28 ms·

Obsidian 1.5 Desktop (Public)

199 points by l2dy 3y ago

harporoeder 3y ago
For an opensource alternative to Obsidian checkout Logseq (1). I spent a while thinking obsidian was opensource out of my own ignorance and was disappointed when I learned it was not. I mistook the extensive github presence for the actual product being open. 1: https://logseq.com/ https://logseq.com/
- adhamsalama 3y ago
  I find SiYuan Note to be a good open source local-first alternative to Obsidian, as it's like a mix of Notion and Obsidian.
- ssgodderidge 3y ago
  Looks cool! I couldn’t tell from the homepage, but it looks like they support cross-device syncing [1]. The big gap left is the rich plugin environment that Obsidian has. 1: https://docs.logseq.com/#/page/how%20to%20sync%20your%20logseq%20graph%20across%20devices https://docs.logseq.com/#/page/how%20to%20sync%20your%20logs...
  - shzhdbi09gv8ioi 3y ago
    I think sync is a non-feature, as you can just ride on your existing solution. (Do one thing and do it well). For example, I use syncthing [1] with Obsidian to sync files off-cloud. https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/
  - bayesianbot 3y ago
    You can use git with it. It automatically commits at configurable intervals, and with few hooks[0] you can make pushing automatic and also pull changes made elsewhere (which then get instantly shown on a running Logseq desktop instance). The default git configuration was kinda weird, but I think I initialized the git myself and then added it in Logseq before adding the hooks and it's been good experience. [0] https://github.com/CharlesChiuGit/Logseq-Git-Sync-101 https://github.com/CharlesChiuGit/Logseq-Git-Sync-101
  - INGSOCIALITE 3y ago
    with obsidian and IOS - you start a vault on your iphone it creates a vault in your icloud folder - then open the desktop client and open the vault from the icloud folder. perfect sync without subscription or git
- burrish 3y ago
  I keep hearing about loqseq, is there anyone using it here that can give me their opinion on it?
  - nerdponx 3y ago
    I use it casually. I really like it, except for the fact that the UI shows empty log days. So if I don't take any note for a week, I get a big blank scroll, instead of whatever my last note was. Structuring everything into "nodes" is a paradigm that works well for me.
    - rbetts 3y ago
      I use it daily for work. The core concept is a single time-sequential outline. Each entry in the outline is referenceable and can be included by reference in other pages. Pages are created wiki-style. Entries can have additional metadata. There is a “todo” system of metadata (that I don’t use.). There is a data log query capability. All content is markdown. The editor inlines images. Outline + markdown + inline images + wiki-ish system is a sweet spot for me.
    - rbetts 3y ago
      Reindexing will eliminate empty pages, fwiw.
  - bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
    Features are a bit better than Obsidian at the cost of much more jank.
  - encody 3y ago
    I use it and mostly like it. It is excellent at being a WYSIWYG, markdown-first, stream-of-consciousness, note-taking application. The plugin ecosystem is sparse/immature, and the special features like PDF embedding/annotating are not very usable. It is difficult to set up sync properly (I self host Nextcloud and usually have to resolve sync conflicts whenever I switch devices). There is an Android app, which works fine, but the integration with the Android system (e.g. creating a note from a "Share" dialog) is... obtuse.
- aliasxneo 3y ago
  Used both for awhile, and I much prefer Logseq. Haven't missed unstructured text since moving over like I thought I would.
- asystole 3y ago
  Logseq is nice but to call it an Obsidian alternative is a stretch to the point that I'd call it straight up incorrect.
  - aragonite 3y ago
    Logseq started out as a RoamResearch alternative. Speaking of which, I wonder whatever happened to that project. One nice thing about Roam is that because it doesn't use files, it has true transclusion, both at the level of documents and at the level of individual symbols (tags & links). Because of this, renaming a tag globally for example is trivially easy. (I don't think global tag renaming is possible in Obsidian natively (without plugin) yet.)
    - PurpleRamen 3y ago
      > I don't think global tag renaming is possible in Obsidian natively (without plugin) yet. It's not tags, but this update brought global renaming of properties out-of-the-box. Properties are the data-fields in frontmatter, the yaml-part which acts as a header in Obsidian-files. Being yaml, makes this rather easy and safe to implement. Tags on the side can occur in freetext, which makes it easy to have false-tags found. Putting some automatism on this is a bit risky I guess.
      - aragonite 3y ago
        > Tags on the side can occur in freetext, which makes it easy to have false-tags found. Putting some automatism on this is a bit risky I guess I agree, especially if you copy paste tweets containing hashtags into your files you could end up with accident collisions. On the other hand, I refactor my tags a lot so I really needed the feature. I ended up using a simple VSCode language server to piggyback on "rename symbols". It's not ideal but it reduced a lot of friction.
  - esjeon 3y ago
    Yup, Logseq is simply too different. It basically wants to go farther than what Obsidian aims to achieve. That said, some features of Logseq are janky, as they are not refined enough. I think Obsidian hit the sweat spot that is easy to implement yet offers enough features.
- cl42 3y ago
  Out of curiosity, why do you prefer open source in this case?
  - jddj 3y ago
    Not OP but for me it's to avoid the following playing out: 1. gradually, more vendor lockin (read: not plain markdown) features are added 2. greater focus on monetization 3. exit 4. go to #2. In some products this doesn't matter. In a personal knowledgebase it might.
    - cl42 3y ago
      I appreciate that, thanks for sharing! If Obsidian didn't have plain markdown + regular folders, I would also avoid it.
    - 0thgen 3y ago
      I guess though with Obsidian, even if you get locked out or they dry up tomorrow, you don’t lose anything in your knowledge base because it works on top of your existing directory structure The only thing you could get locked out of is the convenient curation that Obsidian provides Im normally opensource-or-bust but the way obsidian is set up is pretty low risk
      - jddj 3y ago
        That's true today, I agree. Having watched this movie a few times, I like to have the insurance policy of open source licensing so that it stays true tomorrow. Once something is proprietary it's arguably easier from a developer perspective - and preferred from an investor perspective - to make it steadily more proprietary over time. Then one day you wake up and even if your notes still aren't saved in some some obtuse format that only loads properly in Obsidian, your experience has gradually degraded but by this stage you've got so much tied up in the proprietary extras that you stick around unhappily.
        qup 3y ago
- brightball 3y ago
  It’s not open source but it doesn’t have to be because all of your documents are in portable, well organized markdown. You can easily jump to any other tool that reads markdown thanks to that. Open source would better, but I’m more concerned with avoiding lock in.
  - PurpleRamen 3y ago
    AFAIK it's still a flavor of markdown, with some modifications and extensions. Which is pretty common in markdown-land, but could prevent easy adaption of another markdown-tool, depending on what syntax you use heavily.
- cube2222 3y ago
  Switched back-and-forth as well, and ended up with Logseq long term. In practice, logseq’s block-oriented system works really good for the daily journal, and with obsidian I always devolved to just prepending points to a single file anyway.
- subtra3t 3y ago
  Can anybody comment on Logseq's performance compared to Obsidian? Obsidian is perfect for my needs but unfortunately a tad too heavy for my poor laptop with 4 GB RAM.
  - malnourish 3y ago
    Logseq has worse performance, undoubtedly, and the performance penalty scales proportionally to the size of your knowledge graph. I only notice poor performance if I'm trying to modify a large embedded block. Otherwise, it's typically fine. That said, I actually _use_ Logseq due to the way it works (i.e., an outliner). Obsidian simply doesn't meet my needs.
    - Obscurity4340 3y ago
      Logseq to me is more what Obsidian was supposed to be but I realize not everyone wants an outliner
    - subtra3t 3y ago
      Thanks! Would you by any chance know of a light weight note taking app?
      - Scarbutt 3y ago
        Emacs org-mode.
        peatmoss 3y ago
        Lightweight in terms of system resources, yes. Lightweight in terms of "I have a whole new lifestyle and religion"... no. Org-mode can be used simply, but the kind of person drawn to org-mode (e.g. me) has a hard time not yak shaving org-mode in the extreme. :-)
      - rubymamis 3y ago
        Shameless plug: my note-taking app[1] is built using Qt C++ and QML. I’m also working on a new note taking app with a revamped block editor[2]. [1] https://www.get-notes.com/ https://www.get-notes.com/ [2] https://www.get-plume.com/ https://www.get-plume.com/
- hresvelgr 3y ago
