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This made me realize that obsidian is *not* opensource, but in a way obsidian made me feel like it was opensource. Obviously now that I researched it, it is qui
by himata4113 5mo ago
This made me realize that obsidian is *not* opensource, but in a way obsidian made me feel like it was opensource. Obviously now that I researched it, it is quite obvious that it is not, but still it 'feels' like it should be opensource.
- zakirullin 5mo agoThat was the reason a few years ago I started this project. It seems like software in AI-era should be distributed open source. So that anyone could tweak it however he wants. Not though clunky plugins system.
- philipallstar 5mo ago> It seems like software in AI-era should be distributed open source. That makes it easy for AI to be trained on it.
- theultdev 5mo agoYeah, also makes it easy for humans to train on it. That's the point of open source, sharing the knowledge. We'll all make the same shit over and over if noone shares. But if we all share, then the only thing left to make is the unknown.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- philipallstar 5mo agoThat doesn't explain why particularly in the AI era software should be easily accessible. All that stuff you said isn't relevant as it applies in the pre-AI era as well.
- theultdev 5mo agoIf anything it matters more. I want both myself and my AI agents to have as much knowledge as possible. Sharing is always better.
- stevenhuang 5mo agoGood.
- trvz 5mo agoAnd the developers get compensated for their work how?
- zakirullin 5mo agoThat's yet to be decided :D For the first time, I put a sponsorship button. Will see if it works.
- pests 5mo agoThe same way they do now?
- helloplanets 5mo agoFeels like a lot of apps that launch these days have an open source core app and a subscription based platform. The subscription based platform with automatic cloud hosting and other quality of life features, whatever those are depending on the app. Although there's a bunch of 100% open source projects and developers that get enough donations to make it their full time job just off of that. Not that it's the way to go if you want to get rich, but it's still very much a real thing.
- drumttocs8 5mo agoAre you asking how the open source ecosystem works in general? In my experience, if the dev wishes to be compensated in dollars, they also sell a commercial license, cloud services, etc.
- whateveracct 5mo agoget a job
- portmanteur 5mo agoGiven the explosion of open source released projects I've seen over the past six months, I believe developers are getting compensated by the tool they are building for themselves creating real value for them. I have a problem, I spend a few days building a tool that solves the problem, it works pretty well for me, and I release it to let others get value from it. They make tweaks to it, perhaps improve it, and I get value from those enhancements and bugfixes.
- thayne 5mo ago> So that anyone could tweak it however he wants. That was true before the "AI era" as well.
- zakirullin 5mo agoWell, yes. Just now, any regular user can clone the repository and ask an LLM to tune it to his needs.
- finghin 5mo agoI never thought about this before, and it hasn’t been mentioned significantly in the vast amount of AI threads I read here. But it’s a really good point as skeptical as I am (in mid-2026) of AI first codebases
- zakirullin 5mo agoBTW, this is not an AI codebase :) It was mostly crafted by hand. Let's say, I've saved some "complexity space" for LLM to add features on top. In other words, the project has dumb-simple code right now, and it is ready to hold some amount of "tech-debt" from an LLM.
- finghin 5mo agoInteresting and probably prescient approach, good luck
- adam_beck 5mo agoTanner Lisnley did this with React. He didn't share it but talked about his experience. Basically, he re-wrote React with only the parts he was interested in. Sort of like his own version of Preact. You might be interested in his blog post about the subject: https://tannerlinsley.com/posts/projecting-react https://tannerlinsley.com/posts/projecting-react
- gbro3n 5mo agoCongratulations on making it tonthe front page. I think your app looks like a brilliant notes app implementation, and there's obviously demand. When I launched https://www.asnotes.io https://www.asnotes.io earlier this year (An extension that turns VS Code in to an Obsidian like PKMS) it made the number 4 spot. It's clearly something that people see as important and draws a lot of opinions. I hope your project does well.
- zakirullin 5mo agoThanks for writing this! That was a long journey for me :) Good luck with your project as well.
- fyredge 5mo agoThe reason is open standard. Obsidian uses markdown, that's it. No proprietary database, no fancy algorithm, no locked in platform, just a convenient way to manage your notes (jesus, that sounded like AI). You can realistically do it yourself, but they've helped you to do it for the low price of an online sync subscription. That's why I will always hammer on open standards and federation.
- cush 5mo agoI always just assumed!
- flexagoon 5mo agoTo be fair, Obsidian is an Electron app with no obfuscation, so it's pretty easy to get its code. I think I even remember the official Obsidian team telling people to do that on their support forum if they distrusted the app.
- HDMI_Cable 5mo agoWhich really begs the question: why not have it open-source at that point? Obsidian isn't making money from things hidden in the code, but rather their Sync service. Might as well open-source it (and perhaps get more people helping with the development), keep the Sync service, and stem competitor projects like these in the bud.
