Forum Posts Feed
Obsidian in public beta
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Luhmann
May 30, 2020 at 04:51 AM
Some of my preference comes from positive regarding how the Obsidian developers relate to users in online forums. They manage to be very responsive while still maintaining their own unique vision (i.e. not just adding things because users request it). This is a hard balance to achieve. In some cases I don’t agree with their vision (for instance they are still very desktop centric in their approach), but they are very clear and open about their thinking process and remarkably consistent in their approach. They also work fast and continually update their products. Even as they develop Obsidian, Dyanlist is still getting important updates. For a team of just two, one wonders if they sleep. (I should also add that they even read posts in this forum, even if they don’t always respond to them directly.)
The roam developer, on the other hand, comes across as rather arrogant and flippant online, constantly adds new features to the product that don’t seem to have a clear connection to the core functionality, even when that core functionality still needs work. Also, Roam still lacks an official forum where users can discuss the product and give feedback. There is a slack, but because they haven’t paid for it most of the messages disappear nearly as fast as they are written. (I suggest looking at the developer’s twitter personal feed to get a sense of what I am talking about regarding his attitude.)
But like I said, I am still using Roam rather than Obsidian ... Even with all these problems there is still something about it which just makes it a pleasure to use. Obsidian isn’t there yet, but I hope they will be soon.
Alessandro Vernet wrote:
>Any particular gripe or concern about the Roam devs? (And I ask because
>I think I’d agree with on that how you feel about the team is quite
>important.)
>
>‑Alex
Posted by Luhmann
May 30, 2020 at 04:52 AM
I wish one could go back and edit things here… I hit “post” too soon.
Posted by washere
May 30, 2020 at 01:04 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFYaWC_86W0
Posted by satis
May 30, 2020 at 09:04 PM
The double-pane preview/output structure will fall away once they implement the Typora-style editor they’re working on. But Erica’s comments indicate that seems to be several months away.
Unfortunately, if you hide the output window the editor expands to fill the space, which makes each line of text much too wide for me when writing and reading.
I agree with the comments about Roam’s immature management. I am not in such dire need to switch to a new system for editing, let alone a ‘second brain’ so I have no intention to migrate to Roam or any beta-release system at present. I figure that this time next year we’ll see a lot of more mature companies with more mature products offering the most useful of the Roam/Obsidian features, like backlinks. Right now for example TiddlyWiki with the TiddlyBlink plugin (and possibly also TiddlyMap, which someone renamed TiddlyRoam https://joekroese.github.io/tiddlyroam/ ) offers a powerful and free Roam-like experience (admittedly with limitations related to mobile use and sync).
https://youtu.be/HfoGR4AYT5Y?t=1012
Posted by washere
May 30, 2020 at 09:48 PM
Having several notes open at the same time will not go away in Obsidian. It’s a strategic cornerstone of their approach. In deed this feature and other features like a local version are strategies Roam have promised to ape because they were forced by Obsidian implementing them and being well received.
Otherwise he, Roam, would have preferred to only have people’s data on his private server only not locally to milk subscriptions. And the fine print clauses says he (Roam) and also obsidian can snoop on people’s data anytime.
And if some rich guy in Russia or Philippines or any territory with no proper legal recourse buys their companies later, they buy your data on their cloud too. Someone can make him an offer, fistful of dollars, he wouldn’t refuse if the cheque had enough zeroes. And that guy will not put people’s interests before his profit, as many others have shown before.
And it’s not clear who has part ownership of your data, even in some Western Democratic legal territories, never mind questionable countries let alone if the paperwork is registered as shell companies on some tiny island. By whoever buys out Roam or Obsidian.
That’s why the Obsidian local feature was resisted by Conor of Roam initially. Not just part owning their data on his cloud server and snooping whenever he felt like it, but he wanted to hook users on his product and then Jack up subscriptions as much as he could. Usual capitalist methods. Though a minority of businessmen are more ethical, though legally anyone can charge anything, supply and demand. Then he, Roam, had free market competition in the shape of Obsidian.
With Obsidian you can work only locally on your computer. Setup in a folder linked in to your private Dropbox or whatever other cloud, you can set to sync automatically with changes. Or even true privacy with your own private cloud like NextCloud, OwnCloud, WebDav server or whatever.
Obsidian already has live preview of Markdown next to editor Window as shown in the link I posted above. Multi notes windows are here to stay too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGLVu4ODs0w
We will get a proper open source replica of Obsidian/Roam on GitHub eventually by some team, not only will it be free and truly a local version but that way it will also be totally secure. It might take a year or two but probably not longer. Why? Because the features are not that difficult to code, just take time and as Obsidian shows rapidly almost weekly, each feature doesn’t take that long to code, specially if it’s a few good devs.