5 ms·

This is cool. I was hoping to see progress coming from Zed (e.g. because Tree-sitter → https://github.com/tree-sitter-grammars/tree-sitter-markdown https://gith

by random3 9mo ago

This is cool. I was hoping to see progress coming from Zed (e.g. because Tree-sitter → https://github.com/tree-sitter-grammars/tree-sitter-markdown https://github.com/tree-sitter-grammars/tree-sitter-markdown) but it's exciting to see this. I'm a heavy Obsidian user, and I love it, but I'd love to see real alternatives focused on foundations. It would be interesting to know more about the end-goal if any. Best of luck! I'll watch this.

echelon 9mo ago
What is Obsidian written in? Electron?
- atlintots 9mo ago
  Yes; it's also not open source.
  - echelon 9mo ago
    I'm fine with that. Open source purity is problematic. The OSI was established by the hyperscalers, who are decidedly not open source either. Purely "OSI-approved open source" mandates having no non-commercial or non-compete clause, which means anyone can come in and bleed off profits and energy from the core contributors of open source projects. It prevents most forms of healthy companies from existing on top. We shouldn't be allergic to making money with the software we write - life is finite and it's more sustainable over the long term to maintain software as a job. The new "ethical source" / "fair source" licenses that have been popping up recently [1, 2] give customers 100% use of the code, but prevent competitors from coming in and stealing away the profits from running managed offerings, etc. (I wish Obsidian were this, but it's fully closed. Still, I do not admire them any less for this choice. We venerate plenty of closed creators - it's silly to hold software to a different standard.) AWS profits hundreds of millions a quarter off of open source developed by companies thinking they were doing the right thing. AWS turned these into a proprietary managed solutions and gave nothing back to the authors. The original wind up withering and dying. AWS isn't giving back, they're just hoovering up. Obsidian being closed means the core authors are hyper focused and can be compensated (even if it's not much). It's not like they can rug pull us - the files are text files, we can use old versions, and if they did piss us off I'm sure someone would write an open source version. [1] https://fair.io/ https://fair.io/ [2] https://faircode.io/ https://faircode.io/
    - dvt 9mo ago
      Fully agree that pushing OSI is just posturing. After all, Amazon/Google/Facebook have made literal billions by commercializing open source software. I release stuff on MIT all the time (for things I'm okay with people poaching) but I'd argue the only "pure" OSS license is GPL, which comes with its own problems (and, as we all know, it infects everything it touches). The problem with FSL is that it hasn't been tested in the courts yet (afaik), so it's a bit of a gamble to think it'll just "work" if some asshole does try to clone your repo and sell your work. Maybe it's a decent gamble for a funded startup with in-house counsel, but if you're just one guy, imo keep stuff you want to sell closed-source, it's not that big of a deal. We've been doing just that since the 70s.
    - djvdq 9mo ago
      I fully agree with you. I love the idea of open source, but we shouldn't say that something is bad just because it's closed source.
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
- gregman1 9mo ago
  It’s closed source but yeah - electron all the way.
kirubakaran 9mo ago
Since you're an Obsidian user, can I please get your feedback on https://hyperclast.com/ https://hyperclast.com/ which I'm building? (I'm not quite ready to do a Show HN yet, so please don't post it, but I'm ready for some early feedback if you'll indulge me)
- tomtom1337 9mo ago
  You need something "more" on the website before you ask people to create an account. "Team workspace that stays fast" isn’t clear enough for me, at least. What is a workspace? What does the interface look like? Is it in the browser? Is it an app? People will go "what is this?", "huh, I’m not gonna make a user for this, can’t tell what it is". Those are my 2 cents.
  - kirubakaran 9mo ago
    Thanks, I'll fix that.
    - lenova 9mo ago
      +1 to that. As a user, I am tired of having to sign up for an account on a SaaS website or installing an app from Github, only to realize the UI isn't a good fit for me. This will usually result in me bouncing from the app website instead of trying it out. Suggestion: have a non-login demo available on your website, and high-res screenshots/animed gif of the app in action on your Github repo.
      - kirubakaran 9mo ago
        Thanks to your feedback, I've added a non-login demo! https://hyperclast.com/demo/ https://hyperclast.com/demo/
        lenova 9mo ago
        Thanks for being receptive to the feedback :-) I actually checked out your demo now because it didn't require a login, and was impressed by what I saw. Nice work here!
OlaProis 9mo ago
Thanks! The end-goal is a fast, native Markdown editor that "just works" - no Electron, no web tech, instant startup. v0.3.0 will extract Mermaid as a standalone crate and build a custom text editor widget to unlock features egui's TextEdit blocks (proper multi-cursor, code folding). Long-term: potentially extract the editor as a headless Rust library since that's missing in the ecosystem. See ROADMAP.md for details
- koiueo 9mo ago
  Do people still use $language editors? My impression was that everyone uses their $EDITOR and integrates languages support via plugins. The only exception to this rule I know is Emacs (org mode). I really doubt a standalone md editor will get traction, no matter how good it is.
  - OlaProis 9mo ago
    Valid skepticism! A few counterpoints: Market exists: Obsidian has 1M+ users, Typora is popular, iA Writer has a loyal following. These aren't VS Code users who wandered off — they're writers, PKM enthusiasts, and note-takers who find IDE-style editors overwhelming for prose. Different audience: Developers might prefer VS Code + Markdown Preview Enhanced. But Ferrite targets people who want a focused writing tool, not a general-purpose editor that happens to support Markdown. Think "writing app" vs "code editor with Markdown support." Native advantage: Most Markdown tools are Electron (Obsidian, Typora, Mark Text). Ferrite offers instant startup, lower RAM, and native performance — appeals to the "I want my tools to feel fast" crowd. You might be right that it won't achieve mass adoption. But there's a niche for "Obsidian but native and lighter" that I think is underserved.
    - RealityVoid 9mo ago
      Completely non-accusatory, just wondering. Did you write this post using an LLM? I sort of feel the typical "voice" if LLM writing here and wondering if I should calibrate myself a bit in this.