  Another Obsidian alternative which I use every day is Anytype[1]. It's fully open source however under their own license which has some interesting terms to discourage commercial adoption. They seem to be very focused on individual use. The user experience is similar to Notion with some subtle differences, but overall very positive. The biggest plus for me was offline p2p sync and a really solid mobile app. [1] https://anytype.io/ https://anytype.io/
  - ethanbond 3y ago
    I really, really want to like Anytype (longtime Obsidian user). I just cannot get through the general cludginess of it. “Similar to Notion” is exactly right, unfortunately. The attempted switch to Anytype revealed to me how important it is that Obsidian feels like opening up a terminal or simple text editor.
  - espdev 3y ago
    > The user experience is similar to Notion Honestly, it sounds like a judgment call because Notion is truly a monstrous thing. It slows down terribly and it's just plain uncomfortable. Why does "everyone" love Notion? It's horrible, how can you even use it? Programs that do simple things should be simple and run fast. It's like a pencil that you simply use and don't think about how to use it, you don't notice it at all.
    - tamimio 3y ago
      >everyone loves notion I don’t, I actually loathe it.
    - PurpleRamen 3y ago
      > It slows down terribly and it's just plain uncomfortable. When was the last time you use it, and what's in your workspace? Notion did receive some improvements on performance over the years, but it still depends strong on which data you dump into your workspace. > Why does "everyone" love Notion? Because it's an awesome concept with a well-rounded implementation on the user side. It just sucks hard on the technical side. I mean, it's a good tool, but it has an upper ceiling of what one should do with it. But this is a general problem with all those young fancy tools. Obsidian or Logseq are not different in that regard. They all are scaling poor. They are simply not meant for this. > Programs that do simple things should be simple and run fast. It's not simple, it's very far from being simple.
- Brajeshwar 3y ago
  I did try Logseg, but here is my reasoning for choosing Obsidian over it. Logseg is smart and tries to manage the content for me, but I need to know where my content is. I was pleased with Sublime Text tamed to play nicely when encountering MarkDown. But Obsidian came along and changed that. I still avoid Obsidian plugins that take over my content.
  - DeIlliad 3y ago
    I don't understand what you are saying here. Logseq files are in the logseq folder. I'm not sure how Logseq is hiding where your content is
    - unixhero 3y ago
      The comment started out interesting, and then turned into meaningless conclusions.
- brunoqc 3y ago
  Logseq is open core if their sync feature is not open.
  - awill 3y ago
    Agreed. It's frustrating because both Obsidian and Logseq have deliberately removed a crucial feature. So people either have to pay a lot, or do janky workarounds to do their own sync. Why have so many people waste their time with own custom solution.
    - PurpleRamen 3y ago
      They have developers to feed, and sync is a fair choice for paywalling a feature.
      - brunoqc 3y ago
        I guess, but without a good native sync, there's no way that less tech-savvy people will use it. Personally, I wouldn't mind paying a small fee for a great note-taking app, but I would like to be able to share some notes with my mom and with my partner. But they wouldn't want to pay for it, as they wouldn't use the app as much.
        unixhero 3y ago
        I would mind. This subscription based reality has got to end. I'm drawing a line in the sand.
      - awill 3y ago
        Of course. But they should make their money in other ways. A note taking app that I can't sync across multiple devices is useless. And you can't try the full version with sync to see if it would work. All I'm saying is they're leaving a lot of money on the table. I hear syncthing is good for this, but obviously it's messier on iOS. I just know that $8/mo for sync is too much. You can get Office 365, or Google Drive/Dropbox with a TON of space for that price, and that space is usable by lots of different things.
- FireInsight 3y ago
  I love Logseq, would even more if the performance wasn't so bad on my phone. It doesn't feel like an Obsidian alternative, though. I mostly use it for journaling.
- Al-Khwarizmi 3y ago
  I use Joplin as open-source notes app. Haven't really tried Logseq or much of Obsidian, though, as seriously trying a notes app takes some commitment. Joplin is just the first one I tried that fit my needs after fleeing from Evernote, and I'm happy with it, but maybe I'm missing hepful features from elsewhere. It would be helpful if anyone who has tried several could give a comparison.
  - espdev 3y ago
    Joplin uses SQLite DB to store data, not markdown files. Moreover, you can't even change the directory where this database is stored, which is pretty funny for an open source application. Also, there are no internal linking and knowledge graphs in there. Also, there are UI/UX issues, for example annoying modal windows about updates can pop up at inopportune moments. But it should be noted that web clipper is quite usable. But it is not rocket science to make a web clipper. Obsidian is an app of a higher level of quality and usability.
    - kelsolaar 3y ago
      Markdown is a blessing for any operation that needs to be performed across many files. Load up your favorite editor and get going.
  - repple 3y ago
    I used Joplin for a few years and loved it. I quit evernote as soon as it lost all of my notes years ago. Switched to Obsidian for faster startup time, which is at the top of my feature list for such apps. Joplin got worse over time with more notes. I considered Roam and Notion, but having to pay AND slow startup made no sense, although Notion features are quite nice. Now thinking about adding Logseq to work with my Obsidian. I also think DEVONthink is great closed source app for research especially where you can index and search all of your PDF collection and it will give you closest matching files and content with respect to your current file. Many other great features. But it’s Mac/iOS-only app, lacks of linux/windows support. Startup time is very slow. And UX for note taking is kind of unpleasant to work with. I really want to use it but I can’t for all of these reasons. It’s like an expensive car which you own but never want to drive.
- heresie-dabord 3y ago
  > For an opensource alternative to Obsidian I would say bash, git/git daemon, grep, python http server as needed. No closed-source application between me and my information.
  - D13Fd 3y ago
    It all depends on what skills you already have with those tools and how much you value your time.
- unixhero 3y ago
  What is the best then? Logseq or Obsidian? Goal 1: World class note taking Goal 2: Not get captured by a corporation, such as what happened to Endnote Logseq has a more convincing website.
ssgodderidge 3y ago
> As of 1.5.0, the Legacy editor has been completely removed from Obsidian. This seems to be one of (the only?) notable change in 1.5.0, especially for legacy plugin devs. Also tags can’t end in a ‘/‘ now.
- seanhunter 3y ago
  I think the addition of decent/simple markdown table editing (without requiring a plugin) is a big feature for a lot of people
  - ssgodderidge 3y ago
    Ah good point. I typically avoid tables in my notes, but I imagine it’s super useful for some
  - creativeembassy 3y ago
    I can't wait to try this out. I have a plugin installed now but table editing is still clunky. Decent first-party support of md tables is huge (for me) if true.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
einpoklum 3y ago
It looks like reinventing the wheel which is the world-wide-web: Documents of different kinds with links between them. I guess the graph view is semi-novel - the idea is not new, but you usually don't see browsers or website editors presenting these graphs. Perhaps I'm missing something?
- ssgodderidge 3y ago
  Agreed on the doc-linking tech existing elsewhere. Obsidian just packages it in a really great format and UX. I really enjoy the local, note-writing experience here. Not sure if anyone uses Obsidian to publish a website, or if it’s even possible.
  - claytonjy 3y ago
    They offer Obsidian Publish for $8/mo: https://obsidian.md/publish https://obsidian.md/publish
  - 0thgen 3y ago
    I’ve found that obsidian and Jekyll play pretty nice together. Not perfect but not bad
  - medimikka 3y ago
    Of course it is :). It's a bunch of Markdown, something that dozens of static site generators happily ingest and turn into a website. I am using 11ty (https://mikka.is https://mikka.is), a sprinkle of git to get things into production, Obsidian Git to simply push everything I write, as I write, and my website is done.
- nerdponx 3y ago
  The concepts are not new. The innovation is in the UI and UX that makes it easy (almost seamless) to build documents like that. As I said in another comment, you could get all of this functionality with any Markdown-based static site generator. But it would be a lot more work to achieve the same result.
- 0thgen 3y ago
rcarmo 3y ago
I've tried Obsidian time and again, but the lack of mobile feature parity (even on an iPad) is still a big blocker for me.
- ssgodderidge 3y ago
  Which features in particular?
- rbits 3y ago
  In my experience mobile feature parity has been pretty good. All of my plugins are compatible, and I don't notice any missing features.
- lambdas 3y ago
  Really? The sole feature/plugin I’ve noticed not available is git, but working copy fills that hole for me. Not noticed a single other thing, I’ve been super impressed with parity between the platforms in fact.
