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For those looking for an Obsidian like tool for commercial usage, check out Foam[0]. It covers most of the core Obsidian features and it's implemented as a VS C

For those looking for an Obsidian like tool for commercial usage, check out Foam[0]. It covers most of the core Obsidian features and it's implemented as a VS Code extension with all of the advantages that entails. Of course, you won't have access to the Obsidian extensions and I do miss the live preview feature and the Android app but it's way more than serviceable. [0]: https://github.com/foambubble/foam https://github.com/foambubble/foam

noname120 4y ago
From the landing page it's not obvious to me what Dendron does that Foam doesn't for free & open-source.
- cropcirclbureau 4y ago
  Dendron's dot.namespaced.hierarchies were an instant "I want that" when I first run across it[^1] but yes, I've become wary of over opinionated tooling for my notes that require specific and idiosyncratic architecture/metadata to function. (and this one's VC backed no less). And this goes for Obsidian extensions as well: if it litters my vault with all kinds of metadata that's not easily accessible or useless when the tool and/or Obsidian finally becomes unusable, no thank you. 1: yes, you can implement this using #forward/slashes/and/tags but you lose some velocity when it's not the core organizational primitive.
- bachmeier 4y ago
  > that Foam doesn't for free & open-source Both are free and open source
fastball 4y ago
Isn't Dendron basically the same thing? It's built on VSCode as well. Foam was literally mentioned in the article and didn't scratch the author's itch, but I'm not sure why it didn't but Dendron is.
- cropcirclbureau 4y ago
  Dendron is built around the dot.namespace.hierarchies which are a nifty way to organize your PKM and implement "Folder Notes" feature. Foam is more traditional, file system based. Very like Obsidian, like I said. I was able to _sense_ the extra man hours Dendron's had but yeah, otherwise basically the same.
- maximus-decimus 4y ago
  The big difference, is FOAM notes are meant to be flat (or you can use folder I guess) and you explore just via the links whereas Dendrons have hierarchies of notes. So "food" is a note about food in general, "food.chinese" is a note under food that's about chineses food, "food.chinese.tao-chicken" is a note about tao-chicken under chinese-food, etc. You can also just skip notes in the hierarchy, so you could have just "food" and "food.chinese.tao-chicken" and a placeholder "food.chinese" would appear in the graph. I personally really liked the note/subnote model used in Zim Wiki, but that program wasn't great for code snippets or to write graphs so I'm pretty excited about Dendron. In comparison, trying to connect my notes is just such a pain with a flat system like foam and Obsidian.
  - platz 4y ago
    in what way is Obsidian a "flat" system? It has folders, no? Or did you mean something else?
    - maximus-decimus 4y ago
      Your notes are not under other notes in Obsidian, just inside a folder. Also files in a same folder doesn't affect the graph in any way. The the graph it all looks flat and notes are linked only by the links you explicitly wrote. In comparison, Dendron graphs shows both explicit connections, but also the parents/children.
wanderingmind 4y ago
On a high level read looks like Dendron supports process graphs through mermaid. Does Foam support this? I'm unable to determine
- cropcirclbureau 4y ago
  There are a bunch of VS Code extensions for Mermaid support[0]. [0]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/search?term=mermaid&target=VSCode&category=All+categories&sortBy=Relevance https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/search?term=mermaid&tar...
- maximus-decimus 4y ago
  Foam is more barebone and you're supposed to use other Extensions for that kind of stuff.
AlanYx 4y ago
If you're giving Foam a look, also consider svsool's unfortunately named "Memo" (previously Markdown Memo): https://github.com/svsool/memo https://github.com/svsool/memo It's a VSCode plugin for groups of Markdown notes similar to Foam and Dendron and inspired by Roam. I prefer this to Foam. One of the unique features Memo has is that links inside folders/namespaces don't have to be absolute if the name itself is unique, which is surprisingly convenient.
- groby_b 4y ago
  That's also true for Foam, though? (At least it seems to work for me ;)

noname120 4y ago

From the landing page it's not obvious to me what Dendron does that Foam doesn't for free & open-source.

cropcirclbureau 4y ago
Dendron's dot.namespaced.hierarchies were an instant "I want that" when I first run across it[^1] but yes, I've become wary of over opinionated tooling for my notes that require specific and idiosyncratic architecture/metadata to function. (and this one's VC backed no less). And this goes for Obsidian extensions as well: if it litters my vault with all kinds of metadata that's not easily accessible or useless when the tool and/or Obsidian finally becomes unusable, no thank you. 1: yes, you can implement this using #forward/slashes/and/tags but you lose some velocity when it's not the core organizational primitive.
bachmeier 4y ago
> that Foam doesn't for free & open-source Both are free and open source

fastball 4y ago

Isn't Dendron basically the same thing? It's built on VSCode as well. Foam was literally mentioned in the article and didn't scratch the author's itch, but I'm not sure why it didn't but Dendron is.

cropcirclbureau 4y ago
Dendron is built around the dot.namespace.hierarchies which are a nifty way to organize your PKM and implement "Folder Notes" feature. Foam is more traditional, file system based. Very like Obsidian, like I said. I was able to _sense_ the extra man hours Dendron's had but yeah, otherwise basically the same.
maximus-decimus 4y ago
The big difference, is FOAM notes are meant to be flat (or you can use folder I guess) and you explore just via the links whereas Dendrons have hierarchies of notes. So "food" is a note about food in general, "food.chinese" is a note under food that's about chineses food, "food.chinese.tao-chicken" is a note about tao-chicken under chinese-food, etc. You can also just skip notes in the hierarchy, so you could have just "food" and "food.chinese.tao-chicken" and a placeholder "food.chinese" would appear in the graph. I personally really liked the note/subnote model used in Zim Wiki, but that program wasn't great for code snippets or to write graphs so I'm pretty excited about Dendron. In comparison, trying to connect my notes is just such a pain with a flat system like foam and Obsidian.
- platz 4y ago
  in what way is Obsidian a "flat" system? It has folders, no? Or did you mean something else?
  - maximus-decimus 4y ago
    Your notes are not under other notes in Obsidian, just inside a folder. Also files in a same folder doesn't affect the graph in any way. The the graph it all looks flat and notes are linked only by the links you explicitly wrote. In comparison, Dendron graphs shows both explicit connections, but also the parents/children.

wanderingmind 4y ago

On a high level read looks like Dendron supports process graphs through mermaid. Does Foam support this? I'm unable to determine

cropcirclbureau 4y ago
There are a bunch of VS Code extensions for Mermaid support[0]. [0]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/search?term=mermaid&target=VSCode&category=All+categories&sortBy=Relevance https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/search?term=mermaid&tar...
maximus-decimus 4y ago
Foam is more barebone and you're supposed to use other Extensions for that kind of stuff.

AlanYx 4y ago

If you're giving Foam a look, also consider svsool's unfortunately named "Memo" (previously Markdown Memo): https://github.com/svsool/memo https://github.com/svsool/memo It's a VSCode plugin for groups of Markdown notes similar to Foam and Dendron and inspired by Roam. I prefer this to Foam. One of the unique features Memo has is that links inside folders/namespaces don't have to be absolute if the name itself is unique, which is surprisingly convenient.

groby_b 4y ago
That's also true for Foam, though? (At least it seems to work for me ;)