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Roam Research - The Desktop App for macOS, Windows and Linux is Available
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Posted by Luhmann
Jun 20, 2021 at 11:15 AM
I think Logseq should fit the bill. You have two options:
1. Web app with data stored in Github (you can use a private repository).
2. Desktop app with data stored in a cloud service (like Dropbox).
1 would 100% work for you, I’m not sure about 2 on Chromebooks, but you could ask….
Dr Andus wrote:
>The reason I haven’t tried them yet because I do actually
>prefer an online service, so I can seamlessly work across multiple
>Chromebooks and a Windows machine.
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jun 20, 2021 at 01:38 PM
Hi Dr Andus - I believe with Obsidian you could use your own cloud, GDrive, for example. The advantage is you can also store your own data offline if you wish. The disadvantage is Obsidian does not have an Android or Chromebook specific version, though that may soon be coming.
Daly
Dr Andus wrote:
Daly de Gagne wrote:
>Dr Andus, I wonder if Obsidian would be more suited to your needs.
>>
>
>Luhmann wrote:
>Have you looked at Logseq? It has almost all the same features of Roam
>>and has the two things you like: free and human readable (markdown)
>>files.
>
>Thank you both for the suggestions. Yes, Obsidian and Logseq look and
>sound great. The reason I haven’t tried them yet because I do actually
>prefer an online service, so I can seamlessly work across multiple
>Chromebooks and a Windows machine.
>
>I don’t mind paying for a subscription as such in principle, I’m just
>annoyed that Roam has not prioritised and implemented automatic exports
>like WorkFlowy or Dynalist have, and for some reason most of their users
>don’t seem to worry about this.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jun 20, 2021 at 03:23 PM
I feel the same about Roam. I would use it if it were $5 per month, but it doesn’t provide enough unique value for three times that, at least not for my needs. My favorite feature of Roam is the daily notes, but I can mimic that in Dynalist or Workflowy. I’m hopeful that apps like Hypernotes or Organizedly can iron out their kinks and quirks. The good thing is we have an embarrassment of riches in note-managers these days.
Dr Andus wrote:
There is no question that Roam is a great app. The question is whether
>it’s worth $15 a month.
>
>For me it has now replaced WorkFlowy for most things, but I still
>haven’t made the jump to the paid version (was lucky to get in on the
>beta, but that limits me to one graph).
>
>I’m still concerned that there is no automatic human-readable export
>(there are automatic backups now, but those are not human readable or
>easily importable into other apps).
>
>I just don’t feel they are delivering enough value in terms of features
>and speed of development that would justify the $15 price tag, and then
>it’s still for me to remember to make manual exports regularly in order
>to reduce the risk of data loss.
>
>(I haven’t tried the desktop app, I don’t have a need for it.)
Posted by Dr Andus
Jun 20, 2021 at 04:29 PM
Daly de Gagne wrote:
> The disadvantage is Obsidian does not have an
>Android or Chromebook specific version, though that may soon be coming.
Yes, this is my issue. It’s not possible to run a .exe on a Chromebook (Linux version on Chromebook might be an option, but I don’t have the time at the moment to learn how to use Linux on Chromebook).
Luhmann wrote:
I think Logseq should fit the bill. You have two options:
>
>1. Web app with data stored in Github (you can use a private
>repository).
Thanks, interesting, I wasn’t aware of that option.
I’m quite time- and attention-poor at the moment, so I tend to stick with things that just work out of the box, which is the case with Roam and with Chromebooks.
Maybe during my summer vacation I’ll play around with all this. Thanks again.
Posted by avernet
Jun 21, 2021 at 06:12 AM
Dr Andus wrote:
>I’m still concerned that there is no automatic human-readable export
>(there are automatic backups now, but those are not human readable or
>easily importable into other apps).
I think that I would also prefer if their “auto-backup” could include a zip with all the data as Markdown, in addition to their EDN format. But in all likelihood, if you want to move away from Roam, when the time comes, you’ll just do a manual export to Markdown, or, even better, will directly import the Roam EDN, which for instance Logseq is planning to support.
https://twitter.com/logseq/status/1355691474231255041
To me, the auto-backup serves more as an insurance for the case where either Roam or I were to do something stupid that results in data loss; i.e. an insurance that I won’t loose for more than 1 day or 1 hour of data (depending on your setting). And that’s a great insurance to have.
>I just don’t feel they are delivering enough value in terms of features
>and speed of development that would justify the $15 price tag, and then
>it’s still for me to remember to make manual exports regularly in order
>to reduce the risk of data loss.
What bothers me the most about Roam is the lack of polish; the features that existed a year and a half ago, when I started using Roam, appear to be still as limited and buggy as they did back then. There are keyboard focus issues (e.g. focus lost on back; ⌘ENTER not always working), parts of the site that are not keyboard accessible (e.g. the All Pages “page”), no keyboard accessible “find notes that contain this text” (which I need to do all the time), no “find this text in the current note” (⌘f doesn’t work if parts are collapsed), and access on mobile is usable to some respect but full of little bugs and usability problems. All this was fine to me a year and half ago, but now… it is disappointing to neither have Roam publish a roadmap that addresses those points, not see incremental improvement.
But on the flip side, if Roam works for you today (and on top of that you don’t have to pay for it), you could just keep the course. Since their format is quite portable (*), you can defer the decision to move to another day, when at least some of the dust will have settled, providing more visibility on what the best tool is for you. (* If you don’t use block references, you can move quite easily to Logseq, Obsidian, NotePlan, and maybe others.)
-Alex