Forum Posts Feed
Recommendations on the "new" generation of outliners?
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Tumbleweed
Jul 21, 2023 at 12:31 PM
So just to narrow it down, I’m considering:
LogSeq
Anytype
Obsidian
Capacities
All four of these seem like the “best” app of its type when I look into each individually. I’m a privacy and local storage only guy so LogSeq seems like #1 in this regard, with Obsidian being possibly too high of a learning curve with all the plugins (that might not be maintained).
Anytype looks amazing, but I just read that the data is encrypted and lockedin. Capacities is a no-go due to the data storage being in the cloud, not to mention that it’s send unencrypted so they can process it.
So it seems obvious that I should go all in on LogSeq - but am I missing anything here? Any opinions would be most welcome as I could CRIMP another 10 years without making a decision!
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jul 21, 2023 at 03:13 PM
I think the choice between LogSeq and Obsidian is very much down to your preferred way of working. Personally, I’ve found Obsidian’s base version much more intuitive, and only gradually added plugins as I’ve spotted areas that could be improved. Even so, I’ve still ended up with around 30 plugins, which I regularly review and excise (only to add more when I stumble across some fascinating concept in my regular trawls of the plugin library!).
I like the fact you can have multiple repositories for your Obsidian data. It’s also got a great search function (and an even better advanced search plugin, if you happen to need it).
Anytype is very impressive, but also quite Notion-like, so not immediately intuitive. However, I do like the overall concept, and will probably take the time to familiarise myself with it. Blocks are always good, as is an underlying database. Again, excellent search function (especially for a relatively new product). You could certainly use Anytype for the breadth of applications you mentioned earlier (including, in principle, CRM). Obsidian I have used (experimentally) as a task manager, but now use it purely as a knowledge management and journaling system.
I do suggest you keep the data repository as application-neutral as you can – just in case you’re seized by a violent urge to CRIMP in a couple of years’ time ;-)
Tumbleweed wrote:
>So just to narrow it down, I’m considering:
>
>LogSeq
>Anytype
>Obsidian
>Capacities
>
>All four of these seem like the “best” app of its type when I look into
>each individually. I’m a privacy and local storage only guy so LogSeq
>seems like #1 in this regard, with Obsidian being possibly too high of a
>learning curve with all the plugins (that might not be maintained).
>
>Anytype looks amazing, but I just read that the data is encrypted and
>lockedin. Capacities is a no-go due to the data storage being in the
>cloud, not to mention that it’s send unencrypted so they can process it.
>
>So it seems obvious that I should go all in on LogSeq - but am I missing
>anything here? Any opinions would be most welcome as I could CRIMP
>another 10 years without making a decision!
Posted by satis
Jul 21, 2023 at 11:29 PM
For pure outlining-with-links I’m more in favor of Logseq than Obsidian, but I recently was told about this awesome-looking utility for macOS and iOS which integrates several dozen Obsidian-specific Shortcuts (Apple’s built-in visual scripting workflow framework)
https://apps.apple.com/app/id1659667937
Notes
Check For Existence Of Note
Create Note
Delete Note
Rename/Move Note
Get List Of All Notes
Get Note
Get Note Link
Append Text To A Note
Prepend Text To A Note
Insert Text At Placeholder In A Note
Search And Replace In A Note
Search Notes
Search Notes with Omnisearch
Open Note In Obsidian
Daily Notes
Check For Existence Of Daily Note
Create Daily Note
Get List Of All Daily Notes
Get Daily Note
Get Most Recent Daily Note
Append Text To Daily Note
Prepend Text To Daily Note
Insert Text At Placeholder In Daily Note
Search And Replace In Daily Note
Open Daily Note In Obsidian
Open Most Recent Daily Note In Obsidian
Vaults
Get List Of All Files
Get List Of All Non-Markdown Files
Get List Of All Tags
Get Vault Path
Get Attachment Folder Path
Get “New File” Folder Path
Open Vault
Close Vault
Dataview
Get Dataview List
Get Dataview Table
Folders
Create Folder
Delete Folder
Rename/Move Folder
Get List Of All Folders
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jul 22, 2023 at 01:32 AM
Hi Satis - I am struggling to make a decide as to Logseq or Obsidian so am curioys to know why you favour Logseq for pure outlining with links. Many thanks.
