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Ditching Obsidian and building my own

amberwilliams.io

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Re: Ditching Obsidian and building my own

#371

Post by ErrorNoBrain »

microtonal wrote: post #313
vunderba wrote: post #3

Good article but as a heavy user of Obsidian (and previously Evernote), I would offer some counterpoints: > After some mental gymnastics weighing if I should continue with Obsidian, I found solace when asking myself "Can I see myself using this in 20 years?". I couldn't. The thought of cyclically migrating notes from one PKMS to another every 5 years, as I had done from Evernote to Notion to Obsidian, made me feel ti…

Again, a little bit odd considering that the author is technically savvy enough to write an entire PKMS but didn't seem to consider that you can just check your markdown notes into a git repository and sync with the native android/iOS Obsidian app on a mobile device. Also, Obsidian supports free iCloud sync if you are a Mac and iOS user. I know that's only a subset of users, but a nice option to get Obsidian to sync…

Syncthing... It can do it too

handles syncing my pictures too

Re: Ditching Obsidian and building my own

#372

Post by Avamander »

8fingerlouie wrote: post #370

Is there a reason that Obsidian, Notion and OP all decided to use a dedicated sync service, as opposed to just using generic file storage, which may or may not be in the cloud ? It would seem to me that it would leave out a whole lot of complexity to just use Google Drive / OneDrive / iCloud Drive to handle the synchronization across devices, and if need be you could then just add encryption on the cloud storage (if…

You can sync an Obsidian vault with whatever you wish, the online option is mostly convenience.

Re: Ditching Obsidian and building my own

#373

Post by dugite-code »

zie wrote: post #96

I ditched for [silverbullet]( https://silverbullet.md ). MIT licensed, markdown editor with embedded lua scripting. It's a PWA app that works offline and syncs well.

It's got some rough edges. I want to sit down and build it so I can add an id to the TOC so I can CSS style it to be floating and submit it upstream.

I'm also having issues with integrating it with Authentik's header proxy auth, keeps directing me to a note with the outpost path as the name. The only guide is for authelia.

Re: Ditching Obsidian and building my own

#376

Post by williamsss »

vijucat wrote: post #267

Thank God I got over my tendency for gravitating to such bike-shedding [1] projects! While I appreciate that such pet peeves may result in a net benefit to the world, right now, I am in a place where I would cringe at even taking the risk of upgrading a piece of software that is working fine (like how often has upgrading Pylance or vscode resulted in something breaking? Every single time). The real, actual work is so…

Thanks for sharing this is an understated point from the article as I was fiddling with Evernote, Notion then Obsidian more than I would like to admit. With this I certainly fiddle but I create what I need and get in and out of my notes.

If people find that rhythm and flow with their own PKMS - don't switch for the next shiny thing!

Re: Ditching Obsidian and building my own

#377

Post by xenodium »

For quick notes on the go, I also did go my own way and eventually built the app I wished I had. Journelly: kinda like tweeting but for your eyes only (in plain text)

https://xenodium.com/journelly-like-tweeting-but-for-your-ey...

While you don't need to know anything about its serialized format, it happens to be powered by Org plain text. For Markdown fans, I am recording Markdown interest. Do reach out: journelly + markdown at xenodium.com.

edit: A user's blog post from today (also a Markdown fan) https://ellanew.com/ptpl/157-2025-05-19-journelly-is-org-for...

Re: Ditching Obsidian and building my own

#378

Post by peblos »

mock-possum wrote: post #317
scubbo wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Again, a little bit odd considering that the author is technically savvy enough to write an entire PKMS but didn't seem to consider that you can just check your markdown notes into a git repository and sync with the native android/iOS Obsidian app on a mobile device. Even simpler, I have mine in a Dropbox folder. Felt very strange for _this_ to be the straw that broke the camel's back for the author. Nonetheless, v…

Fun fact: Dropbox doesn’t support emoji in file names ( or at least, didn’t last time I checked. ) Deal breaker for me - adding iconography to file and folder names can be a natural, zesty enterprise.

Still doesn't. I recently moved my vault to Dropbox and had to rename a bunch of filenames

Re: Ditching Obsidian and building my own

#379

Post by randomcarbloke »

this is the inevitable PKMS pipeline, and the one that almost certainly led to Obsidian and Notion to begin with.

Need PKMS > Use existing product > Notice shortcomings > Switch to main alternative > Notice shortcomings > Begin creating bespoke PKMS with the specific functionality you wanted.

Re: Ditching Obsidian and building my own

#380

Post by ozyschmozy »

montagg wrote: post #241

Wait. Sync is “free” if you want to use some other service other than Obsidian’s. I pay for Obsidian sync partially for slightly more convenience (fewer non-integrated points of failure) and also to support the app itself. I’d gladly pay $1000 over a decade for a crucial tool. If the concern is open source and true longevity, I get it, you don’t get that here. But cost for value? Holy shit. $1000 over a decade is abs…

I don't disagree with the overall comment but this bit seems like extreme hyperbole:

> If you're a regular at a bar or restaurant, you pay an order of magnitude over $1000 a year for THAT service. This one is probably worth more.

An order of magnitude over 1k per year is almost $30 per day, every day.

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