- rchaud 3y ago
  What do you mean? I switched away from Logseq specifically because Obsidian had almost no differences between the desktop and mobile apps. Logseq on mobile could not run any plugins, Obsidian supports them all.
  - rcarmo 3y ago
    It’s not just the plugins, the editor experience (toolbars, menus, layout) is too kludgy to be useful.
- vergessenmir 3y ago
  I find the desktop and mobile experience you be fairly aligned. There are few plugins I've installed that won't work on the mobile version (e g Surfing plugin)
compacct27 3y ago
Shout out to Obsidian, my most-used desktop and mobile app of the year. Absolute game changer. Hacker News showed me this and the book “How to Take Smart Notes” and it’s been an immense aid for difficult technical work, and plenty of other things as well.
- elric 3y ago
  Aside from using it for all kinds of notes (from work to book reviews to writing blog posts and other stuff I'm writing), I also use it as an RSS reader. Plain text is life. Shoutout to the query features provided by the Dataview plugin. I have a work note which bundles all my TODOs from various work projects. It's great to be able to get an overview of all my stuff. ```dataview TASK FROM "Work/Projects" WHERE !completed GROUP BY file.link ```
- moneywoes 3y ago
  link for taking smart notes?
  - machomaster 3y ago
    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60581868-how-to-take-smart-notes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60581868-how-to-take-sma...
- Pathogen-David 3y ago
  Multiple books came up when I searched for the book you mentioned, who authored the one you're referring to?
  - machomaster 3y ago
    Sönke Ahrens https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60581868-how-to-take-smart-notes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60581868-how-to-take-sma...
    - Pathogen-David 3y ago
ctxc 3y ago
I've been looking for a way to host my notes like a website locally. When I'm not writing but only want to refer to my notes, I'd much rather have something clean like that without the editor UI. Like a docusaurus instance. Suggestions?
- nerdponx 3y ago
  Any Markdown-based static site generator could work. But the editor UI I think is where a lot of the power of a tool like Obsidian comes from. The main benefit for me is that it takes the pain out of cross-linking, so you can have a much more richly linked collection of notes, more like "hypermedia" than a journal. Another option could be Tiddlywiki, which does have an editor UI but is self-contained in a web app.
- creativeembassy 3y ago
  There are a number of Obsidian plugins that will automatically convert your notes into an actual website. I don't use any but I know they exist. (I don't use them _yet_, I have a future plan to completely remake my website and Obsidian is part of it). Does that fit the bill? Or do you want something more native-feeling?
- jerlendds 3y ago
  Check out https://github.com/jackyzha0/quartz https://github.com/jackyzha0/quartz (docs site can be found here: https://quartz.jzhao.xyz/ https://quartz.jzhao.xyz/ )! I found it recently and customized it a bit to redo my personal website (https://studium.dev https://studium.dev don't mind the header on mobile, I need to fix that still). I plan to transfer my Logseq notes to it eventually but you could just as easily do the same for any markdown based notes
  - agrounds 3y ago
    Seconding quartz. I also use it and love it. It converts your markdown files to static HTML, understands Obsidian-specific markdown features, and just looks really nice IMO. For publishing, I use Cloudflare pages to host the static HTML and Cloudflare workers to build the HTML whenever I push a commit to the GitHub repo hosting my markdown files. Quartz has documentation showing you how to set this up, and it’s all within the free offerings of Cloudflare.
CrypticShift 3y ago
I see that the recent releases have focused on tables and properties. The logical next step could be to integrate the two : creating a unified system of tables designed to handle properties — essentially, Notion-style databases. I'm aware of some existing plugins that tackle this, with a particularly ambitious one gestating for quite some time now [1], but I feel this could be a core plugin. [1] https://github.com/blacksmithgu/datacore https://github.com/blacksmithgu/datacore
- intellectronica 3y ago
  If you look at the roadmap, that’s exactly the plan. https://obsidian.md/roadmap/ https://obsidian.md/roadmap/
  - PurpleRamen 3y ago
    The roadmap mentions only Dynamic views, which is not the same as interactive editing of databases, not even on Notions level. But as I remember, this was different at some point. Did this entry change?
rbits 3y ago
Finally proper table editing! Why has it taken so long? That was my biggest gripe with Obsidian, so glad they've fixed it. The new table editing UI looks great. I guess I won't need the advanced tables plugin anymore.
- peterlk 3y ago
  Tables are tough. Thinking through the desired outcome of keyboard actions is a lot, and then implementing it takes a lot of work. As a simple example, if I have list inside a nested table, I highlight the list, and hit tab, what is supposed to happen? Should the cursor move to the next box in the table? Which one? Should it indent the list? There are _tons_ of these kinds of questions.
- deafpolygon 3y ago
  The bullet lists and numbered lists don't work inside table cells. Not a deal breaker, but would have been nice to have the same level of formatting as outside the table.
hulitu 3y ago
> Obsidian 1.5 Desktop (Public) is a .. Common people, it is so hard to write a description of your program ?
- Macha 3y ago
  The answer to that is on the home page, not the change log. It's not the obsidian devs that choose which post makes it to HN, and I disagree with the (common on HN it seems) viewpoint that every page should be understandable with context removed in case it gets posted to HN.
clircle 3y ago
I can't use this because it would feel like I'm cheating on Emacs. But it looks cool!
- Brajeshwar 3y ago
  Well, you can always be thinking about Emacs while you are using Obsidian. That way, you are not cheating cheating.
- ParetoOptimal 3y ago
  I use org-roam in emacs. I've also used obsidian and logseq. Went back to org-roam, which I use very much like people use logseq.
- Difwif 3y ago
  I've been using Obsidian as my mobile client for Emacs. I have a git repo with all my org documents. I use the obsidian git and org plugin to sync, view, and edit my org documents. It's not perfect but it serves it's purpose of being a quick way to look at stuff and capture on the go.
- theshrike79 3y ago
  The fact that I can drag & drop pictures to Obsidian and it Just Works was the final nail in Emacs' coffin for me =)
dcreater 3y ago
Did they fix the annoying problem with the properties section skewed to the left side of the editor?
- kepano 3y ago
  Are you using Minimal theme? It was an issue with Minimal that was fixed, if you update your theme.
  - dcreater 3y ago
    I was. But looks like I just needed to update the theme. Fixed now!
superultra 3y ago
I recently switched my note taking to Obsidian. I’d floated amongst apps, including Notion, Bear, Simplenote, and most recently Craft. When Craft started acting up, I decided it was time to redo my setup. The standard advice for Obsidian is either to not touch the plugins, or install 100 of them after watching 50 hours of YouTube videos. It is possible to easily get into an obsidian rabbit hole for sure, but I did find a happy medium and I’m thrilled with my current setup. It’s not perfect but it’s quite workable. Some of the quirks are tables - and it looks like that’s getting fixed. Thrilled about that. The mobile app is pretty wonky too but that’s not a huge priority. Despite the quirks I’m more organized with my daily notes and project setup using obsidian than any app prior. Great to see the team is continually updating an already great app.
- e28eta 3y ago
  Do you do anything re: security of the plugins that you install? Maybe I learned about the contents of [1] at the wrong time (like after a prominent supply chain compromise was found), but it made me avoid them completely. 1: https://help.obsidian.md/Extending+Obsidian/Plugin+security https://help.obsidian.md/Extending+Obsidian/Plugin+security
- moneywoes 3y ago
  what issue did you find with craft? i’m currently trialing that after finding obsidian too complex haha
- elric 3y ago
  You don't need any plugins to be productive in Obsidian. But boy does a plugin like Dataview make life easier. Being able to run SQL-like queries on your notes was a game changer for me. Other than that, the only plugin I use on a daily basis is Templater in combination with Quick Add, which lets me create advanced templates which can be executed with keyboard shortcuts. Starting a new work meeting? Hit a shortcut and I have a populated meeting note in the right folder, with today's dates etc. I have about 20 such templates for various things that I do frequently. It makes for tidy, structured notes which I can easily find later.
ta988 3y ago
https://www.zettlr.com/ https://www.zettlr.com/ is a really close Open alternative.
- seanosaur 3y ago
  For an extremely specific and rigid use case / workflow, sure it's a close alternative. For most people that want a flexible, extensible product that can do many things in many ways, it's probably not nearly as close an alternative.
  - kergonath 3y ago
