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#182

Post by dsp_person »

behnamoh wrote: post #122
dustincoates wrote: post #41

I like Obsidian, too, having recently switched over from 9 years of OneNote (the fact that there's a tool to import my OneNote notes helped a lot). The most important tip for getting started with Obsidian, in my mind, is to absolutely ignore all of the Obsidian "power users." I'm 99% convinced that no one actually uses zettelkasten seriously, but even if so, it's overkill for when you're just checking out the app. An…

I tried it a few times but had to stop because: 1. Obsidian imposes its own take on Markdown. For instance, why can't we disable "indent using the tab key"? It's so annoying to accidentally indent/quote text while pressing tab to do something like "accept autocomplete suggestion". Obsidian's response to users' complaints about this was not reassuring: https://forum.obsidian.md/t/option-to-disable-tab-to-indent/... 2.…

For #2 could you share some of the plugins you needed?

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#183

Post by keep320909 »

poulpy123 wrote: post #171
keep320909 wrote: post #141

I prefer Logseq. It does not need plugins for basic things (PDF annotations). And is completely opensource with transparent development on Github. And I find its workflow much better. Obsidian is commercial closed source app with subscription. Free for personal use only, commercial license is $50/year. I am not going to build my PIM around proprietary tool with subscription!

If you don't need the extensive extension library of obsidian and want an open source tool, I would advise for Joplin. Tthe philosophy of logseq is completely different of obsidian (and joplin), being centered on lists instead of documents

Logseq is journaling app with graphs. Notes are not organized in folders, but tags. I find journaling much better. I never procrastinate deciding into what category/folder/doc notes should fit. I just put everything into journal and fluently refactor as time goes.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#184

Post by woleium »

behnamoh wrote: post #154
awill wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. I generally dislike relying on a bunch of third party plugins. Over time they don't get updated and you're left with a mess.

This, and also since they're not built by one team/dev, sometimes they don't play well with each other.

sounds like we need an opinionated supported remix version? Seems like there are a few folks here who would get involved…

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#185

Post by jauntywundrkind »

poulpy123 wrote: post #171
keep320909 wrote: post #141

I prefer Logseq. It does not need plugins for basic things (PDF annotations). And is completely opensource with transparent development on Github. And I find its workflow much better. Obsidian is commercial closed source app with subscription. Free for personal use only, commercial license is $50/year. I am not going to build my PIM around proprietary tool with subscription!

If you don't need the extensive extension library of obsidian and want an open source tool, I would advise for Joplin. Tthe philosophy of logseq is completely different of obsidian (and joplin), being centered on lists instead of documents

Joplin having data in a db is a non-starter for me. The flat-file nature of Logseq makes it much easier for me to script/mine/garden my digital garden.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#186

Post by Tomte »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #169
Tomte wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That didn‘t work so much for Dynalist.

This one? https://dynalist.io/ Looks like it's still alive and kicking. I guess you're probably upset by a lack of updates or something - luckily upgrading to a paid plan would be a good way to incentivize whoever is developing it to continue working on it, at least at the margin.

I‘ve never been a customer, I‘m using Workflowy.

What you missed is that the paid offer didn‘t stop the developers to lose interest and… start Obsidian!

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#187

Post by ayewo »

rubymamis wrote: post #107
ghosty141 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will it be open source?

Plume is built on top of my open source note-taking app Notes[1]. Since Plume is based on Notes, I'll of course comply with the MPL license and release all existing files that were changed (and must stay MPL licensed). But I recently discussed my reasoning to go close-source[2]. I've been working night and day (every day) converting 4 cups of coffee into code for the last 4.5 months to create Plume. I don't want to r…

> But, I'm 99% sure that I'll either open source the core block editor or the entire app in the future.

Why withhold the remaining 1%? If you aren't so confident about your decision to open source, there's no need to commit to that decision now.

It's good that you are leaving the door open, but keep in mind that if some folks suddenly become successful with a service that can turn any GitHub repo into a nice looking SaaS, at the click of a button and for a super low fee, I'm pretty sure you'll be hesitant to open source all your hard work so it can harvested.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#188

Post by ta988 »

hannofcart wrote: post #21

My notes system is: On desktop: Nvim with some markdown plugins plus Goyo On mobile: Obsidian Syncthing for sync (though previously I've Dropbox as well for the same) On desktop I find Obsidian's vim mode slightly uncanny valley-ish. Close enough to be able to emulate my vim flow. But not _quite_ right. On mobile, I've found Obsidian to be just top class. Though admittedly most of my real note taking happens on deskt…

Give a try to Markor it is much more usable than the mobile Obsidian.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#189

Post by ta988 »

drio0 wrote: post #136
mrpotato wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine's close to yours also desktop: nvim + syncthing + vimwiki (md markup instead of default) mobile: syncthing + Markor[1] On mobile I have a todo.txt[2] in addition to the vim wiki files which are all synced. All this works pretty well for my personal needs. For work I use OneNote because the whole company uses OneNote. [1] https://f-droid.org/packages/net.gsantner.markor/ [2] http://todotxt.org/

Which mobile app do you use for todo.txt?

Markor does that really well.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#190

Post by Levitz »

toss1 wrote: post #140
WJW wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's entirely possible to just stick your files in dropbox or something like that and they sync just fine.

I found that trying to sync (Windows Obsidian app «=» Android Obsidian app) just via a cable would get the files over fine, but would not produce usable results, at least not without a lot more fiddling that I wanted to do. I was hoping that we could simply transfer the folder structure over and just have it work, but no such luck. Evidently it requires not only transfer, but some kind of transformation that they do…

There is a popular method which I use. Syncing the vault between devices with Syncthing.

It reportedly causes problems if you edit the same file in two different places at the same time, it will generate a conflict when saving since the files won't match, doesn't affect me in my workflow (if I have access to my desktop I won't use it on my phone) but YMMV

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