Comment on Obsidian is now free for work - Obsidian
fxdave@lemmy.ml 1 day 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?
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?
Yep and the Android app is full of small things to improve, for sure someone would put in contributions for free
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++.
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.
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.
least paranoid foss nut
I want to both up and downvote this
keep it even
Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 1 day 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.
Petter1@lemm.ee 1 day ago
And the old version you have on the pc still works, since there is no cloud communication needed to run it.
Opisek@lemmy.world 1 day 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.
lepinkainen@lemmy.world 1 day 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)
trolololol@lemmy.world 1 day 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 day ago
You’re right, I wasn’t thinking about the android app when writing this.
T156@lemmy.world 1 day 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 day 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 day ago
That’s the whole point of markdown lmfao.
hakunawazo@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Like silverbullet.md
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day 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 day 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 day ago
Its a directory, they were just referring to individual files.
trolololol@lemmy.world 1 day 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
balder1991@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I just wish the price of having the publish feature was slightly lower. They’d get much more subscribers, including me.