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kepano
readerbaza
Why every electron app feels the need to reinvent the window border/title?
Does this look OK? https://i.postimg.cc/4ymyHWxF/window-border.png
afturner
The local first approach is the primary reason I use Obsidian. I trust that I can _depend_ on Obsidian because of this.
On the other hand, this has also caused some headaches around using it on mobile.. but so far this has been a worthwhile tradeoff. Thanks for all the hard work!
gavi
I use iCloud Drive as a vault location. The trick is to create it first on the Mobile app and then use the desktop app later to point to that vault.
If you are transferring from desktop to mobile, make sure the .obsidian folder inside the vault is copied also
reneberlin
Syncthing comes to my mind for that specific need. https://syncthing.net/
nine_k
Syncing bytes is easy, many solutions exist (and syncthing / syncthing-fork is good at it).
Syncing by merging changes and resolving possible conflicts is a much harder task. Theoretically git has all the right bits, including the pluggable diffing and merging. In practice, I haven't seen it seriously used in this capacity.
This is to say nothing about files you only want on one node but not on another (heavy stuff lives on server and laptop, but not mobile, etc.)
This is why special-case syncing tools that know how to sync semantically are indispensable.
Macha
Syncthing on mobile is a little clunky because of OS limitations on background processes. Basically the reason I pay for Obsidian's own sync addon
vageli
I use syncthing together with wireguard to keep my vaults synced across devices.
1MachineElf
Syncthing works well on Android for photos, music, movies, and downloads. Not so much for notes. You'll end up with conflicts, and there aren't many great ways to merge changes on mobile.
bachmeier
Obsidian Sync is by no means cheap, but I've never used a better syncing service. I'm on my second year and can't think of a single issue I've had across laptops, desktops, an Android phone, and a Chromebook.
runjake
I can think of a number of other notes syncing that's better -- probably even Evernote's. As a happily paying Obsidian Sync customer, I'll drop some reality, so new people aren't caught off-guard.
- Obsidian Sync is pretty slow.
- Obsidian Sync doesn't happen in the background, at present. That means, if you just made a bunch of updates in Obsidian, or you haven't opened the Obsidian mobile app in a while, you're in for a wait.
- Obsidian Sync occasionally has sync errors that involve manual interaction.
That said, it's fine and the overall Obsidian experience makes it worth it (well, if you can swing a discounted price).
xmprt
I love Obsidian Sync as well but to be devil's advocate, it doesn't "just work" as a lot of people claim. It's still a bit rough around the edges. For example, it doesn't sync settings or starred files immediately. I've also noticed it dropping some text if I edit the same file on multiple devices simultaneously (or even in quick succession before sync is able to catch up). I'm sure these issues and more would exist with a 3rd party syncing solution but Obsidian sync still needs some work before it's perfect.
redrobein
It depends on your workflow. I use git to sync my obsidian vault. There's plugins to automate this, but doing it manually isn't that bad either. I use mobile mostly to read notes, and occasionally I'll write down a short line or two which I can sync over and edit and organize on desktop.
LordDragonfang
Some options for syncing on mobile:
Obsidian sells a first party syncing solution, which I hear works well:
I do git syncing on Android via termux (It works most of the time, except when git decides to shit itself every now and then on my tablet):
https://forum.obsidian.md/t/guide-using-git-to-sync-your-obs...
I can't vouch for it because I don't have any iOS devices new enough to support it, but supposedly you can use Working Copy to sync via git on iOS:
https://forum.obsidian.md/t/mobile-setting-up-ios-git-based-...
blensor
I went for the paid syncing because I want it to "just work" while still having the futureproof way of storing the data locally in an accessible way.
So far it has worked absolutely flawless. If I change a file it's changing on my connected device in seconds. Not exactly like working on a shared google doc but close enough that I would even use it as a hack to quickly share links between my mobile and my desktop
kevingyori
I’m using Working Copy on iOS with the setup described in the post. It’s working like a charm for me
hyperific
I just use DropSync and put all my Vaults in one synced Dropbox folder (to get around DropSync's folder limit). Works like a charm.
gocartStatue
I use it with Working Copy git client, nice and properly nerdy setup. There are nice ready-made guides for this combo.
klabb3
So simple, they combine the best of all eras: local first, open, published formats and pluggable/byo multi-device sync/backup – Cloud if you wish, but not required. It gives me hope for the future, I wish more software these days followed this model.