by random3 9mo ago

echelon 9mo ago

What is Obsidian written in? Electron?

atlintots 9mo ago
Yes; it's also not open source.
- echelon 9mo ago
  I'm fine with that. Open source purity is problematic. The OSI was established by the hyperscalers, who are decidedly not open source either. Purely "OSI-approved open source" mandates having no non-commercial or non-compete clause, which means anyone can come in and bleed off profits and energy from the core contributors of open source projects. It prevents most forms of healthy companies from existing on top. We shouldn't be allergic to making money with the software we write - life is finite and it's more sustainable over the long term to maintain software as a job. The new "ethical source" / "fair source" licenses that have been popping up recently [1, 2] give customers 100% use of the code, but prevent competitors from coming in and stealing away the profits from running managed offerings, etc. (I wish Obsidian were this, but it's fully closed. Still, I do not admire them any less for this choice. We venerate plenty of closed creators - it's silly to hold software to a different standard.) AWS profits hundreds of millions a quarter off of open source developed by companies thinking they were doing the right thing. AWS turned these into a proprietary managed solutions and gave nothing back to the authors. The original wind up withering and dying. AWS isn't giving back, they're just hoovering up. Obsidian being closed means the core authors are hyper focused and can be compensated (even if it's not much). It's not like they can rug pull us - the files are text files, we can use old versions, and if they did piss us off I'm sure someone would write an open source version. [1] https://fair.io/ https://fair.io/ [2] https://faircode.io/ https://faircode.io/
  - dvt 9mo ago
    Fully agree that pushing OSI is just posturing. After all, Amazon/Google/Facebook have made literal billions by commercializing open source software. I release stuff on MIT all the time (for things I'm okay with people poaching) but I'd argue the only "pure" OSS license is GPL, which comes with its own problems (and, as we all know, it infects everything it touches). The problem with FSL is that it hasn't been tested in the courts yet (afaik), so it's a bit of a gamble to think it'll just "work" if some asshole does try to clone your repo and sell your work. Maybe it's a decent gamble for a funded startup with in-house counsel, but if you're just one guy, imo keep stuff you want to sell closed-source, it's not that big of a deal. We've been doing just that since the 70s.
  - djvdq 9mo ago
    I fully agree with you. I love the idea of open source, but we shouldn't say that something is bad just because it's closed source.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
gregman1 9mo ago
It’s closed source but yeah - electron all the way.

kirubakaran 9mo ago

Since you're an Obsidian user, can I please get your feedback on https://hyperclast.com/ https://hyperclast.com/ which I'm building? (I'm not quite ready to do a Show HN yet, so please don't post it, but I'm ready for some early feedback if you'll indulge me)

tomtom1337 9mo ago
You need something "more" on the website before you ask people to create an account. "Team workspace that stays fast" isn’t clear enough for me, at least. What is a workspace? What does the interface look like? Is it in the browser? Is it an app? People will go "what is this?", "huh, I’m not gonna make a user for this, can’t tell what it is". Those are my 2 cents.
- kirubakaran 9mo ago
  Thanks, I'll fix that.
  - lenova 9mo ago
    +1 to that. As a user, I am tired of having to sign up for an account on a SaaS website or installing an app from Github, only to realize the UI isn't a good fit for me. This will usually result in me bouncing from the app website instead of trying it out. Suggestion: have a non-login demo available on your website, and high-res screenshots/animed gif of the app in action on your Github repo.
    - kirubakaran 9mo ago
      Thanks to your feedback, I've added a non-login demo! https://hyperclast.com/demo/ https://hyperclast.com/demo/
      - lenova 9mo ago
        Thanks for being receptive to the feedback :-) I actually checked out your demo now because it didn't require a login, and was impressed by what I saw. Nice work here!

OlaProis 9mo ago

Thanks! The end-goal is a fast, native Markdown editor that "just works" - no Electron, no web tech, instant startup. v0.3.0 will extract Mermaid as a standalone crate and build a custom text editor widget to unlock features egui's TextEdit blocks (proper multi-cursor, code folding). Long-term: potentially extract the editor as a headless Rust library since that's missing in the ecosystem. See ROADMAP.md for details

koiueo 9mo ago
Do people still use $language editors? My impression was that everyone uses their $EDITOR and integrates languages support via plugins. The only exception to this rule I know is Emacs (org mode). I really doubt a standalone md editor will get traction, no matter how good it is.
- OlaProis 9mo ago
  Valid skepticism! A few counterpoints: Market exists: Obsidian has 1M+ users, Typora is popular, iA Writer has a loyal following. These aren't VS Code users who wandered off — they're writers, PKM enthusiasts, and note-takers who find IDE-style editors overwhelming for prose. Different audience: Developers might prefer VS Code + Markdown Preview Enhanced. But Ferrite targets people who want a focused writing tool, not a general-purpose editor that happens to support Markdown. Think "writing app" vs "code editor with Markdown support." Native advantage: Most Markdown tools are Electron (Obsidian, Typora, Mark Text). Ferrite offers instant startup, lower RAM, and native performance — appeals to the "I want my tools to feel fast" crowd. You might be right that it won't achieve mass adoption. But there's a niche for "Obsidian but native and lighter" that I think is underserved.
  - RealityVoid 9mo ago
    Completely non-accusatory, just wondering. Did you write this post using an LLM? I sort of feel the typical "voice" if LLM writing here and wondering if I should calibrate myself a bit in this.