    It’s an alternative for the “do not touch any plugin” crowd, which I would assume is the majority of Obsidian users. It’s not a replacement for the “install all the plugins” long tail, sure. For my use I considered both and honestly Zettlr is not that far behind. Decent Zotero interoperability would have sold it for me.
apwell23 3y ago
just in time for new year resolutioners. If only I could get back all the time I've wasted trying to build my "second brain", goofing around building some kind of connected graph nonsese. I cringe at all the time spent doing that nonsense deluding myself that it the way I am going to get organized and finally turn my life of procrastination and ennui around . Now I spend most of my day chatting with chatgpt for work and personal life. If it could remember and build my second brain for me that would be amazing. I really dont think any of these tools like notion, obsidian are really practical or aligned to way our brain works.
- FireInsight 3y ago
  Yeah, I agree. All this note-taking is not about storing information for me. It's just planning private projects, writing long-form posts, and journaling. Mostly dumping down thoughts.
- ParetoOptimal 3y ago
  It can work, but only if you also make your second brain about building small habits. For instance, my food recipes are there. If I didn't establish a habit of "search notes for recipes" when I think "what should I eat" those notes would have much less value. As for chatgpt doing this for you, I'm interested too. Give MemGPT or khoj a try.
  - apwell23 3y ago
    Storing recipes is great example of why this doesn't work. I never have exact list of ingredients, equipment, energy level for a recepie. I now just ask chatgpt that I have x,y and z in my fridge and I want to use to use oven and vitamix and that i am tired. It concocts a recipe for me that i can tune further. I have customgpt with promt about my food preferences, allergies, style of cooking, cooking equiment ect. Most of the stuff I cook aren't unique recipes that need to store in obsidian.
    - ParetoOptimal 3y ago
      > Storing recipes is great example of why this doesn't work. I never have exact list of ingredients, equipment, energy level for a recepie. Really? My fridge typically has the same things I've found. Regarding energy level I have a different node called "low-energy recipes" the other recipes are linked from. > I now just ask chatgpt that I have x,y and z in my fridge and I want to use to use oven and vitamix and that i am tired. It concocts a recipe for me that i can tune further. I've done that, but there are tradeoffs in quality and depending on how you view LLM's.. confidence in the end result. > Most of the stuff I cook aren't unique recipes that need to store in obsidian. It depends on your memory... I forget certain steps of recipes I've cooked for years sometimes. Knowing I have things just there at my grasp puts things on easy mode.
unixhero 3y ago
I want to become a user - but I have not been able to set up a sync between my Android phone and Onedrive or Google drive for the Obsidian vault file.
- mtremsal 3y ago
  My solution to this problem, which has worked for the past 2 years, is to rely on a private git repo for sync, obsidian on desktop, and GitJournal on mobile.
- pitzips 3y ago
  I use FolderSync for Android which works well for my obsidian sync needs
- jskherman 3y ago
  You would need to use a (freemium) app for that: OneSync or AutoSync for Google Drive. I have OneSync but I'm currently using Syncthing (to not have to buy an upgrade and to better control which files are synced). To reduce sync conflicts, I run an always online Syncthing instance in the cloud with Fly.io.
alecsm 3y ago
I used to hop from one application to another then I realized almost all of them suited my needs so I settled with Joplin because I like the way the web clipper works.
- moneywoes 3y ago
  what made you like joplin?
  - alecsm 3y ago
    Many things. It's open source, which is a big plus to me. It's easy to use. I like to organize my stuff in "folders" and it's perfect for that. The web clipper is great. I can save a whole page or only what I select as .md and except for a couple lines that I usually delete, the rest is saved perfectly. Some say that not saving the files in plain .md files like Obsidian is not as good which I agree but I takes me only a couple seconds to export everything as .md.
r00tanon 3y ago
The android app wants full access to the file system? With the "trust us, we'll only really access the folder you tell us to..."? Am I reading that right?
- freshchilled 3y ago
  Android has moved to a file system model that generally locks app out of having full control of any folder but the one created for the app. The only way to let your app have read-write-create permissions is to request access to the whole file system. And IIRC, you have to get permission from Google to even request it. It makes it very difficult to have something like a Git client on Android as well, as the permission to request file system access is not easily granted.
- kepano 3y ago
  You can find an explanation of the Android permissions on the Obsidian Help site: https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian/Android+app#Storage+permissions https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian/Android+app#Storage+permis... Obsidian can't use scoped storage because: > 1. Scoped storage doesn't provide a way to watch for external changes, which is critical when using Obsidian with a third-party syncing tool. > 2. Scoped storage performs many extra permission checks for every single file access, causing significant performance degradation when opening and using Obsidian.
LanzVonL 3y ago
What is Obsidian? For some reason the web site is blocking my browser and the GitHub isn't very informative.
- kentosi-dw 3y ago
  A note taking app, bit like Notion.
  - LanzVonL 3y ago
    Ah OK. I'm an Org user at this point, part of my emacs addiction.
brightball 3y ago
I would love some type of plugin for Obsidian that could generate a searchable transcript of audio/video files I drop into my notes.
adhamsalama 3y ago
SiYuan Note is a fantastic open source alternative to Obsidian and Notion, as it's like a mix of both, but open source and local-first. https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan
- swah 3y ago
  "Most features are free, even for commercial use." surprised after your intro.
Slackwise 3y ago
No mention of Foam? https://foambubble.github.io/foam/ https://foambubble.github.io/foam/ Fine, I uhh, I'll speak for it. Foam is to VSCode, what Org (and Org-Roam) are to Emacs. As a former org-roam user, I ended up preferring it because my end goal was to convert my notes to HTML and blog posts, and org is poor at that as HTML is not valid org code whereas it is in Markdown. There's just a whole host of markdown-it plugins [1] out there to add footnotes and all sorts of things to Markdown, and Foam also understands Jekyll frontmatter YAML, which is perfect for blog post tags/categories. [1]: https://www.npmjs.com/search?q=keywords:markdown-it-plugin https://www.npmjs.com/search?q=keywords:markdown-it-plugin And because it's just an extension to VSCode, it works with every other extension: https://foambubble.github.io/foam/user/getting-started/recommended-extensions https://foambubble.github.io/foam/user/getting-started/recom... This gives it similar power and flexibility to Org-Roam, as you can extend the model to improve the editing experience. So why don't I use Obsidian, Logseq, and others? Because they're dedicated apps, and now I have to bring various half-baked plugins into them to give me the power my editor already affords me. With notes, half your time is spent editing, so why wouldn't you want your editing to be as close as possible? Secondarily, nothing stops me from using everything altogether, since it's all Markdown, I can load up my note repo in Obsidian or Logseq and others, and continue editing in VSCode and Emacs!
- kid64 3y ago
  Yeah but how do you access your notes on mobile?
  - Slackwise 3y ago
    They're in a GitHub repo, so I just use that since GH renders Markdown. I could probably use Obsidian/Logseq mobile if I wanted to. (Again, because it's Markdown... which is about universal now.) And like, it's Markdown. It's meant to be readable as-is, so I can probably figure out any alternative method. I'd obviously miss out on tag searching and graphing, but I don't have heavy mobile use right now. Edit: Yeah, the GitHub mobile app ain't the worst. I can probably find a way to get local git on my phone, and then just use Obsidian Mobile if I want to get fancy.
laurels-marts 3y ago
I tried many, many note taking apps and the one that finally stuck was VS Code. I had been using VSC as my code editor daily for years so when it released "Profiles" I just created a "markdown" profile that contained all the markdown extensions, settings, customisations etc. that I needed and that's it. I realised this is perfect because there are no new keyboard shortcuts, UI or apps I have to learn. I sync all my notes to a private GitHub repo. It's fantastic. Once I figure how to export my ad-hoc notes I've accumulated in my iPhone Notes app and sync it to the repo I will never need anything else.
- OliverGuy 3y ago
  Is there a good way to do the graph type views Obsidian can do in VS Code?
unixhero 3y ago
I am looking to move off simplenote. I rely to heavily on it, it is really good, very simple and great. But something this important needs to be self hosted in my opinion.
unixhero 3y ago
Whatever happened to the Zettelkasten note strategy approach?
- elric 3y ago
  You can use it in Obsidian. Or in any other note taking application. Or using paper notes and a physical zettelkasten.