Daly
satis wrote:
For pure outlining-with-links I’m more in favor of Logseq than Obsidian,
>but I recently was told about this awesome-looking utility for macOS and
>iOS which integrates several dozen Obsidian-specific Shortcuts (Apple’s
>built-in visual scripting workflow framework)
>
>https://apps.apple.com/app/id1659667937
>
>https://obsidian.actions.work
>
>Notes
>Check For Existence Of Note
>Create Note
>Delete Note
>Rename/Move Note
>Get List Of All Notes
>Get Note
>Get Note Link
>Append Text To A Note
>Prepend Text To A Note
>Insert Text At Placeholder In A Note
>Search And Replace In A Note
>Search Notes
>Search Notes with Omnisearch
>Open Note In Obsidian
>
>Daily Notes
>Check For Existence Of Daily Note
>Create Daily Note
>Get List Of All Daily Notes
>Get Daily Note
>Get Most Recent Daily Note
>Append Text To Daily Note
>Prepend Text To Daily Note
>Insert Text At Placeholder In Daily Note
>Search And Replace In Daily Note
>Open Daily Note In Obsidian
>Open Most Recent Daily Note In Obsidian
>
>Vaults
>Get List Of All Files
>Get List Of All Non-Markdown Files
>Get List Of All Tags
>Get Vault Path
>Get Attachment Folder Path
>Get “New File” Folder Path
>Open Vault
>Close Vault
>
>Dataview
>Get Dataview List
>Get Dataview Table
>
>Folders
>Create Folder
>Delete Folder
>Rename/Move Folder
>Get List Of All Folders
Posted by satis
Jul 23, 2023 at 01:40 AM
Daly de Gagne wrote:
>Hi Satis - I am struggling to make a decide as to Logseq or Obsidian so
>am curioys to know why you favour Logseq for pure outlining with links.
At heart Logseq is an outliner app, with a block-based paradigm, while Obsidian is a page-based writing app. (Obsidian can use block headings but you can’t edit them in other files - you can embed them with ![[..^..] but it’s just the reference.) For people who live inside outliners or think in outliner form I think Logseq is generally more appealing, while from what I’ve seen most users of Obsidian don’t prioritize outlining.
Obsidian can contain outlines (Markdown headings let Obsidian files work as outlines - though only six levels deep) and Logseq can work with folders of markdown files. They use different paradigms.
I prefer the build-out from a high quality outliner instead of having a page-pased app that has some outlining in it . (Logseq lets you link to both blocks and pages.) Given that Obsidian comes from Dynalist’s developers it’s a bit strange they didn’t build Obsidian atop its outliner, or prioritize outlining like Logseq does.
One big difference between the two apps is search. My desktop machine has so many documents (more 4500+ epubs and 15,000+ pdfs alone), and I depend on sophisticated searches with HoudahSpot and Devonsphere. The writing apps I use like Ulysses have sophisticated searching (in Ulysses you can search sheets, groups or entire libraries, and save search ‘filters’ for reuse) and one of Logseq’s advantages over its competition is its highly developeed query abilities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuy5A9LJiVE
I still think that there are too many core functions that ought to be included in Obsidian. It is a powerful app but very dependent on 3rd party plugins of unknown quality and future support, which individual users need to search for, read reviews of, evaluate, and keep track of for updates… and then periodically look at competing plugins for better options. And individual users also need to keep on top of their plugins (most serious users I know have dozens) to make sure they’re still being developed and supported or else they need to re-evaluate alternate plugins. It’s a fiddly situation, and one that’s not conducive to mainstream use. As I’ve said here before I think it’s something of an abdication of developer responsibility not to bake in more core functionality.
Logseq also has a plugin framework, but its core functionality does not require as many external plugins.
To some it is worth noting that Logseq is open source.
Last time I checked (2022?) while Logseq shows live Markdown rendering, Obsidian makes you switch between edit and preview modes. And Logseq offers live editable block embeddings while Obsidian embeddings only serve as a reference.
Logseq is still in early beta mode, and the developers are evaluating a significant overhaul of the app’s internal database.
https://www.reddit.com/r/logseq/comments/13lrxqm/logseq_database_version/
That said, it’s pretty stable, as is Obsidian.
Recently Logseq added a whiteboard feature:
https://blog.logseq.com/whiteboards-and-queries-for-everybody/
For most writers, setting up an Obsidian instance with a set of basic plugins should be perfectly fine. And Obsidian development is probably faster and more polished than the open source group behind Logseq, and there seem to be a lot more plugins available for Obsidian.