Obsidian is now free for work - Obsidian
-
It is a really good app. But was a pain in the ass to keep the archive in sync using multiple different platforms without paying for their sync addon in my experience. You can roll your own sync with stuff like Syncthing, cloud storage, etc. But the archive had a bad habit of seemingly finding ways to get out of sync.
The biggest issue I had was with folder permissions on Android. I also ended up paying for the sync functionality and have zero regrets.
-
This post was how I learned about Obsidian.
For those of you that love it, how do you use it daily?
Daily notes. I have a template that prompts me to fill out a number details I might otherwise forget.
A wiki of people that helps me remember details about people I meet or have worked with. Makes it much easier to keep in touch and to remember important dates in their lives.
Sortable todo lists, with due date and urgency information. I can add to the lists directly from any other note using a Dataview formula with the Tasks extension.
Career plans. Project plans. Gardening plans. Recipes (there's an awesome extension that imports recipes from the web).
Any random writing I might want to do, from short stories to rough drafts of letters to stream of consciousness mind spew that I want to review later.
I use the Auto Note Mover and Dataview extensions, along with backlinks and tags, to keep all of my notes organized automatically. I use the Linter extension to make sure things are formatted nicely. When I started using Obsidian, I used the Importer extension yo easily pull in all of my existing notes and lists from Evernote and Google Keep.
Honestly, that barely scratches the surface.
-
least paranoid foss nut
I want to both up and downvote this
-
I use Obsidian as a tool to help my shitty memory.
I want to have one single place where I can go search for a thing I know I saw somewhere but can't remember where or what it was exactly
"Did I watch movie X" -> Obsidian -> Watchlist -> Movies and there it'll be.
Same for tv-series, anime, books, games. Yes there are services that do it like Trakt, Imdb, Letterboxd, TVMaze and god knows how many for games. They all get enshittified eventually requiring you to pay for basic functionality (looking at you trakt...)
I'm building a tool for getting my data out from all those services into Obsidian markdown format, maybe It'll get finished some day
(IMDB and Goodreads work, but you need to do a manual csv export)"How did I install that finicky piece of software last time" -> Obsidian, I wrote something down because I knew I couldn't remember it. Then I'll improve the guide + refresh with new data.
Now I have a pretty good step-by step guide on how to set up a computer, no matter the OS, just how I like it - all in Obsidian. Mostly just commands I copy-paste and some manual steps that I can't be arsed to automate.
Same with my daily notes, I just write down what I did maybe with some tags so I can find them when I start wondering when did I visit X or put up the curtains in the bedroom.
How did I install that finicky piece of software last time
This. So much this. Every time I start a new project I'm so glad to have these notes to refer back to.
-
I just don't see the point of obsidian et al.
Just use a directory structure and save markdown files in it.
There are many apps that are great editors for this structure on every platform. IDK exactly what obsidian does but many editors have zettelkasten (fancy cross links) functionality, just no fancy graph.
Ghostty + helix is the sexxy RN.
the extensions mostly
-
I want to both up and downvote this
keep it even
-
What is a Trillium?
It's like a Bilium, but with one more
-
This is true of Markdown though, no? Which Obsidian runs?
Markdown has many more elements than bullet points
-
It is a really good app. But was a pain in the ass to keep the archive in sync using multiple different platforms without paying for their sync addon in my experience. You can roll your own sync with stuff like Syncthing, cloud storage, etc. But the archive had a bad habit of seemingly finding ways to get out of sync.
Did you try any of the sync extensions?
-
Hol up. Are notes stored in files in a directory structure or a single file? Just that you said "the file" so I'm wondering.
If so, that's lock in.
It’s a directory. When you create a new note, it creates a new file inside of that directory. My point was simply that you can always just browse the directory and read the plaintext file for whichever note you want. Obsidian simply adds things like text formatting and automatic links to other notes.
-
It's like a Bilium, but with one more
What is Billum?
-
That's the whole point of markdown lmfao.
I can see the Matrix, man, I can see the truth behind it all, I can interpret raw markdown and even write bbCode by hand
-
I can see the Matrix, man, I can see the truth behind it all, I can interpret raw markdown and even write bbCode by hand
I don't even see the code. All I see is heading, emphasis, dot-points ...
-
They have a plenty large enough user base and have not done so. You're literally commenting this on a post of them doing the exact opposite. The fear mongering is insane.
It was nothing personal, more of an off-handed commentary on how things usually end up going after 20 years of seeing literally every site/service I've used and most of the companies I once considered "the good ones" eventually get shittier in some way when the business side puts on the squeeze.
The one exception I can think of is Wikipedia.
But I don't have any reason to think badly of these folks, their current owners seem to have their hearts in the right place and indeed have made decisions that avoid lockin and assure users, and I hope they are another Wikipedia that will endure the tides of enshittification.
But I will never again assume that such hopes will remain the reality, even in this case. This is a snapshot in time. Owners change, priorities change, pricing models change, file formats change, common sense statements of basic decency like "don't be evil" get rescinded, scrappy fun websites created by free-thinkers become tools of fascist oppression.
That doesn't mean they don't deserve your business and support currently. Just make sure your off-ramp options remain acceptable if things begin to change.
-
You can choose to look at it like that, but for me, it was too big of a hassle and switched to appFlowy
If you ever change your mind:
Step 1: Create a file in iCloud
Step 2: Choose this File as Vault in Obsidian
Step 3: Profit
-
the extensions mostly
Good point, the thing is... if you do have MarkDown in a directory, as suggested here, then your CLI tools become your extensions. One can start with git and voila, version tracked. One can used a Web server e.g. Apache or nginx, and voila, accessible anywhere on the network, possibly on the Internet (via e.g. Grok or TailScale). That also includes any programming language, e.g. invoking a Python script on said files. Might not sound like much but it's a LOT.
So... I'd argue maybe not necessarily extensions themselves but the curation of extensions, namely their discoverability because they are all in one neat spot, with comments from users, etc whereas CLI commands are... all over.
Edit: I'd be curious about how many downvoters in this case have been using such solutions and for how long. FWIW I've been actively using and maintaining my PIM since 2008.
-
Good point, the thing is... if you do have MarkDown in a directory, as suggested here, then your CLI tools become your extensions. One can start with git and voila, version tracked. One can used a Web server e.g. Apache or nginx, and voila, accessible anywhere on the network, possibly on the Internet (via e.g. Grok or TailScale). That also includes any programming language, e.g. invoking a Python script on said files. Might not sound like much but it's a LOT.
So... I'd argue maybe not necessarily extensions themselves but the curation of extensions, namely their discoverability because they are all in one neat spot, with comments from users, etc whereas CLI commands are... all over.
Edit: I'd be curious about how many downvoters in this case have been using such solutions and for how long. FWIW I've been actively using and maintaining my PIM since 2008.
That assumes the person using obsidian is a software dev or a sysadmin. Most users aren’t going to want the extra hassle, or they might be unable to do these things.
-
What is Billum?
It's like Millium, but one more.
-
Obsidian dev's original project Dynalist is an outline based notes app that does have tags. She doesn't update it anymore but I still rely heavily on it as my second brain.
Interesting. I'll have to give that one a shot later. Though I'm probably fine with Obsidian.
-
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?
With Obsidian, you don't have to use folders. I'm generally of the opinion that having a tool is better than not having access to it. Tags and Folders are just an option to use. Fundamentally Logseq and Obsidian otherwise can be very similar.
