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The comments here made it sound exciting, but it seems like it's proprietary, which is a no-go for me. I'll stick to plain text file notes and the occasional or

• nonamechicken 5y ago
  While Obsidian may be proprietary, as long as the files follow standard markdown syntax, it can be opened in any markdown editor. I am currently using both Obsidian & Typora on the same workspace folder(I like Typora better for editing since its WYSIWIG). Not being locked down to any specific software was the primary reason I moved away from OneNote.
  • nerdponx 5y ago
    Markdown, or CommonMark?
    • capableweb 5y ago
      Obsidian has it's own flavor of Markdown there is bunch of stuff other Markdowns (including CommonMark) doesn't support. > We strive for maximum capability without breaking any existing formats, therefore we use a slightly unorthodox combination of flavors of markdown. It is broadly CommonMark, with the addition of some functionality from GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM), some latex support, and our chosen embed syntax https://help.obsidian.md/How+to/Format+your+notes https://help.obsidian.md/How+to/Format+your+notes
      • avgcorrection 5y ago
        They should call it Markdown* then.
        • capableweb 5y ago
          Why? "Markdown" is not a standard, it's a loose collection of formats. CommonMark is a standard, and they are not calling it that. Anything that is Markdown-like can be called Markdown. It's the same deal with lisps. Lots of languages are "lisps", even the ones that are slightly different than the ones you're used to. Then there is a Common Lisp that is a language that is also a lisp.
          • avgcorrection 5y ago
            It’s just nice to be able to differentiate between markdowns that adhere to some existing implementation (GitHub, CommonMark or something else) and those that are their own flavor.[1] “Markdown” is marketing speak for “you probably already know this”. Which yes, sure, but all the little tiny differences between all the different implementations can act as annoying papercuts. At least it’s not wiki markup... [1] GitHub Markdown etc. are fine since they can be called that (X Markdown) and not just “Markdown”.
            • capableweb 5y ago
              Let's see if your favorite "GitHub" accomplishes this task, since you expect this from a much smaller company: Searching for "GitHub Markdown" on Google yields the following two links at the top: - https://guides.github.com/features/mastering-markdown/ https://guides.github.com/features/mastering-markdown/ - https://docs.github.com/en/github/writing-on-github/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax https://docs.github.com/en/github/writing-on-github/getting-... Some snippets from those two pages, where they call their own syntax just "Markdown": > Markdown is a lightweight and easy-to-use syntax for styling all forms of writing on the GitHub platform. > You can use Markdown most places around GitHub: > Here’s an overview of Markdown syntax that you can use anywhere on GitHub.com or in your own text files. > Create sophisticated formatting for your prose and code on GitHub with simple syntax. It's until the bottom of those pages that they start mentioning GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM). Just like how Obsidian deals with the very same documentation. Not sure what the problem is, Markdown has always been different on different entities on the internet, since there is no common specification. Blaming Obsidian for this seems short-sighted.
      • deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
  • kushan2020 5y ago
    If you want WYSIWYG take on opening plain text markdown files, I highly recommend checking https://bangle.io https://bangle.io
• __bjoernd 5y ago
  It's a fancy frontend for plain-text markdown files stored in a folder tree. Nothing proprietary about it.
  • gala8y 5y ago
    Software _is_ proprietary, ie. closed source. I fully understand that this might be off-putting for someone. Almost all plugins accessible from the app are OSS, though, and Obsidian has a process of checking them and some kind of control, which I don't know details about.
  • tomcooks 5y ago
    How do you know, unless you have the source code.
    • dragonmost 5y ago
      Obsidian just looks at the folder you specified and all files created with it are just plain text. You can work in notepad all you want and use the software to view the rendered markdown.
• eightails 5y ago
  As an open-source alternative, Joplin could be worth a look. It's a little different in terms of features, missing a lot of the linking which is kind of key to Obsidian's appeal, so maybe it's closer to Evernote. Still, they're fundamentally the same in terms of being a note-taking app built on folders of markdown files. It's quite actively maintained and improved too.