199 points by l2dy 3y ago

For an opensource alternative to Obsidian checkout Logseq (1). I spent a while thinking obsidian was opensource out of my own ignorance and was disappointed when I learned it was not. I mistook the extensive github presence for the actual product being open. 1: https://logseq.com/ https://logseq.com/

adhamsalama 3y ago
I find SiYuan Note to be a good open source local-first alternative to Obsidian, as it's like a mix of Notion and Obsidian.
ssgodderidge 3y ago
Looks cool! I couldn’t tell from the homepage, but it looks like they support cross-device syncing [1]. The big gap left is the rich plugin environment that Obsidian has. 1: https://docs.logseq.com/#/page/how%20to%20sync%20your%20logseq%20graph%20across%20devices https://docs.logseq.com/#/page/how%20to%20sync%20your%20logs...
- shzhdbi09gv8ioi 3y ago
  I think sync is a non-feature, as you can just ride on your existing solution. (Do one thing and do it well). For example, I use syncthing [1] with Obsidian to sync files off-cloud. https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/
- bayesianbot 3y ago
  You can use git with it. It automatically commits at configurable intervals, and with few hooks[0] you can make pushing automatic and also pull changes made elsewhere (which then get instantly shown on a running Logseq desktop instance). The default git configuration was kinda weird, but I think I initialized the git myself and then added it in Logseq before adding the hooks and it's been good experience. [0] https://github.com/CharlesChiuGit/Logseq-Git-Sync-101 https://github.com/CharlesChiuGit/Logseq-Git-Sync-101
- INGSOCIALITE 3y ago
  with obsidian and IOS - you start a vault on your iphone it creates a vault in your icloud folder - then open the desktop client and open the vault from the icloud folder. perfect sync without subscription or git
burrish 3y ago
I keep hearing about loqseq, is there anyone using it here that can give me their opinion on it?
- nerdponx 3y ago
  I use it casually. I really like it, except for the fact that the UI shows empty log days. So if I don't take any note for a week, I get a big blank scroll, instead of whatever my last note was. Structuring everything into "nodes" is a paradigm that works well for me.
  - rbetts 3y ago
    I use it daily for work. The core concept is a single time-sequential outline. Each entry in the outline is referenceable and can be included by reference in other pages. Pages are created wiki-style. Entries can have additional metadata. There is a “todo” system of metadata (that I don’t use.). There is a data log query capability. All content is markdown. The editor inlines images. Outline + markdown + inline images + wiki-ish system is a sweet spot for me.
  - rbetts 3y ago
    Reindexing will eliminate empty pages, fwiw.
- bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
  Features are a bit better than Obsidian at the cost of much more jank.
- encody 3y ago
  I use it and mostly like it. It is excellent at being a WYSIWYG, markdown-first, stream-of-consciousness, note-taking application. The plugin ecosystem is sparse/immature, and the special features like PDF embedding/annotating are not very usable. It is difficult to set up sync properly (I self host Nextcloud and usually have to resolve sync conflicts whenever I switch devices). There is an Android app, which works fine, but the integration with the Android system (e.g. creating a note from a "Share" dialog) is... obtuse.
aliasxneo 3y ago
Used both for awhile, and I much prefer Logseq. Haven't missed unstructured text since moving over like I thought I would.
asystole 3y ago
Logseq is nice but to call it an Obsidian alternative is a stretch to the point that I'd call it straight up incorrect.
- aragonite 3y ago
  Logseq started out as a RoamResearch alternative. Speaking of which, I wonder whatever happened to that project. One nice thing about Roam is that because it doesn't use files, it has true transclusion, both at the level of documents and at the level of individual symbols (tags & links). Because of this, renaming a tag globally for example is trivially easy. (I don't think global tag renaming is possible in Obsidian natively (without plugin) yet.)
  - PurpleRamen 3y ago
    > I don't think global tag renaming is possible in Obsidian natively (without plugin) yet. It's not tags, but this update brought global renaming of properties out-of-the-box. Properties are the data-fields in frontmatter, the yaml-part which acts as a header in Obsidian-files. Being yaml, makes this rather easy and safe to implement. Tags on the side can occur in freetext, which makes it easy to have false-tags found. Putting some automatism on this is a bit risky I guess.
    - aragonite 3y ago
      > Tags on the side can occur in freetext, which makes it easy to have false-tags found. Putting some automatism on this is a bit risky I guess I agree, especially if you copy paste tweets containing hashtags into your files you could end up with accident collisions. On the other hand, I refactor my tags a lot so I really needed the feature. I ended up using a simple VSCode language server to piggyback on "rename symbols". It's not ideal but it reduced a lot of friction.
- esjeon 3y ago
  Yup, Logseq is simply too different. It basically wants to go farther than what Obsidian aims to achieve. That said, some features of Logseq are janky, as they are not refined enough. I think Obsidian hit the sweat spot that is easy to implement yet offers enough features.
cl42 3y ago
Out of curiosity, why do you prefer open source in this case?
- jddj 3y ago
  Not OP but for me it's to avoid the following playing out: 1. gradually, more vendor lockin (read: not plain markdown) features are added 2. greater focus on monetization 3. exit 4. go to #2. In some products this doesn't matter. In a personal knowledgebase it might.
  - cl42 3y ago
    I appreciate that, thanks for sharing! If Obsidian didn't have plain markdown + regular folders, I would also avoid it.
  - 0thgen 3y ago
    I guess though with Obsidian, even if you get locked out or they dry up tomorrow, you don’t lose anything in your knowledge base because it works on top of your existing directory structure The only thing you could get locked out of is the convenient curation that Obsidian provides Im normally opensource-or-bust but the way obsidian is set up is pretty low risk
    - jddj 3y ago
      That's true today, I agree. Having watched this movie a few times, I like to have the insurance policy of open source licensing so that it stays true tomorrow. Once something is proprietary it's arguably easier from a developer perspective - and preferred from an investor perspective - to make it steadily more proprietary over time. Then one day you wake up and even if your notes still aren't saved in some some obtuse format that only loads properly in Obsidian, your experience has gradually degraded but by this stage you've got so much tied up in the proprietary extras that you stick around unhappily.
      - qup 3y ago
brightball 3y ago
It’s not open source but it doesn’t have to be because all of your documents are in portable, well organized markdown. You can easily jump to any other tool that reads markdown thanks to that. Open source would better, but I’m more concerned with avoiding lock in.
- PurpleRamen 3y ago
  AFAIK it's still a flavor of markdown, with some modifications and extensions. Which is pretty common in markdown-land, but could prevent easy adaption of another markdown-tool, depending on what syntax you use heavily.
cube2222 3y ago
Switched back-and-forth as well, and ended up with Logseq long term. In practice, logseq’s block-oriented system works really good for the daily journal, and with obsidian I always devolved to just prepending points to a single file anyway.
subtra3t 3y ago
Can anybody comment on Logseq's performance compared to Obsidian? Obsidian is perfect for my needs but unfortunately a tad too heavy for my poor laptop with 4 GB RAM.
- malnourish 3y ago
  Logseq has worse performance, undoubtedly, and the performance penalty scales proportionally to the size of your knowledge graph. I only notice poor performance if I'm trying to modify a large embedded block. Otherwise, it's typically fine. That said, I actually _use_ Logseq due to the way it works (i.e., an outliner). Obsidian simply doesn't meet my needs.
  - Obscurity4340 3y ago
    Logseq to me is more what Obsidian was supposed to be but I realize not everyone wants an outliner
  - subtra3t 3y ago
    Thanks! Would you by any chance know of a light weight note taking app?
    - Scarbutt 3y ago
      Emacs org-mode.
      - peatmoss 3y ago
        Lightweight in terms of system resources, yes. Lightweight in terms of "I have a whole new lifestyle and religion"... no. Org-mode can be used simply, but the kind of person drawn to org-mode (e.g. me) has a hard time not yak shaving org-mode in the extreme. :-)
    - rubymamis 3y ago
      Shameless plug: my note-taking app[1] is built using Qt C++ and QML. I’m also working on a new note taking app with a revamped block editor[2]. [1] https://www.get-notes.com/ https://www.get-notes.com/ [2] https://www.get-plume.com/ https://www.get-plume.com/
hresvelgr 3y ago
Another Obsidian alternative which I use every day is Anytype[1]. It's fully open source however under their own license which has some interesting terms to discourage commercial adoption. They seem to be very focused on individual use. The user experience is similar to Notion with some subtle differences, but overall very positive. The biggest plus for me was offline p2p sync and a really solid mobile app. [1] https://anytype.io/ https://anytype.io/
- ethanbond 3y ago
  I really, really want to like Anytype (longtime Obsidian user). I just cannot get through the general cludginess of it. “Similar to Notion” is exactly right, unfortunately. The attempted switch to Anytype revealed to me how important it is that Obsidian feels like opening up a terminal or simple text editor.
- espdev 3y ago
  > The user experience is similar to Notion Honestly, it sounds like a judgment call because Notion is truly a monstrous thing. It slows down terribly and it's just plain uncomfortable. Why does "everyone" love Notion? It's horrible, how can you even use it? Programs that do simple things should be simple and run fast. It's like a pencil that you simply use and don't think about how to use it, you don't notice it at all.
  - tamimio 3y ago
    >everyone loves notion I don’t, I actually loathe it.
  - PurpleRamen 3y ago
    > It slows down terribly and it's just plain uncomfortable. When was the last time you use it, and what's in your workspace? Notion did receive some improvements on performance over the years, but it still depends strong on which data you dump into your workspace. > Why does "everyone" love Notion? Because it's an awesome concept with a well-rounded implementation on the user side. It just sucks hard on the technical side. I mean, it's a good tool, but it has an upper ceiling of what one should do with it. But this is a general problem with all those young fancy tools. Obsidian or Logseq are not different in that regard. They all are scaling poor. They are simply not meant for this. > Programs that do simple things should be simple and run fast. It's not simple, it's very far from being simple.
Brajeshwar 3y ago
I did try Logseg, but here is my reasoning for choosing Obsidian over it. Logseg is smart and tries to manage the content for me, but I need to know where my content is. I was pleased with Sublime Text tamed to play nicely when encountering MarkDown. But Obsidian came along and changed that. I still avoid Obsidian plugins that take over my content.
- DeIlliad 3y ago
  I don't understand what you are saying here. Logseq files are in the logseq folder. I'm not sure how Logseq is hiding where your content is
  - unixhero 3y ago
    The comment started out interesting, and then turned into meaningless conclusions.
brunoqc 3y ago
Logseq is open core if their sync feature is not open.
- awill 3y ago
  Agreed. It's frustrating because both Obsidian and Logseq have deliberately removed a crucial feature. So people either have to pay a lot, or do janky workarounds to do their own sync. Why have so many people waste their time with own custom solution.
  - PurpleRamen 3y ago
    They have developers to feed, and sync is a fair choice for paywalling a feature.
    - brunoqc 3y ago
      I guess, but without a good native sync, there's no way that less tech-savvy people will use it. Personally, I wouldn't mind paying a small fee for a great note-taking app, but I would like to be able to share some notes with my mom and with my partner. But they wouldn't want to pay for it, as they wouldn't use the app as much.
      - unixhero 3y ago
        I would mind. This subscription based reality has got to end. I'm drawing a line in the sand.
    - awill 3y ago
      Of course. But they should make their money in other ways. A note taking app that I can't sync across multiple devices is useless. And you can't try the full version with sync to see if it would work. All I'm saying is they're leaving a lot of money on the table. I hear syncthing is good for this, but obviously it's messier on iOS. I just know that $8/mo for sync is too much. You can get Office 365, or Google Drive/Dropbox with a TON of space for that price, and that space is usable by lots of different things.
FireInsight 3y ago
I love Logseq, would even more if the performance wasn't so bad on my phone. It doesn't feel like an Obsidian alternative, though. I mostly use it for journaling.
Al-Khwarizmi 3y ago
I use Joplin as open-source notes app. Haven't really tried Logseq or much of Obsidian, though, as seriously trying a notes app takes some commitment. Joplin is just the first one I tried that fit my needs after fleeing from Evernote, and I'm happy with it, but maybe I'm missing hepful features from elsewhere. It would be helpful if anyone who has tried several could give a comparison.
- espdev 3y ago
  Joplin uses SQLite DB to store data, not markdown files. Moreover, you can't even change the directory where this database is stored, which is pretty funny for an open source application. Also, there are no internal linking and knowledge graphs in there. Also, there are UI/UX issues, for example annoying modal windows about updates can pop up at inopportune moments. But it should be noted that web clipper is quite usable. But it is not rocket science to make a web clipper. Obsidian is an app of a higher level of quality and usability.
  - kelsolaar 3y ago
    Markdown is a blessing for any operation that needs to be performed across many files. Load up your favorite editor and get going.
- repple 3y ago
  I used Joplin for a few years and loved it. I quit evernote as soon as it lost all of my notes years ago. Switched to Obsidian for faster startup time, which is at the top of my feature list for such apps. Joplin got worse over time with more notes. I considered Roam and Notion, but having to pay AND slow startup made no sense, although Notion features are quite nice. Now thinking about adding Logseq to work with my Obsidian. I also think DEVONthink is great closed source app for research especially where you can index and search all of your PDF collection and it will give you closest matching files and content with respect to your current file. Many other great features. But it’s Mac/iOS-only app, lacks of linux/windows support. Startup time is very slow. And UX for note taking is kind of unpleasant to work with. I really want to use it but I can’t for all of these reasons. It’s like an expensive car which you own but never want to drive.
heresie-dabord 3y ago
> For an opensource alternative to Obsidian I would say bash, git/git daemon, grep, python http server as needed. No closed-source application between me and my information.
- D13Fd 3y ago
  It all depends on what skills you already have with those tools and how much you value your time.
unixhero 3y ago
What is the best then? Logseq or Obsidian? Goal 1: World class note taking Goal 2: Not get captured by a corporation, such as what happened to Endnote Logseq has a more convincing website.

