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So a quick glance makes it seem fairly similar to Obsidian... as the docs note, it's built on top of VS Code vs Obsidian which is standalone... What are some r

So a quick glance makes it seem fairly similar to Obsidian... as the docs note, it's built on top of VS Code vs Obsidian which is standalone... What are some reasons Obsidian users would want to switch?

mahalol 5y ago
For me, the reason was that I had found out Obsidian is not open source as I initially thought.
kevinslin 5y ago
You're right - Dendron has a lot of similarities with Obsidian. A lot of our users come from people looking for open source obsidian alternatives. Our main differentiator is our focus on structure - we let users create their own taxonomies using "Dendron schemas" which they can use to both document and change their note hierarchies over time. A big focus in Dendron: how do you continue working with your knowledge base after you pass 1k notes? Our answer: by having a consistent structure to all your knowledge so you can quickly reference what you need More details here: https://wiki.dendron.so/notes/a84ff014-e871-445d-9366-d97f1ad882f1/ https://wiki.dendron.so/notes/a84ff014-e871-445d-9366-d97f1a...
- Terretta 5y ago
  i know why it's not this way, and love what you've built, but find it vaguely dissatisfying that with the structured and hierarchical organization, the URLs don't convey that affordance also decent weight still goes to URL keywords in SERPs (and yes, many to many links to leaves attached more than one place seems a problem, but that's what canonical URLs are for)
  - kevinslin 5y ago
    we actually have a solution in the works - adding a human friendly URL label followed by the guid (eg. wiki.dendron.so/notes/tutorial-{guid}) server side, we only parse the last component of the url which will be the guid. the reason we don't do this now is because we're focused on making static publishing smooth (most people use github pages to host their dendron sites) before we start on work on the server enhanced solution
    - Terretta 5y ago
      Great, the amazon.com product URL approach works for a pretty big many-to-many hierarchy! e.g. - https://www.amazon.com/Moleskine-Classic-Cover-Notebook-Ruled/dp/8883701127 https://www.amazon.com/Moleskine-Classic-Cover-Notebook-Rule... - https://www.amazon.com/dp/8883701127 https://www.amazon.com/dp/8883701127
- mynameismon 5y ago
  Considering you are YC backed, are there any plans for monetisations that you would be willing to share? Because (as another comment said) notes apps are dime a dozen, and there doesn't seem much that differntiates you from Obsidian (which already has a revenue stream)
  - kevinslin 5y ago
    Yep. we actually share almost everything in terms of source code and strategy. For business plan, see https://handbook.dendron.so/notes/f6d9bc09-04b7-4a02-a6aa-a2c8454ce1e5.html#how-will-you-make-money https://handbook.dendron.so/notes/f6d9bc09-04b7-4a02-a6aa-a2...
kevinslin 5y ago
so we have the split preview today (edit in one window, preview in another). vscode supports combining the two using either webviews or custom editors. you can see an example of that here -> https://github.com/tejasvi/markless https://github.com/tejasvi/markless we're planning on implementing a similar featureset
jodrellblank 5y ago
I switched because Obsidian free version is not licensed for commercial use. And I considered paying for it, but then Dendron appeared and I have VS Code installed and I copied my markdown files into that instead.

mahalol 5y ago

For me, the reason was that I had found out Obsidian is not open source as I initially thought.

kevinslin 5y ago

You're right - Dendron has a lot of similarities with Obsidian. A lot of our users come from people looking for open source obsidian alternatives. Our main differentiator is our focus on structure - we let users create their own taxonomies using "Dendron schemas" which they can use to both document and change their note hierarchies over time. A big focus in Dendron: how do you continue working with your knowledge base after you pass 1k notes? Our answer: by having a consistent structure to all your knowledge so you can quickly reference what you need More details here: https://wiki.dendron.so/notes/a84ff014-e871-445d-9366-d97f1ad882f1/ https://wiki.dendron.so/notes/a84ff014-e871-445d-9366-d97f1a...

Terretta 5y ago
i know why it's not this way, and love what you've built, but find it vaguely dissatisfying that with the structured and hierarchical organization, the URLs don't convey that affordance also decent weight still goes to URL keywords in SERPs (and yes, many to many links to leaves attached more than one place seems a problem, but that's what canonical URLs are for)
- kevinslin 5y ago
  we actually have a solution in the works - adding a human friendly URL label followed by the guid (eg. wiki.dendron.so/notes/tutorial-{guid}) server side, we only parse the last component of the url which will be the guid. the reason we don't do this now is because we're focused on making static publishing smooth (most people use github pages to host their dendron sites) before we start on work on the server enhanced solution
  - Terretta 5y ago
    Great, the amazon.com product URL approach works for a pretty big many-to-many hierarchy! e.g. - https://www.amazon.com/Moleskine-Classic-Cover-Notebook-Ruled/dp/8883701127 https://www.amazon.com/Moleskine-Classic-Cover-Notebook-Rule... - https://www.amazon.com/dp/8883701127 https://www.amazon.com/dp/8883701127
mynameismon 5y ago
Considering you are YC backed, are there any plans for monetisations that you would be willing to share? Because (as another comment said) notes apps are dime a dozen, and there doesn't seem much that differntiates you from Obsidian (which already has a revenue stream)
- kevinslin 5y ago
  Yep. we actually share almost everything in terms of source code and strategy. For business plan, see https://handbook.dendron.so/notes/f6d9bc09-04b7-4a02-a6aa-a2c8454ce1e5.html#how-will-you-make-money https://handbook.dendron.so/notes/f6d9bc09-04b7-4a02-a6aa-a2...

kevinslin 5y ago

so we have the split preview today (edit in one window, preview in another). vscode supports combining the two using either webviews or custom editors. you can see an example of that here -> https://github.com/tejasvi/markless https://github.com/tejasvi/markless we're planning on implementing a similar featureset

jodrellblank 5y ago

I switched because Obsidian free version is not licensed for commercial use. And I considered paying for it, but then Dendron appeared and I have VS Code installed and I copied my markdown files into that instead.