  • sharikous 5y ago
    Joplin is my choice too. I deplore the complicated codebase, unfortunately. I would have made the changes to get better linking, at least in a personal fork, but I could not find the time to commit myself to it.
    • jf___ 5y ago
      with quicklinks [1] and the backlinks [2] plugins your're basically there. frictionless interlinking has made all the difference [1] https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/quick-links-plugin/14214 https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/quick-links-plugin/14214 [2] https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/automatic-backlinks-with-manual-insert-option/13632 https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/automatic-backlinks-with-m...
  • Macha 5y ago
    Also Joplin's mobile app is poor compared to obsidian's, and that's with obsidian basically just shoving the same content as in the desktop app into a mobile web view.
  • milofeynman 5y ago
    Joplin is great, simple, and I love it. I find things like connections and tagging to be more work with minor, if any benefit. Just folders with markdown works great.
  • physicles 5y ago
    I’ve been using Joplin for about a year now too. My favorite feature is the totally seamless cross-platform sync. Honestly if Obsidian had better support for sync on e.g. Dropbox, I would’ve taken the plunge. Joplin has its issues though. For instance, it seems confused about the format that it wants to store your notes in. Desktop search recently became useless too (no highlighting of search terms and ranking is broken).
• yogsototh 5y ago
  From the description it looks like org-roam would be a good open-source alternative.
  • beermonster 5y ago
    Indeed org-roam is what sprung to mind when I visited and read the OP link
• dopu 5y ago
  I’d check out logseq [0]. Closer to roam than obsidian, but GPL, operates on plaintext files, and supports Org-mode style formatting as well as markdown. It’s getting to be fairly fully featured by now, and the development team moves fast. It’s a joy to use. [0]: https://logseq.com/ https://logseq.com/
  • avinassh 5y ago
    This looks great! Does it expose the directory where the files are written, so that I can use Dropbox to sync? Does it support templates like how Notion does?
    • dopu 5y ago
      Yep, and you choose where logseq files are stored, so you can use anything you'd like to for syncing. I will say though, I've tried using Dropbox for syncing with logseq, and it ended up creating a lot of duplicate copies due to conflicts. Have had better luck with iCloud/Syncthing (also, many people actually use Obsidian + logseq, so I believe you can take advantage of Obsidian's sync if you choose to). In any case, having better file syncing is something the logseq devs are currently working on. Logseq does not currently have templates integrated the way Notion does, but it wouldn't be difficult to programmatically create them since they're just plain markdown files. There's a plugin ecosystem for logseq now, so I think it's just a matter of time before someone writes one to generate templates.
  • bloopernova 5y ago
    Dang, this looks amazing! It's like someone took org-roam and org-mode and made them into a fast, slick, electron app. and it supports saving files as org-mode! pretty freaking sweet.
  • xmprt 5y ago
    I've also heard of Athens [https://github.com/athensresearch/athens#athens https://github.com/athensresearch/athens#athens] which is similar to Roam and can be self hosted. I haven't compared it to logseq though.
• RichardChu 5y ago
  If you want an open source alternative, you should check out Notabase [0]. It's like a mix of Notion + Roam Research, designed to be delightful and easy to use. The difference from Obsidian is that it's database-backed. [0]: https://notabase.io https://notabase.io
  • abcd0880 5y ago
    How does this compare to Obsidian in terms of features and extensibility? Thanks.
• austinvhuang 5y ago
  I recently released this which is open source and based on sqlite https://github.com/austinvhuang/openmemex https://github.com/austinvhuang/openmemex
• dm319 5y ago
  You might also want to consider vim-wiki if you want the hyperlinks feature.
  • tomcooks 5y ago
    Or give readable unique names to your files and use gf (Go to File) when your cursor is above the filename
• vhanda 5y ago
  If you wish to also edit those files on mobile, GitJournal [0] could be useful for you. I've even added basic org-mode support. [0] https://gitjournal.io https://gitjournal.io