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Why I Like Obsidian

ddanieltan.com

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Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#21

Post by hannofcart »

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 desktop, on the few occassions I've had to jot down something quick on mobile, Obsidian app has been perfect.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#22

Post by infecto »

jimmytucson wrote: post #2

> allows structure to grow organically > powerful feature ... Internal Links. > plain text files Well, they're not _plain_ text - there is some markup. So that invites the question - why not HyperText Markup Language? Doesn't HTML have all of these features - hyperlinks, folder structures, "plain" text? Isn't HTML also future proof? It's been around long enough. And doesn't it also work offline? There's a bunch of di…

Do you write your documentation and notes using HTML? Serious question because if not not, why even ask the question? Why does this invite the question? One can easily see that markdown requires less characters and is a quicker flow for jotting down notes. You can open up a markdown file in any file viewer and easily read it without any view processing...not the same for HTML. Silly question.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#23

Post by cpach »

px43 wrote: post #13

Super weird IMO that they refuse to release source code. Hard to trust something as important as notes to an opaque app.

If you want something open source there’s a bunch of alternatives out there. Logseq, Joplin, Zettlr, Standard Notes, etc.

I prefer Obsidian since I like the UI and they offer a subscription for sync, which is very convenient.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#24

Post by mdhb »

jimmytucson wrote: post #2

> allows structure to grow organically > powerful feature ... Internal Links. > plain text files Well, they're not _plain_ text - there is some markup. So that invites the question - why not HyperText Markup Language? Doesn't HTML have all of these features - hyperlinks, folder structures, "plain" text? Isn't HTML also future proof? It's been around long enough. And doesn't it also work offline? There's a bunch of di…

You’re getting smashed for no particularly good reason in my opinion.

I am in the camp if I like the idea of Obsidian but I have a bunch of other stuff I want to include and do stuff with like JSON-LD data for example.

But the idea of writing raw HTML is in fact a huge pain in the ass as everyone was all too eager to point out here.

We have had markdown to HTML converters and visual editing experiences for a long time now and I don’t know why the argument has to be “write in raw HTML” I barely even want to write Markdown when taking notes, I just want to write.

So in that spirit I think HTML and and in browser experience is in fact the right answer I just need to put an editor on top of it and a way to run code when I hit publish to update the graph visualisations and statistics that people seem to really like with Obsidian.

I actually think this might be a really good usecase for the built in IndexedDB API built into browsers so long as you can also back it up and sync across devices.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#25

Post by fsiefken »

I prefer Obsidian over Logseq as it performs better in lower RAM conditions. It would have been nice if it could work with AsciiDoc instead of Markdown as I like the syntax better.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#26

Post by twiclo »

I decided to start note taking with VimWiki. It's organization is the same and has full vim support where Obsidian has partial keybindings. I still feel like I'm missing out. Can anyone opine on if it's worth switching over?

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#27

Post by ParetoOptimal »

jimmytucson wrote: post #7
el_oni wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they like it because # title this is the paragraph is more natural to write than: ... title this is the paragraph when you're just jotting some thoughts down.

So the answer to my original question is - yes :)

Eh, the em example is reductive and makes it seem like markdown doesn't have much advantage.

If you rewrite your comment with lists I think your question becomes self-explanatory.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#28

Post by taopai »

twiclo wrote: post #26

I decided to start note taking with VimWiki. It's organization is the same and has full vim support where Obsidian has partial keybindings. I still feel like I'm missing out. Can anyone opine on if it's worth switching over?

Just try it.

Also consider trying Emacs org mode.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#30

Post by candiddevmike »

mofosyne wrote: post #20

Anyone tried Dendron ( https://github.com/dendronhq/dendron )? It feels like it could almost become a competitor to Obsidian and plus is essentially a vscode plugin, so you get the benefit of using vscode as your code editor as well. Too bad the project has ended as there is no clear approach for the Dendron team to make it financially sustainable (with their cloud sync subscription, much like Obsidian Sync). But it'…

I used dendron with vscode and the extension really screwed up vscode for me. It seems to hook into a lot of things within vscode and created quite a few annoying prompts and added some weird markdown previewing issues.
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