4 ms·

Obsidian is still closed source, right? I thought they were talking about open sourcing it at some point.

taink 4y ago
I think they pledged to free it when they stop working on it, but that's about it. One of the developers posted a message[1] on their forums when they were asked about it, and their stance was pretty much "we don't see a good enough value in open sourcing our software". I am unaware of further developments. [1] https://forum.obsidian.md/t/open-sourcing-of-obsidian/1515/11 https://forum.obsidian.md/t/open-sourcing-of-obsidian/1515/1...
- jamesgeck0 4y ago
  > they pledged to free it when they stop working on it Source, please? To my knowledge, while this has been mentioned, they have not actually made such a pledge.
  - taink 4y ago
    Ah, maybe you're right; I skimmed through the thread a long time ago and I think they said they would open-source it and write a privacy policy. I'm pretty sure they did write the privacy policy but I may have remembered incorrectly about the pledge.
darkteflon 4y ago
It’s all just text files, though. There’s no risk of lock-in.
- choward 4y ago
  The investment you put into learning a piece of software isn't free.
- imperfect_blue 4y ago
  This is true for every note-taking app with an export functionality. And it really isn't good enough. The entire reason you use Obsidian or Notion or Anytype or Capacities.io or Logseq, or anything more powerful than a set of markdown files in the first place, is that you care about the relationships between the notes and the rich functionality that comes with them - sorting, search, linking, reminders, etc. None of this is easily exportable into another app. The series of markdown files that make up Obsidian is not a substitute for the Obsidian software, nor are the relationships easily rebuilt in another app.
  - Brajeshwar 4y ago
    The difference between all the other Apps you mentioned and Obsidian is that in Obsidian, it it just a layer on top of your text files (Markdown) and do not ingest in its format. For instance, with Notion, I have to be able to export that and figure out how I fit in to the next Awesome Note App. What I like about Obsidian is -- I don't have to. The day I want to walk out, I just walk out and use the next tool that can look at my content and do its magic. The caveat is, I make it my discipline not to use tool-specific features. For instance, Obsidian has a really nice Plugin called "Dataview", I use it at times but don't depend on it. I can walk out and nothing gets lost. Own the content, then use whatever tool you like on top of your content.
    - imperfect_blue 4y ago
      If all you're using Obsidian as is a fancy markdown editor then of course you lose nothing. But the whole point of PKM apps is that they're more than a fancy markdown editor. Without the tool, a Kanban board that remains as a bunch of scattered markdown files is worthless for its intended purpose, and not easily recreated in another app. It's like, a Microsoft Word document is perfectly portable if you never use any of its formatting features and always save it as plaintext, but at that point is it really using Microsoft Word?
      - jamesgeck0 4y ago
        Obsidian vaults can be converted into formats that work with competing PKM tools. I swapped back and forth between Obsidian and an open source tool based on Visual Studio Code for a while.

I think they pledged to free it when they stop working on it, but that's about it. One of the developers posted a message[1] on their forums when they were asked about it, and their stance was pretty much "we don't see a good enough value in open sourcing our software". I am unaware of further developments. [1] https://forum.obsidian.md/t/open-sourcing-of-obsidian/1515/11 https://forum.obsidian.md/t/open-sourcing-of-obsidian/1515/1...

jamesgeck0 4y ago
> they pledged to free it when they stop working on it Source, please? To my knowledge, while this has been mentioned, they have not actually made such a pledge.
- taink 4y ago
  Ah, maybe you're right; I skimmed through the thread a long time ago and I think they said they would open-source it and write a privacy policy. I'm pretty sure they did write the privacy policy but I may have remembered incorrectly about the pledge.

darkteflon 4y ago

It’s all just text files, though. There’s no risk of lock-in.

choward 4y ago
The investment you put into learning a piece of software isn't free.
imperfect_blue 4y ago
This is true for every note-taking app with an export functionality. And it really isn't good enough. The entire reason you use Obsidian or Notion or Anytype or Capacities.io or Logseq, or anything more powerful than a set of markdown files in the first place, is that you care about the relationships between the notes and the rich functionality that comes with them - sorting, search, linking, reminders, etc. None of this is easily exportable into another app. The series of markdown files that make up Obsidian is not a substitute for the Obsidian software, nor are the relationships easily rebuilt in another app.
- Brajeshwar 4y ago
  The difference between all the other Apps you mentioned and Obsidian is that in Obsidian, it it just a layer on top of your text files (Markdown) and do not ingest in its format. For instance, with Notion, I have to be able to export that and figure out how I fit in to the next Awesome Note App. What I like about Obsidian is -- I don't have to. The day I want to walk out, I just walk out and use the next tool that can look at my content and do its magic. The caveat is, I make it my discipline not to use tool-specific features. For instance, Obsidian has a really nice Plugin called "Dataview", I use it at times but don't depend on it. I can walk out and nothing gets lost. Own the content, then use whatever tool you like on top of your content.
  - imperfect_blue 4y ago
    If all you're using Obsidian as is a fancy markdown editor then of course you lose nothing. But the whole point of PKM apps is that they're more than a fancy markdown editor. Without the tool, a Kanban board that remains as a bunch of scattered markdown files is worthless for its intended purpose, and not easily recreated in another app. It's like, a Microsoft Word document is perfectly portable if you never use any of its formatting features and always save it as plaintext, but at that point is it really using Microsoft Word?
    - jamesgeck0 4y ago
      Obsidian vaults can be converted into formats that work with competing PKM tools. I swapped back and forth between Obsidian and an open source tool based on Visual Studio Code for a while.