Obsidian is now free for work - Obsidian
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i use notally for quick notes and reminders but i needed another organizer for longer text
i started trying notesnook after reading your comment and it looks like what i needed. I really like its customizability. I wish there was an option to choose fonts from file.
The only problem is that constant login reminder. Is there a way to get rid of it?
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Fwiw, they've open sourced the specification behind canvas, so there's a good chance any OSS Obsidian "forks" that pop up if they do enshittify will be able to support it.
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I would love to move off OneNote but the lack of alternatives that support inking is disappointing.
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Yeah they even say if you don't like what they do in the future you can easily pickup your md files and take them elsewhere.
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Holy shit this is huge. I can finally use obsidian at work! I was avoiding it due to the license and using Logseq. Which, to be fair, did admirably. But it's much more and Outliner or journaling system than a knowledge base I feel.
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I've tried logseq for the last 6 months (no commercial license) at work, but while it's really good for outlining, it's lack of a tag function is what feels like a critical weakness to me. I realize structurally it's different in concept. But making everything into bullets doesn't always suit the task.
I would love Logseq for journalling or writing though.
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I actually find the lack of distinction between a tag and a wiki link a breath of fresh air. So many other apps make a meaningless distinction between them and make you choose ahead of time a styleguide for how you plan to use both. Logseq makes a queryable style enforced and then you adapt to using it. Very different
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While that's technically possible, it's very difficult, and in my opinion, highly unlikely.
- All notes are stored in markdown, which is compatible with any other markdown-compatible app. It's not just a note format, it's a fire exit.
- Even the canvas files are now having an interoperable format created, with other industry-leading canvas style software, and that whole process was started by the Obsidian team voluntarily
- All plugins must be open-source unless explicitly and clearly stated, and such plugins are only listed on a case-by-case basis, which makes even additional plugin-specific functionality added to Obsidian easier to port over to other software if Obsidian ever does lock things down
- They don't have VC investors, and have mentioned a few times that they won't be accepting investment in the future, since they don't exactly have very high costs. They're explicitly anti "VCware." Features like Sync that depend on their server hosting bill being paid are only used by paying users, and most users will never have to use Obsidian servers past downloading and updating the app, and installing a few plugins of a few megabytes in size. Costs aren't likely to rise in any substantial way, and their team is small enough to make it profitable to operate at their existing scale.
- Actions like this are literally proactively recognizing that something wasn't in line with their manifesto, and wasn't beneficial for users, so they're removing it. Companies planning to enshittify don't usually remove enshittified/negative features they already have before re-enshittifying. They want you used to the enshittification from the start.
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Here's the same Obsidian Canvas document open in Obsidian, and Hi-Canvas: (*just realized the last connection is missing, that was user error while taking the screenshot, disregard)
They're not fully cross compatible, but as another user mentioned, the open source spec being worked on is picking up steam as the Open Canvas Working Group (OCWG) and even larger industry canvas platforms are trying to make the format something they can easily import and export in that open format.
So hopefully you won't have to worry about migration much longer
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I think for some brains it just doesn't click. How do you write a long form document? How would you write documentation? How would you write a blog post?
I tried for a while but I just couldn't understand the concept of "Everything as an outline."
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Obsidian has a plug in for this... here is an announcement from the plugin author: https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1bsa6dy/alpha_release_of_my_handwriting_plugin_ink/ (sorry for a reddit link)
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Well I think the first thing is just simply that documents aren’t notes, so you wouldn’t write those things in Logseq.
What you are writing in Logseq is a zettlekasten, which is just a personal knowledge graph. And in a knowledge graph, everything needs to relate somehow to everything else, that’s why it has to be an outline.
So things can relate to the journal date they were written on, to their parent and children concepts, and to the links that they contain. Every idea has at least a relationship to the date you wrote it, but hopefully you can link that idea to more than just that relationship. You want to organically rediscover that next time you make a cake, that eggs are bad for your allergies, and be able to trace that you discovered that at this doctors appointment on this date.
Otherwise, how would you ever find anything? And more importantly, how would you rediscover it organically when researching other concepts in your graph?
Obsidian purports to help you create organized knowledge graphs, but it makes you plan your organization up front. Logseq lets it evolve naturally and organically, by giving you the necessary tools and constraints.
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There's also syncthing, which allows syncing a folder... Hell theres even a git plugin to bypass obsidian sync, so you can get version controlled notes (which might be desirable in a work setting)
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Yes, but the syntax and documentation on the queries is obtuse as hell in logseq. Like it is ridiculous how granular you have a to get of you want to return all links within a time period or something. If I need to write SQL to pull notes, I should just use a database, lol.
The nice thing about tags as a distinct entity is it offers the option you can utilize if you choose. It gives you two buckets you can sort into and connect between. And it does make creating "topic groups" easier than manually linking them all to a tag page in logseq, imo.
Conversely, I would massively prefer of Logseq abolished support for hashtags entirely if they are functionally identical to wikilinks. Or combine them so the hashtags auto-convert to wikilinks or vice versa. But supporting hashtags in any manner when they are frankly not a "real" feature is more frustrating. Making topic links in Logseq is harder because of this.
Also, the existence of tag pages themselves is a confusong abberation given the above...
Logseq is a great tool, but very different in terms of what it is best suited to handle. I think I will revisit it for if I do a lot of writing, but for disparate ideas or notation it is good but could be better.
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It's interesting that a closed-source app has good reputation among FOSS enthusiasts. Surely they are not a Microsoft or Apple, but still who controls your computer, you or them?
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Can you elaborate on this? I use logseq as an information dump and use tags and hashtags to associate the individual entries with a certain topic. I love that i do not have to think about the file structure (where do i have to put it?) and instead can just write it down immediately.
E.g: had a meeting with #name with regards to #project Z. We have a set of new requirements that need to be implemented in by Q3 2025….
Would this be significantly different in obsidian?
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Just because other tools use # in other ways doesn’t mean they aren’t useful the way they are now in Logseq. It’s just a one character shorthand rather than four characters. I find tags as they are in Evernote and Obsidian exceedingly worthless for all but the most strictly organized individuals, not so in Logseq. Call them what you will.
A query is helpful when you need it, but rarely needed.
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Yeah Logseq is actually a much better knowledge management tool than obsidian. It’s literally built for that, whereas obsidian requires you to force structure onto it.
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Saw this, super cool. Hope they make tons of money with Obsidian Sync
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I think the big difference is that you can use it for free without any account needed, and all your data is stored locally in a format that remains accessible to alternative apps.
So the moment they start doing questionable stuff you are not a hostage to their app. There are alternatives, they are just not as nice as this currently.