Caveat: not an obsidian user (although I am a big step closer after this)
smusamashah
This is great. Just testing it out with a goal to switch from OneNote to canvas.
It can borrow a few things from OneNote e.g.
- cards resize automatically with text.
- OneNote starts with a cursor, clicking anywhere on canvas and writing is a single click operation.
- There are no hard borders around cards in OneNote.
- OneNote is WYSIWYG which this canvas isn't currently.
This is not a definitive list and I know its too early to ask for new features and stuff. Good things to consider IMO.
CuriousSkeptic
Just as a data point. This feature of one-note (text boxes where you click) is the single reason I’m looking for something else. I absolutely hate any interface that has me fiddle with layout when I’m trying to focus on semantics.
Not that this should impact Obsidian much, since I assume the canvas thing is optional there, just a data point.
Related to infinite canvas _do_ checkout “The Humane Environment” [1] it has a few interesting takes
As for a more semantic approach to layouting, I think Flying Logic[2] makes a decent job of it
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/344726.The_Humane_Int...
smusamashah
I use OneNote extensively and as I understand each page is like a white board where you can write anything anywhere. If I wanted a linear interface I would be using Word instead.
Ruq
I like the hard borders.
alpaca128
Markdown was never intended for data with a graph structure, so I think it's the right decision to use a different simple format instead of creating yet another bloated non-standard Markdown variant.
erksa
Yes! Compliment the standard, don't obfuscate it even more. As someone who mostly write org rather than md, but sometime have to write md in various places, it's confusing that they're not all the same.
encryptluks2
Agreed here too. This was a poor choice IMO. They call it canvas but it looks like a poor hybrid between mind mapping and UML. Markdown already supports hierarchy. I am guessing this let's you set coordinates for how to lay the canvas out but this is exactly why I'd never use it.
ljw1004
What does it mean to open-source or MIT-license a "file format"?
The MIT license is a license about copyrighted software, allowing people to use/modify/publish that software. But a file format isn't a piece of software.
Are you open-sourcing the specification document for the file format? (people are still free to write software that reads+writes the file format even if the specification document isn't open-sourced).
Are you open-sourcing your particular library for reading the file format? (I'm confused here, because you stressed that the file format was so simple, so I'd have expected it easy and maybe even desirable for many people to come up with libraries for reading+writing the file foramt?)
deafpolygon
It's just a marketing gimmick.
Anyone is free to write software that modifies a file - there is no copyright law protecting that. This is one of the reasons why many large corporations are pushing hard towards cloud - they can protect the format AND the platform then monetize it at will. End users lose control.
I will give them points for putting it in a readable file format. But placing it under an MIT license and "open sourcing" it, doesn't do anything - and they know that. It's just fluff to market their new features.
Edit: Re-reading what I posted, In case it's taken the wrong way, I am not disparaging the team at Obsidian in any way:
I think they do good work and make great software.
IANAL
> The file itself is considered instead to be an idea or a system and is therefore not protected by the laws of copyright. So the description of a file format is copyrightable, but the format as it exists in its medium is not.
kepano
I wish I could edit my post to simply say open format for now. The MIT license currently refers to the spec and the documentation. Over time it will also include any tooling we open source (e.g. validator, linter, migration tools). The intention here is to work towards a shared format for this type of relational+spatial data, and we're hoping to collaborate with other members of the ecosystem to make something that can have interoperability and longevity.
helloguillecl
Great! I love the philosophy around open and clear formats. Like I have said before, a second brain should be as open and reliable as possible.
imperfect_blue
Trello boards export to JSON, would you consider it open? OneNote notebooks are also an open and well-documented specification, as well as local first and backed by a very reliable company, which makes them just as open as Obsidian by those standards.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/office_file_form...
kepano
The Canvas JSON is not an export format, it is the file that the app actually reads and edits. Being explicitly MIT licensed also gives permission to other people/companies to build their own tools using that format.
helloguillecl
Exporting is different than "being stored in". Since it does not represent the full state of the data, no.