ssgodderidge 3y ago

> As of 1.5.0, the Legacy editor has been completely removed from Obsidian. This seems to be one of (the only?) notable change in 1.5.0, especially for legacy plugin devs. Also tags can’t end in a ‘/‘ now.

seanhunter 3y ago
I think the addition of decent/simple markdown table editing (without requiring a plugin) is a big feature for a lot of people
- ssgodderidge 3y ago
  Ah good point. I typically avoid tables in my notes, but I imagine it’s super useful for some
- creativeembassy 3y ago
  I can't wait to try this out. I have a plugin installed now but table editing is still clunky. Decent first-party support of md tables is huge (for me) if true.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

einpoklum 3y ago

It looks like reinventing the wheel which is the world-wide-web: Documents of different kinds with links between them. I guess the graph view is semi-novel - the idea is not new, but you usually don't see browsers or website editors presenting these graphs. Perhaps I'm missing something?

ssgodderidge 3y ago
Agreed on the doc-linking tech existing elsewhere. Obsidian just packages it in a really great format and UX. I really enjoy the local, note-writing experience here. Not sure if anyone uses Obsidian to publish a website, or if it’s even possible.
- claytonjy 3y ago
  They offer Obsidian Publish for $8/mo: https://obsidian.md/publish https://obsidian.md/publish
- 0thgen 3y ago
  I’ve found that obsidian and Jekyll play pretty nice together. Not perfect but not bad
- medimikka 3y ago
  Of course it is :). It's a bunch of Markdown, something that dozens of static site generators happily ingest and turn into a website. I am using 11ty (https://mikka.is https://mikka.is), a sprinkle of git to get things into production, Obsidian Git to simply push everything I write, as I write, and my website is done.
nerdponx 3y ago
The concepts are not new. The innovation is in the UI and UX that makes it easy (almost seamless) to build documents like that. As I said in another comment, you could get all of this functionality with any Markdown-based static site generator. But it would be a lot more work to achieve the same result.
0thgen 3y ago

rcarmo 3y ago

I've tried Obsidian time and again, but the lack of mobile feature parity (even on an iPad) is still a big blocker for me.