- flakiness 5mo agoI suspect it's mostly about setting the expectation. They don't want to give up the control, they don't make it "free" (although it virtually is). Both are possible with open source but it would need a lot of explanation. Being closed makes it more natural.
- xeonmc 5mo ago[dead]
- andix 5mo agoBecause then someone might fork it into a new product with their own sync service.
- wholinator2 5mo agoThis is definitely it. I set it up myself with git private repos because my more-work to more-cost balance weighs heavily towards more-work. It would be trivial to fork it, set up some sync backend, and charge $4 a month to undercut them. And honestly, they've been very good stewards of the project thus far, I'm happy with the status quo.
- yogorenapan 5mo ago
- TheGRS 5mo agoI don't think that was my impression, but their API is pretty open for creating plugins. In support of the Obsidian model, its a dedicated engineering team, a free tool, notes are stored as .md and not something proprietary, and if you want you can pay them for their sync tool which I find both pretty reasonable and a nice way to support their efforts. Also they keep on improving the product in interesting ways, the new plugin marketplace with all of its verification policies is really nicely done, aspirational even. But in any case, this is also a nice project, but I guess I'm also an Obsidian evangelist.
- jlos 5mo agoWhy should it be opensource? Obsidian gives you complete control of your data, which it stores in an open standard. Please explain to me why developers should act like monks who've taken a vow of poverty? The devs built something valuable, they should profit from it.
- gbro3n 5mo agoI think there is a special value in open source when it comes to a personal knowlege base. We invest so much time in it, and we need to know that it's not going to be taken away from us, or made unaffordable. I made https://www.asnotes.io https://www.asnotes.io (basically obsidian with markdown and nested wikilinking in a VS Code extension), because I wanted and thought others would want something that is a) open source and b) version control friendly so we don't even have to rely on a sync server being there in the future.
- embedding-shape 5mo ago> We invest so much time in it, and we need to know that it's not going to be taken away from us Agreed, but in the case of Obsidian, since the way they manage the data, they cannot just "take it away from us", it'll always sit where you leave it, as it's not a SaaS or a remote service. And even if the desktop client went away, all your data and notes are still available. Otherwise I generally agree with you, all my professional and personal tooling shouldn't be able to take away agency from me, but it's worth separate the tooling from the data, as loosing the tooling sucks but loosing the data is a lot worse, at least they cannot do that.
- jlos 5mo agoAgree wholeheartedly, but you already have that with Obsidian. You own the vault, and if you don't want obsidian, its already in markdown.
- DarkUranium 5mo agoConsidering Microsoft's been making more and more of VSCode non-FOSS, I'm pretty sure using it as your base is at odds with your goals.
- bachmeier 5mo agoThe data is open and stored in markdown format. Plugins are open source. The core product is not open source, but it's also just an electron app. I've always viewed Obsidian as the inverse of an open core product.
- falcor84 5mo ago> I've always viewed Obsidian as the inverse of an open core product. I'd like to hereby propose the "open shell" development model.
- inopinatus 5mo agoWe don’t need a special term for interoperable.
- falcor84 5mo agoA software system can be fully interoperable without any part of it (other than the interface) being open. In my definition, an Open Shell software solution is one in which a company makes it clear that they're focusing on building and selling (or making money from hosting/supporting) only the "Core" functionality, while exposing all of the higher level functionality as open source plugins and fostering a community to make it as easy as possible for others to improve these and maintain them over time. And preferably, the company would also pledge never to offer its own closed source functionality outside its definition of the core.
- gbro3n 5mo agoThe licence method we went with for AS Notes (https://www.asnotes.io https://www.asnotes.io - a wikilinks and markdown based notes / docs / blog extension for VS code) was to make the client (extension) fully opensource with a public / private cryptographic licence key model, with a couple of pro gated features. I think an opensource product is very important for a notes product, where the implications of loosing access to a tool are huge for users that invest a lot of time in a knowledge base.
- wutanc 5mo ago
- hdb2 5mo agoI had absolutely no idea either, I had just assumed that it was, which was a dumb assumption to make. Thanks for pointing it out!
- tombert 5mo agoI don't really mind Obsidian being non-FOSS, since it doesn't lock you in to any kind of propriety bullshit. All my files are just vanilla text files. All the folders are just vanilla folders. All the attachments are just vanilla attachments. If Obsidian pissed me off, then I'd still have my notes in a fairly accessible format.
- nektro 5mo agobecause open source is a means not an end. folks want good, fast software that respects them. open source isn't the only way there.
- loudandskittish 5mo agoSo, this comes up pretty much every time Obsidian is mentioned... to the point where I'm curious as to where the idea that it's open source comes from in the first place.
- auggierose 5mo agoIt is because most people don't know and don't care about the difference between free and open-source.
- melonpan7 5mo agoI share the same sentiment, although recently my mindset has changed that not everything has to be open source.