Comment on Obsidian is now free for work - Obsidian

vk6flab@lemmy.radio ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• alphabethunter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Nothing else is changing. No account required, no ads, no tracking, no strings attached. Your data remains fully in your control, stored locally in plain text Markdown files. All features are available to you for free without limits.

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  • fluxion@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    “…until we have a large enough userbase to start monetizing and enshittifying…”

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    • Toribor@corndog.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      At least if/when that happens all your files are in markdown, owned and controlled by you so migrating to another tool is pretty easy.

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    • ArchRecord@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      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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    • priapus@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      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.

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      • fluxion@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        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.

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  • RiQuY@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Still closed source.

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  • Fizz@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    What’s the catch?

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    • rbits@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      If you want to sync your notes between devices, Obsidian Sync is $48 a year. But since it’s all just markdown files anyway, you could just use dropbox to sync them anyway.

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      • Fizz@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        dam thats a lot for a sync. I guess its supporting the project.

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• timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Seems they’ll just keep making money on sync.

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• tabular@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Doesn’t appear so but there is that potential in a future update as they’re in control of what the software actually does. If data is indeed stored in plain text files then hopefully an alternative software could still read that data.

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  • stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Obsidian files are just Markdown, so there is plenty of software out there today that can parse them. The only thing you might miss is plugins that don’t exist outisd of obsidian.

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    • TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The canvas built in is the easiest UI I’ve used to make mind maps, I’d surely miss it if I had to migrate.

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      • d0ntpan1c@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        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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      • ArchRecord@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Here’s the same Obsidian Canvas document open in Obsidian, and Hi-Canvas:

        Image

        Image

        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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• alphabethunter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Essentially, just a giant W.

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