Even though it is still in early betas (now at v0.6) Obsidian is coming along quickly. It’s not difficult to get an beta invite.
The devs (same crew who built Dynalist) have just opened up a public Discourse forum. There’s also a Discord forum but it seems that Discord is not the best venue to discuss software and suggestions.
applied for the beta, not sure though that e2e encryption and versioning merits 4,- per month…
I think that’s the level you’d use if you used their sync service. The files are stored locally and you can share on your own in whatever way or cloud service you want.
Just installed this and having a play around with it today given the long weekend.
Initial thoughts / first reaction:
For: Feels nice knowing that my data in the simplest of forms (plain text) sits on my pc (though I may choose to share it via a sync service of my choice).
Against: It doesn’t (yet) have the same level of presenting connected notes or blocks in the same way as Roam currently does.
Someone has created an Andy Matuschak mode, which really makes me want to try Obsidian.
Based on comments I read here at MPU I tried the beta and it’s been pretty great, especially considering it’s in beta. The forum is kinda dead but the Discord group is very much alive. The dev team is hyper-responsive to questions, and the conversations among users is great. I had a question about tweaking the CSS for note preview and got an answer within a few hours. I’m seriously thinking about forking over some real money to help with development – which is not something I do easily on a project this young. Just my $0.02.
I wonder why so many of these new entrants have avoided native mobile apps. According to the Obsidian Trello board, a “lightweight” feature-limited app on mobile is in the long-term plans. What happened to mobile first? ;_;
I think they created the Discourse forum because the suggestions bot in the Discord group was not working out. You’re right, there’s a lot more action on the Discord group – albeit because it’s Discord and not everyone there is very adept at using the board, the threads get all twined together and it can be hard to follow.
Obsidian is an Electron app. Does Electron support iOS or Android?
I had a first look at Obsidian last week (made a video about it up Wednesday on my channel if you’re interested). It’s an impressive piece of software. It is an Electron app, though you get all the stuff that comes with it. HOWEVER, it reminds me of Visual Studio Code (also an Electron app). It’s speedy, usable, and has lots of PKM features that just work.
You could roll your own e2e encryption if you’d like, too. If I land on Obsidian, I’d probably throw some money at the devs just to keep them going, though.
Agreed. Discourse or Slack would probably be better. Personally I’m starting to wish we could all just standardize online conversations because I get tired of checking Slack for this, Discourse for that, Discord for the other, etc… But that’s like saying, “Hey guys, let’s all get iPhones!” I tried Ferdi for a while, to consolidate, but it made my limited RAM go crazy.
I watched that video and it was great, thanks for doing it. 
Not finding the video. Do you have a link?
The snark!
I wasn’t really asking about development environment, though. For a while there it seemed like a lot of apps were starting out on iOS, and the question was when (or if) they’d be launched on desktops. In this newfangled spurt of PKM apps, none have been mobile-first—they’ve all been web- or Electron-based. (In fact, iOS support has been kinda terrible.)
It must be something about the audience for these apps, but it surprises me that we haven’t seen anything close to polished in a mobile experience. (Supposedly Roam is good on Android devices.)
Sorry – it’s not up yet. It’s due out 2020-05-27T13:00:00Z
I totally agree.
For me it would be between Drafts (I have a subscription) and this one.
Looking at the premium options: not worth it for me.
Ah, I thought “up Wednesday” meant last Wednesday. Thanks! Something to look forward too!
I thought you were talking about this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfoGR4AYT5Y&feature=emb_logo
@justindirose Excellent video. I am giving Obsidian a try, BTW you have a very pleasant speaking voice. Good Luck with growing your channel. I have subscribed myself
Obsidian started its public beta today. Free download.
From first build (3/30/2020) to public beta in less than 2 months – pretty good. (Ahem, nv-what’s-your-name).
