I’ve been really enjoying trilium as an open source alternative but fair warning it’s not as polished as Obsidian
Comment on Obsidian is now free for work - Obsidian
fxdave@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
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?
franklin@lemmy.world 1 year ago
trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 year ago
I just cant wrap my head around why they willing to go so far to gain good will from people by having such a generous free tier, but somehow licensing the code under a FOSS license is out of the question??
Why not just go all the way and make sure everyone who cares about reading the souce could also give you free contributions?
trolololol@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yep and the Android app is full of small things to improve, for sure someone would put in contributions for free
ubergeek@lemmy.today 1 year ago
Well, the good news? A wider audience most certainly means a FLOSS suite that can parse the data from it. It doesn’t seem very opaque, but more like Markup++.
Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 1 year ago
It stores your data in plaintext, and simply uses the program to parse special formatting characters. The program itself is closed-source, but anyone could write an open source version to parse the same info. Even if Obsidian ceases to exist overnight, the data itself is still safe on your machine and readable by anyone who cares enough to try.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
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.
Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 1 year ago
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.
priapus@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Its a directory, they were just referring to individual files.
trolololol@lemmy.world 1 year ago
True. The other day I uploaded a photo that should be portrait instead of landscape. I opened Nemo ( Linux file explorer), right clicked to edit image, fixed it, and automatically my note picked up the change.
Similar thing when storing a 1000 line json in the notes
Opisek@lemmy.world 1 year ago
There in fact are FOSS alternatives like Joplin. Personally, I actually switched from Joplin to Obsidian due to a larger community (and therefore community-driven plugins) and overall a more polished UX. That being said, I have the security of switching back if Obsidian ever becomes evil or unusable.
Another aspect is that the entire source code is technically viewable (partially obfuscated) since it’s a web app. Having written plugins for Obsidian, you’re very much interacting with the source code itself. Feels like open source with extra steps and I wish one day they will finally make the switch to true FOSS.
trolololol@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That’s not so true of the Android app. I do have access to bytecode but changing bytecode to bring feature enhancements is not for the faint of heart.
And storage in their current android app is a major privacy breach.
Opisek@lemmy.world 1 year ago
You’re right, I wasn’t thinking about the android app when writing this.
lepinkainen@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I switched from Joplin because Obisidian data is just markdown and I can edit and generate it with external apps
Joplin had a custom database system (at the time)
T156@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Markdown is also an open format. You aren’t forced to use Obsidian for everything, and there are already numerous programs that are capable of displaying the formatted end-file, because it’s standard markdown.
It’s not some proprietary thing that only Obsidian uses.
papertowels@mander.xyz 1 year ago
Use obsidian enough and your brain also just starts to interpret raw markdown lmfao.
I’ve definitely caught myself using md to format pen and paper notes before.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
That’s the whole point of markdown lmfao.
hakunawazo@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Like silverbullet.md
balder1991@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I just wish the price of having the publish feature was slightly lower. They’d get much more subscribers, including me.
Petter1@lemm.ee 1 year ago
And the old version you have on the pc still works, since there is no cloud communication needed to run it.
e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
Obsidian stores the notes in a well known plaintext format on your computer. They can’t easily hold you hostage like with other closed source apps.
ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
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.
breadcat@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
least paranoid foss nut
ibu@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I want to both up and downvote this
breadcat@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
keep it even