Isn’t it really the same idea if you think about it? There is a remote computer somewhere hosting your data while your computer just displays the result of some computation on a server manipulating that data.
If you boil it down to that very superficial level, that could be said, but the technical layers say that they’re different concepts for different times.
But isn’t a chromebook closer to a time sharing computer than an MacBook Air for example? Nothing is stored on the chromebook except some browser cache files. All the power is in the Google data centers and the chromebook is a cheap laptop a student can afford. A mainframe of the 1970s was not affordable by any individual, but the terminals allowed several people to enjoy the power of that mainframe all at the same time.
Fundamentally I feel like there is a difference between data being hosted and served from servers that you have a degree of agency over and data that is hosted and served from servers where this agency is non-existent.
That’s true, but there’s a whole lot of unpicking to do in the phrase “degree of agency”
Not, he said cynically, unrelated to how they make a living
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Anyone been able to access Tana? Seems it was launched with some fanfare, but no access to tell what it really is like?
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Degrees of agency could be:
- Complete physical ownership of a server or Co-location.
- A rented dedicated server or a VPS with root access.
- Shared access to a server like SDF or tilde.club where you only have control over the files in your directory.
- Then you get to services like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. where you have less control than the scenarios listed above. These services are comparable to shared Unix servers but the pathways of communication and relations with the administration are significantly narrower, hence agency diminishes.
I’m sure there are more cases or better descriptions, but this is the gist of what I meant.
Average users would likely not notice the “degrees of agency over their server” but would pay attention to the access pathway and user interface, whether it be a terminal client, a browser interface to the web, a locally running but cross-platform app, or a native desktop or mobile app. The server itself gets more and more hidden as you progress up this chain.
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Sorry - I was being way too cryptic.
I was thinking in terms of control over your data and the marketing around it.As you point out in your reply, there’s more to this than just where the data’s stored and who can act on it.
My point is that you have to do a lot of unpicking of marketing euphemisms, disingenuous “commitments”, technobabble designed to obscure/deceive and some definite dishonesty to get a clear picture of the degree of agency you actually have.
Apart from dodgy privacy policies, the sort of thing I’m thinking of is providers who don’t act on customer instructions to delete their accounts/data. Or even simply providers who dot secure the data and allow it to be stolen.
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On the waitlist but no access as yet.
I’m intrigued by it (hence signing up to the waitlist), but my concerns would be as other people have said: data on their servers and a lack of portability at the moment.
The supertag concept intrigues me but agree that this seems to be initially taking aim at Roam users.
I am on the waitlist so have not gotten to try it yet.
But based on this video Tana is enormously beyond just another notes program.
I have not wrapped my mind yet around whether it is an alternative to Filemaker or Excel or to low-code apps. For sure it is extremely customizable - but precisely how to characterize what you can build with it is not clear to me yet.
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Yes, definitely.
Watching this video of how Maggie Appleton is using it. Her use is very, very structured. I find historically that this can be a rabbit hole and overwhelming for me. E.g. at 29:00 she talks about a note she created when she and her partner discussed buying an ice cream maker. Whereas I wind up with dozens of one-offs, and processes that take longer than the work itself. There are lots of things I can learn, and improve on.
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For what it’s worth, I’ve just received my invite after waiting for maybe 10 days or so.
Having trouble actually getting into the thing though 
Anybody have a Tana invite?
I just received my invite this morning, cannot invite others yet. Do not know when I shall get to do this, but will share once I am able to do that
First 30 minutes’ experience, it is very powerful and versatile. I think I shall use it as my personal database using text but I do not know whether it would replace Obsidian. It is just different. Obviously I do not know what I do not know yet
I got my invite a couple of weeks ago. First off, it’s definitely not an Obsidian wannabe. Sorry for that thread title. Tana is it’s own animal and I’m really enjoying it. If you’re new to Tana, take a dive into all the videos that Tana Inc. provides, as well as the short, simple and useful intro videos here.
You’ll want to get your head around supertags and fields, and how to weave them together. Once you have that skill down, you can build anything in Tana.
Katie
The first thing I check is where the data is stored and Tana appears to store its data (my data) on it own servers. So that is a non-starter for me. (My personal preference is for apps like NotePlan and Obsidian that store my data on my Mac.)
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I’ve been trying out Tana for several days now, and it is appealing to me. You can add structure where you want things to be consistent, or just go freeform.
I’ve been watching this guy’s videos, and find them helpful. His interstitial journaling (on steroids, apparently inspired by Ultrawork), may convince me to put a toilet in my living room.
If you’re unfamiliar, I would recommend watching his intro videos first. I find box videos better than the official videos, which are about twice as fast as they should be.
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