ssgodderidge 3y ago
Which features in particular?
rbits 3y ago
In my experience mobile feature parity has been pretty good. All of my plugins are compatible, and I don't notice any missing features.
lambdas 3y ago
Really? The sole feature/plugin I’ve noticed not available is git, but working copy fills that hole for me. Not noticed a single other thing, I’ve been super impressed with parity between the platforms in fact.
rchaud 3y ago
What do you mean? I switched away from Logseq specifically because Obsidian had almost no differences between the desktop and mobile apps. Logseq on mobile could not run any plugins, Obsidian supports them all.
- rcarmo 3y ago
  It’s not just the plugins, the editor experience (toolbars, menus, layout) is too kludgy to be useful.
vergessenmir 3y ago
I find the desktop and mobile experience you be fairly aligned. There are few plugins I've installed that won't work on the mobile version (e g Surfing plugin)

compacct27 3y ago

Shout out to Obsidian, my most-used desktop and mobile app of the year. Absolute game changer. Hacker News showed me this and the book “How to Take Smart Notes” and it’s been an immense aid for difficult technical work, and plenty of other things as well.

elric 3y ago
Aside from using it for all kinds of notes (from work to book reviews to writing blog posts and other stuff I'm writing), I also use it as an RSS reader. Plain text is life. Shoutout to the query features provided by the Dataview plugin. I have a work note which bundles all my TODOs from various work projects. It's great to be able to get an overview of all my stuff. ```dataview TASK FROM "Work/Projects" WHERE !completed GROUP BY file.link ```
moneywoes 3y ago
link for taking smart notes?
- machomaster 3y ago
  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60581868-how-to-take-smart-notes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60581868-how-to-take-sma...
Pathogen-David 3y ago
Multiple books came up when I searched for the book you mentioned, who authored the one you're referring to?
- machomaster 3y ago
  Sönke Ahrens https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60581868-how-to-take-smart-notes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60581868-how-to-take-sma...
  - Pathogen-David 3y ago

ctxc 3y ago

I've been looking for a way to host my notes like a website locally. When I'm not writing but only want to refer to my notes, I'd much rather have something clean like that without the editor UI. Like a docusaurus instance. Suggestions?

nerdponx 3y ago
Any Markdown-based static site generator could work. But the editor UI I think is where a lot of the power of a tool like Obsidian comes from. The main benefit for me is that it takes the pain out of cross-linking, so you can have a much more richly linked collection of notes, more like "hypermedia" than a journal. Another option could be Tiddlywiki, which does have an editor UI but is self-contained in a web app.
creativeembassy 3y ago
There are a number of Obsidian plugins that will automatically convert your notes into an actual website. I don't use any but I know they exist. (I don't use them _yet_, I have a future plan to completely remake my website and Obsidian is part of it). Does that fit the bill? Or do you want something more native-feeling?
jerlendds 3y ago
Check out https://github.com/jackyzha0/quartz https://github.com/jackyzha0/quartz (docs site can be found here: https://quartz.jzhao.xyz/ https://quartz.jzhao.xyz/ )! I found it recently and customized it a bit to redo my personal website (https://studium.dev https://studium.dev don't mind the header on mobile, I need to fix that still). I plan to transfer my Logseq notes to it eventually but you could just as easily do the same for any markdown based notes
- agrounds 3y ago
  Seconding quartz. I also use it and love it. It converts your markdown files to static HTML, understands Obsidian-specific markdown features, and just looks really nice IMO. For publishing, I use Cloudflare pages to host the static HTML and Cloudflare workers to build the HTML whenever I push a commit to the GitHub repo hosting my markdown files. Quartz has documentation showing you how to set this up, and it’s all within the free offerings of Cloudflare.

CrypticShift 3y ago

I see that the recent releases have focused on tables and properties. The logical next step could be to integrate the two : creating a unified system of tables designed to handle properties — essentially, Notion-style databases. I'm aware of some existing plugins that tackle this, with a particularly ambitious one gestating for quite some time now [1], but I feel this could be a core plugin. [1] https://github.com/blacksmithgu/datacore https://github.com/blacksmithgu/datacore

intellectronica 3y ago
If you look at the roadmap, that’s exactly the plan. https://obsidian.md/roadmap/ https://obsidian.md/roadmap/
- PurpleRamen 3y ago
  The roadmap mentions only Dynamic views, which is not the same as interactive editing of databases, not even on Notions level. But as I remember, this was different at some point. Did this entry change?

rbits 3y ago

Finally proper table editing! Why has it taken so long? That was my biggest gripe with Obsidian, so glad they've fixed it. The new table editing UI looks great. I guess I won't need the advanced tables plugin anymore.

peterlk 3y ago
Tables are tough. Thinking through the desired outcome of keyboard actions is a lot, and then implementing it takes a lot of work. As a simple example, if I have list inside a nested table, I highlight the list, and hit tab, what is supposed to happen? Should the cursor move to the next box in the table? Which one? Should it indent the list? There are _tons_ of these kinds of questions.
deafpolygon 3y ago
The bullet lists and numbered lists don't work inside table cells. Not a deal breaker, but would have been nice to have the same level of formatting as outside the table.

hulitu 3y ago

> Obsidian 1.5 Desktop (Public) is a .. Common people, it is so hard to write a description of your program ?

Macha 3y ago
The answer to that is on the home page, not the change log. It's not the obsidian devs that choose which post makes it to HN, and I disagree with the (common on HN it seems) viewpoint that every page should be understandable with context removed in case it gets posted to HN.

clircle 3y ago

I can't use this because it would feel like I'm cheating on Emacs. But it looks cool!

Brajeshwar 3y ago
Well, you can always be thinking about Emacs while you are using Obsidian. That way, you are not cheating cheating.
ParetoOptimal 3y ago
I use org-roam in emacs. I've also used obsidian and logseq. Went back to org-roam, which I use very much like people use logseq.
Difwif 3y ago
I've been using Obsidian as my mobile client for Emacs. I have a git repo with all my org documents. I use the obsidian git and org plugin to sync, view, and edit my org documents. It's not perfect but it serves it's purpose of being a quick way to look at stuff and capture on the go.
theshrike79 3y ago
The fact that I can drag & drop pictures to Obsidian and it Just Works was the final nail in Emacs' coffin for me =)

dcreater 3y ago

Did they fix the annoying problem with the properties section skewed to the left side of the editor?

kepano 3y ago
Are you using Minimal theme? It was an issue with Minimal that was fixed, if you update your theme.
- dcreater 3y ago
  I was. But looks like I just needed to update the theme. Fixed now!

superultra 3y ago

I recently switched my note taking to Obsidian. I’d floated amongst apps, including Notion, Bear, Simplenote, and most recently Craft. When Craft started acting up, I decided it was time to redo my setup. The standard advice for Obsidian is either to not touch the plugins, or install 100 of them after watching 50 hours of YouTube videos. It is possible to easily get into an obsidian rabbit hole for sure, but I did find a happy medium and I’m thrilled with my current setup. It’s not perfect but it’s quite workable. Some of the quirks are tables - and it looks like that’s getting fixed. Thrilled about that. The mobile app is pretty wonky too but that’s not a huge priority. Despite the quirks I’m more organized with my daily notes and project setup using obsidian than any app prior. Great to see the team is continually updating an already great app.

e28eta 3y ago
Do you do anything re: security of the plugins that you install? Maybe I learned about the contents of [1] at the wrong time (like after a prominent supply chain compromise was found), but it made me avoid them completely. 1: https://help.obsidian.md/Extending+Obsidian/Plugin+security https://help.obsidian.md/Extending+Obsidian/Plugin+security
moneywoes 3y ago
what issue did you find with craft? i’m currently trialing that after finding obsidian too complex haha
elric 3y ago
You don't need any plugins to be productive in Obsidian. But boy does a plugin like Dataview make life easier. Being able to run SQL-like queries on your notes was a game changer for me. Other than that, the only plugin I use on a daily basis is Templater in combination with Quick Add, which lets me create advanced templates which can be executed with keyboard shortcuts. Starting a new work meeting? Hit a shortcut and I have a populated meeting note in the right folder, with today's dates etc. I have about 20 such templates for various things that I do frequently. It makes for tidy, structured notes which I can easily find later.

ta988 3y ago

https://www.zettlr.com/ https://www.zettlr.com/ is a really close Open alternative.

seanosaur 3y ago
For an extremely specific and rigid use case / workflow, sure it's a close alternative. For most people that want a flexible, extensible product that can do many things in many ways, it's probably not nearly as close an alternative.
- kergonath 3y ago
  It’s an alternative for the “do not touch any plugin” crowd, which I would assume is the majority of Obsidian users. It’s not a replacement for the “install all the plugins” long tail, sure. For my use I considered both and honestly Zettlr is not that far behind. Decent Zotero interoperability would have sold it for me.

apwell23 3y ago

just in time for new year resolutioners. If only I could get back all the time I've wasted trying to build my "second brain", goofing around building some kind of connected graph nonsese. I cringe at all the time spent doing that nonsense deluding myself that it the way I am going to get organized and finally turn my life of procrastination and ennui around . Now I spend most of my day chatting with chatgpt for work and personal life. If it could remember and build my second brain for me that would be amazing. I really dont think any of these tools like notion, obsidian are really practical or aligned to way our brain works.