Macha
OneNote and this canvas format might be equally open and interoperable, but it's a hard claim to justify that onenote notebooks are as open as a folder of mostly standard markdown (the two exceptions being wikilinks and embeds)
gareth_untether
Long time user. It’s so fast and fantastic to have full control.
howmayiannoyyou
We're using whatboard.app for this at present. A bit different in approach, but a more more manageable and less infinite canvas. That said, this looks really cool and may be worth the desktop-app install.
s1mon
As evidenced by a link to AlternativeTo on their own site, this space has a lot (145+) of competition [0]. At some level, I worry about using things much more complex than a text file, because of portability and longevity. It's enough of a pain transitioning between Google and Microsoft (and back) every few years based on various jobs.
I have files from the late 1980's that I can still read, but only with Libre Office because Apple's supplied apps can't read old MacWrite files.
Some people swear by OneNote or Notion or Keep or various mind mapping software, but keeping things cross platform and simple is a challenge. I was never an Evernote person, but it sounds like that turned into a bit of a debacle. These tools work for now, but will they work 5 or 10 years from now?
xiande04
That's kinda the biggest selling point of Obsidian...? It's all just markdown files. Markdown is a standard format, so you can open it in many other apps as well.
captaincaveman
Markdown is fine for formatting text, not convinced it's great for knowledge management.
cschmid
I disagree; I think a system like Wikipedia shows that a textual and visual format like markdown provides the flexibility to convey pretty much any information. For any formal and semantic storage system, you will probably spend more time adapting it to each specific use case than to actually fill it with content.
pillefitz
Formatting and knowledge management are somewhat orthogonal concepts, aren't they? You store information in a textfile, have rendering thereof based on Markdown, and another layer to reference and index files.
xypage
The thing is that if you want something portable where if the app goes down you can still use it, you don't have many options. There aren't really any formats that support the kind of note linking used in PKM by default, besides maybe HTML but if you think that's a better solution than markdown I think we have a difference in values that can't really be remedied here. So assuming you're not using HTML, now you're looking for a common format that is easily parsed so that you can have links, and also simple enough that you can look at it on pretty much any PC. That really only leaves markdown and plaintext (and maybe JSON? But again, same as HTML, that technically works but it doesn't really fit the bill here), and markdown is just better for notetaking
esjeon
I agree. Markdown is way too much overrated as a multi purpose document format. I find it very limiting even w/ Obsidian. It would probably work well for some text-people, but anything more complicated than 1D character stream won't fit well into Markdown.
deafpolygon
Org-mode works well. It is essentially just a markup like Markdown.
kepano
On the other hand, the fact that there are so many Markdown-based editors that can read the files you create in Obsidian gives plain text format more resilience over time. Even if Obsidian were to disappear, your writing and ideas will still be accessible in the future.
randomluck040
Also I would argue that you can rather simply write a parser for the basic markdown syntax and convert it to e.g. HTML or plain text if necessary by getting rid of markdown specific syntax.
jay3ss
Or use pandoc[0] to convert a markdown file to an HTML file (and many other file types)
[0]: https://pandoc.org/
quickthrower2
Markdown is plain text, with conventions. To lose the ability ti see your data would requiring us to lose utf8 encoding which is unlikely as it is self perpetuating.
spiderice
Maybe many people on HN can do this. A lot fewer people than that on HN want to do it. And many people who use Markdown outside of HN can't do it.
skilled
If I may interject, AlternativeTo is a pretty shallow platform for finding alternatives (I do wonder if you even checked their listings), and it's also biased - run by a moderator team that can deny/approve listings as they please.
throwaway89201
> AlternativeTo is a pretty shallow platform
I've found AlternativeTo to be the complete opposite of shallow. In most cases its pretty precise in exhaustively listing every viable software alternative, which abundant filter options. Even if the ordering is "biased" (which I haven't really encountered), the site is quite useful without having many alternatives itself.
sph
Well, what's the alternative to AlternativeTo then?
arcturus17
I'm also worried by this, which is precisely why I'm considering a move to Obsidian from Notion. I'm pretty much writing everything in Markdown by now, including my personal blog.
joemi
How is moving from Obsidian to Notion relevant? They're basically the same thing?
arcturus17
I keep losing my files with cloud-first systems. I had a trove of notes in Evernote and I don't even remember which email I used to open it, nor if they are there anymore. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't lose local-first markdown files, as I could do the same thing I do with code: keep them in git, and then have a cloud backup for good measure.
infinityio
The difference is with a local-first editor (like Obsidian) you hopefully get to keep your files if the company stops being nice
neop1x
From FOSS alternatives listed there, LogSeq [1] looks quite promissing! It also mentiones canvas feature in their docs [2] (which are written as LogSeq graph, too). I am still evaluating it but so far so good, it even has an Android app (as a pre-release on GitHub).
