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Roam v. Obsidian
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Posted by Paul Korm
May 23, 2021 at 07:58 PM
I did the test period with Roam, but didn’t sign up because of the cloud storage, and the help documentation was a mess. I figured if they cannot document their program for people considering a purchase, then I probably wouldn’t want to know whether the sausage making in the background is being done carefully.
I’ve used Obsidian since it was first introduced, and now I am also using the mobile version which is quite good. The mobile version does not (yet) have a share extension so getting info from other programs into Obsidian mobile is fiddly for now. I assume that gap will be filled at some point. The community-contributed plugins for Obsidian are wonderful. The developers made a wise decision early on to make Obsidian a platform extensible by users with no entry fee.
Posted by Luhmann
May 24, 2021 at 12:27 AM
It is certainly possible in Roam to store all your files locally, which is as secure as your laptop is, but then there is no way to sync between devices. Obsidian offers a paid secure sync service, or you can use a third party sync service if you trust it (Dropbox, Apple’s iCloud, etc.)
Note: originally Roam made storing your files offline a premium feature, but they lately lifted all restrictions so anyone can have as many offline databases as they like.
Posted by MadaboutDana
May 24, 2021 at 09:29 AM
Couple of points here, just for info:
Bear’s search function is exceptionally good – general searches automatically extend to individual notes and highlight search terms in those notes accordingly (unlike most other notetaking software). Actually, it’s always been pretty good, so I’m a bit surprised at the criticism. Ulysses is great, but locks you into its proprietary database. While it’s perfectly possible to export Ulysses content (as e.g. markup files), it’s not possible to use Ulysses files with anything other than Ulysses. There are good reasons for this, of course.
UpNote does in fact put a quick note icon in the Menu Bar, which works perfectly well. You can also kick off searches from the Menu Bar.
satis wrote:
I think you can see where the overlap is, the question is how much you
>need the additional linking features, and how much you’re willing to
>migrate to apps with pretty restricted typography/theming compared to
>OmniOutliner or Bear.
>
>Speaking of Bear, I’ve tried it many times but just didn’t gel with the
>UI and the limited font choice, and never really found it measurably
>better *for my own needs* than Apple Notes. You might find this recent
>comparison article interesting, from someone who used Bear for years
>then switched to Ulysses
>
>https://woorkup.com/ulysses-review/
>
>(Did Bear ever finally add search inside notes?)
>
>Although OmniOutliner seems relegated to maintenance mode, it’s still
>the most powerful pure standalone outliner for Mac and iOS, and your
>files remain locally (and synced via iCloud) in your control. If you’re
>looking to switch Roam is probably a better all-in-one app as its
>outlining functionality remains better than Obsidian’s (although I
>prefer Obsidian’s sister app/service Dynalist for outlining.
>
>But overall I’m wary of using Roam - because of its UI/look, it’s
>relative lock-in, the dramatic growth of competitors adding backlinks,
>the pricing, and the CEO’s promotion of ‘cult’ status for the app
>(alongside a small, vocal contingent of noisome fanboys for the product
>on Twitter and Reddit).
>
>I am a promiscuous dabbler when it comes to apps for writing,
>note-taking, task management, pinboards, and kanbans, but I’m very
>conservative when it comes to switching to another app. Right now, for
>example, I’ve paid for the one-time Premium upgrade of UpNote and am
>using it as an Apple Notes replacement, but for my needs in most ways it
>barely improves on Apple Notes, mainly offering backlinks but lacking
>the macOS menubar quick-note feature I like so much in SnipNotes. The
>most recent version of the app replaced some fonts without notice, but
>added some features like page info.
>
>And I think that with Roam and Obsidian you’ll also see that the apps
>are similarly in flux, with features added and improved and the apps
>leapfrogging each other in different ways. I feel like this is still
>early times for this particular type of outliner/notetaker and I’m not
>ready to abandon my current core apps until something become too
>compelling not to switch.
Posted by Christoph
May 24, 2021 at 10:00 AM
Luhmann wrote:
>Note: originally Roam made storing your files offline a premium feature,
>but they lately lifted all restrictions so anyone can have as many
>offline databases as they like.
Sounds interesting. Are offline databases in Roam as functional as those in the cloud? Are they in a proprietary format or can they be easily processed by tools other than Roam? (Obsidian uses only Markdown files which can be easily processed and used outside of Obsidian.) Removing the ability to have local notebooks was the final straw that made me move from Evernote to Obsidian.
Posted by satis
May 24, 2021 at 10:45 AM
Unlike SnipNotes
http://i.imgur.com/XFYcSxP.jpeg
UpNote’s menubar utility does not permit you to access notes or write quick notes when the app is quit - it only persists when the app is open, and I have never been able to make a quick note without it popping the full app from the background.
Bear has had search issues in the past, serious enough that a lot of people complained on Reddit and elsewhere, and decamped to other apps.
MadaboutDana wrote:
Couple of points here, just for info:
>
>Bear’s search function is exceptionally good – general
>searches automatically extend to individual notes and highlight search
>terms in those notes accordingly (unlike most other notetaking
>software). Actually, it’s always been pretty good, so I’m a
>bit surprised at the criticism….
>
>UpNote does in fact put a quick note icon in the Menu Bar, which works
>perfectly well. You can also kick off searches from the Menu Bar.
>