FireInsight 3y ago
Yeah, I agree. All this note-taking is not about storing information for me. It's just planning private projects, writing long-form posts, and journaling. Mostly dumping down thoughts.
ParetoOptimal 3y ago
It can work, but only if you also make your second brain about building small habits. For instance, my food recipes are there. If I didn't establish a habit of "search notes for recipes" when I think "what should I eat" those notes would have much less value. As for chatgpt doing this for you, I'm interested too. Give MemGPT or khoj a try.
- apwell23 3y ago
  Storing recipes is great example of why this doesn't work. I never have exact list of ingredients, equipment, energy level for a recepie. I now just ask chatgpt that I have x,y and z in my fridge and I want to use to use oven and vitamix and that i am tired. It concocts a recipe for me that i can tune further. I have customgpt with promt about my food preferences, allergies, style of cooking, cooking equiment ect. Most of the stuff I cook aren't unique recipes that need to store in obsidian.
  - ParetoOptimal 3y ago
    > Storing recipes is great example of why this doesn't work. I never have exact list of ingredients, equipment, energy level for a recepie. Really? My fridge typically has the same things I've found. Regarding energy level I have a different node called "low-energy recipes" the other recipes are linked from. > I now just ask chatgpt that I have x,y and z in my fridge and I want to use to use oven and vitamix and that i am tired. It concocts a recipe for me that i can tune further. I've done that, but there are tradeoffs in quality and depending on how you view LLM's.. confidence in the end result. > Most of the stuff I cook aren't unique recipes that need to store in obsidian. It depends on your memory... I forget certain steps of recipes I've cooked for years sometimes. Knowing I have things just there at my grasp puts things on easy mode.

unixhero 3y ago

I want to become a user - but I have not been able to set up a sync between my Android phone and Onedrive or Google drive for the Obsidian vault file.

mtremsal 3y ago
My solution to this problem, which has worked for the past 2 years, is to rely on a private git repo for sync, obsidian on desktop, and GitJournal on mobile.
pitzips 3y ago
I use FolderSync for Android which works well for my obsidian sync needs
jskherman 3y ago
You would need to use a (freemium) app for that: OneSync or AutoSync for Google Drive. I have OneSync but I'm currently using Syncthing (to not have to buy an upgrade and to better control which files are synced). To reduce sync conflicts, I run an always online Syncthing instance in the cloud with Fly.io.

alecsm 3y ago

I used to hop from one application to another then I realized almost all of them suited my needs so I settled with Joplin because I like the way the web clipper works.

moneywoes 3y ago
what made you like joplin?
- alecsm 3y ago
  Many things. It's open source, which is a big plus to me. It's easy to use. I like to organize my stuff in "folders" and it's perfect for that. The web clipper is great. I can save a whole page or only what I select as .md and except for a couple lines that I usually delete, the rest is saved perfectly. Some say that not saving the files in plain .md files like Obsidian is not as good which I agree but I takes me only a couple seconds to export everything as .md.

r00tanon 3y ago

The android app wants full access to the file system? With the "trust us, we'll only really access the folder you tell us to..."? Am I reading that right?

freshchilled 3y ago
Android has moved to a file system model that generally locks app out of having full control of any folder but the one created for the app. The only way to let your app have read-write-create permissions is to request access to the whole file system. And IIRC, you have to get permission from Google to even request it. It makes it very difficult to have something like a Git client on Android as well, as the permission to request file system access is not easily granted.
kepano 3y ago
You can find an explanation of the Android permissions on the Obsidian Help site: https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian/Android+app#Storage+permissions https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian/Android+app#Storage+permis... Obsidian can't use scoped storage because: > 1. Scoped storage doesn't provide a way to watch for external changes, which is critical when using Obsidian with a third-party syncing tool. > 2. Scoped storage performs many extra permission checks for every single file access, causing significant performance degradation when opening and using Obsidian.

LanzVonL 3y ago

What is Obsidian? For some reason the web site is blocking my browser and the GitHub isn't very informative.

kentosi-dw 3y ago
A note taking app, bit like Notion.
- LanzVonL 3y ago
  Ah OK. I'm an Org user at this point, part of my emacs addiction.

brightball 3y ago

I would love some type of plugin for Obsidian that could generate a searchable transcript of audio/video files I drop into my notes.

adhamsalama 3y ago

SiYuan Note is a fantastic open source alternative to Obsidian and Notion, as it's like a mix of both, but open source and local-first. https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan

swah 3y ago
"Most features are free, even for commercial use." surprised after your intro.

Slackwise 3y ago

No mention of Foam? https://foambubble.github.io/foam/ https://foambubble.github.io/foam/ Fine, I uhh, I'll speak for it. Foam is to VSCode, what Org (and Org-Roam) are to Emacs. As a former org-roam user, I ended up preferring it because my end goal was to convert my notes to HTML and blog posts, and org is poor at that as HTML is not valid org code whereas it is in Markdown. There's just a whole host of markdown-it plugins [1] out there to add footnotes and all sorts of things to Markdown, and Foam also understands Jekyll frontmatter YAML, which is perfect for blog post tags/categories. [1]: https://www.npmjs.com/search?q=keywords:markdown-it-plugin https://www.npmjs.com/search?q=keywords:markdown-it-plugin And because it's just an extension to VSCode, it works with every other extension: https://foambubble.github.io/foam/user/getting-started/recommended-extensions https://foambubble.github.io/foam/user/getting-started/recom... This gives it similar power and flexibility to Org-Roam, as you can extend the model to improve the editing experience. So why don't I use Obsidian, Logseq, and others? Because they're dedicated apps, and now I have to bring various half-baked plugins into them to give me the power my editor already affords me. With notes, half your time is spent editing, so why wouldn't you want your editing to be as close as possible? Secondarily, nothing stops me from using everything altogether, since it's all Markdown, I can load up my note repo in Obsidian or Logseq and others, and continue editing in VSCode and Emacs!

kid64 3y ago
Yeah but how do you access your notes on mobile?
- Slackwise 3y ago
  They're in a GitHub repo, so I just use that since GH renders Markdown. I could probably use Obsidian/Logseq mobile if I wanted to. (Again, because it's Markdown... which is about universal now.) And like, it's Markdown. It's meant to be readable as-is, so I can probably figure out any alternative method. I'd obviously miss out on tag searching and graphing, but I don't have heavy mobile use right now. Edit: Yeah, the GitHub mobile app ain't the worst. I can probably find a way to get local git on my phone, and then just use Obsidian Mobile if I want to get fancy.

laurels-marts 3y ago

I tried many, many note taking apps and the one that finally stuck was VS Code. I had been using VSC as my code editor daily for years so when it released "Profiles" I just created a "markdown" profile that contained all the markdown extensions, settings, customisations etc. that I needed and that's it. I realised this is perfect because there are no new keyboard shortcuts, UI or apps I have to learn. I sync all my notes to a private GitHub repo. It's fantastic. Once I figure how to export my ad-hoc notes I've accumulated in my iPhone Notes app and sync it to the repo I will never need anything else.

OliverGuy 3y ago
Is there a good way to do the graph type views Obsidian can do in VS Code?

unixhero 3y ago

I am looking to move off simplenote. I rely to heavily on it, it is really good, very simple and great. But something this important needs to be self hosted in my opinion.

unixhero 3y ago

Whatever happened to the Zettelkasten note strategy approach?

elric 3y ago
You can use it in Obsidian. Or in any other note taking application. Or using paper notes and a physical zettelkasten.