[1] https://logseq.com [2] https://docs.logseq.com/#/page/whiteboard
abraxas
Not everything needs to live for decades. Sometimes the ephemeral capture is just as important in sorting out your ideas.
What doesn't work for me with these tools is that once I've gone deep I still need a tool that offers the absolute MINIMUM friction in its interface and for me nothing has conquered an A3 sheet and a box of coloured pencils.
Perhaps I should invest my time in really learning one of these tools but they never seem to be seamless enough to pose a real challenge to a pen and paper. Maybe if I had a Wacom tablet...?
JellyBeanThief
A drawing tablet helped me some, when I paired it with Xournal++. I think there are apps for iOS and Android tablets with nicer and faster interfaces, but I don't use tablets, so they didn't help. But the ability to quickly select a group of pen strokes and just move them around to make new room, as well as the ability to quickly paste screenshots of anything I was doing anywhere else on my computer made a big difference.
8n4vidtmkvmk
i bought a remarkable tablet for that purpose but still failed to adopt it.
abraxas
Yeah, the Remarkable looks like the most likely candidate to be able to displace a sheet of paper but my hangup is that the lack of colour will hinder its usability too much for me. I always use a few coloured pens when I scribble my notes.
raybb
One thing that's really missing for me from Obsidian is a view similar to that of Google Keep. Like sometimes I want to drop a small note "my stuff is in locker 2130" or "Look into Open Library <> WikiData linking percentage" and then easily be able to see it again in a few of all notes most recent.
A thread on Reddit give me a small hope this update may do that but I don't think so.
PS: I'm aware of the daily notes viewer, and that's what I currently use for most of these situations. But it doesn't help with having a simple way to see contents of all recently created notes.
Edit: this is something I mostly want for mobile
ngrilly
I'm using both Obsidian and Apple Notes, both on my iPhone and MacBook, and that's also the main thing I'm missing in Obsidian and keeps me partly on Apple Notes: it's faster and easier to create a note in Apple Notes, retrieve it (as they as are sorted from most recent by default, and also I can pin some notes), search, and navigate in folders (especially on mobile, navigating across folders is so much better with Apple Notes than Obsidian). I'd really like to see Obsidian takes some inspiration from Apple Notes there and improve his. Otherwise, it is fantastic tool and it's really good to know that everything is stored locally in plain text.
rcarr
Preface: I am a massive Obsidian fan and use it everyday.
The problem is they wanted it multi platform on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux so they made it using electron. Unless they either do native versions for each platform (5 apps!) or rewrite the entire application in something quicker like Tauri it’s never going to be as fast as apple notes, and will only get worse every time you add a new plugin.
misnome
My interpretation of their word “faster” was in terms of UI design, not physical app speed.
Please, we don’t need to have the electron rant every single time an app that uses it is discussed.
jackcviers3
Huh. It's almost like writing native guis with cross-platform bindings was a thing for a reason.
dr_kiszonka
They could consider rewriting it in Flutter/Dart. My understanding is that Flutter is faster than Electron.
PurpleRamen
There are community-extensions for this. "Vault Changelog"recently edited files, and "Recent Files" recently opened files. Not sure how well they work on mobile.
But true, a google keep like tile-view with auto-layout and filters would be a useful enhancement for obsidian.
Macha
Could probably do it with obsidian dataview + embeds which would work on android at least. Not sure how they deal with community plugins + app store policy though on iOS.
imdvayn
If you look at the Quick Switch view on desktop or mobile it will show you most recent.
Also, if you use a 3rd party storage solution instead of Obsidian Sync, you can view recently modified/created notes in the Recents on there.
If you wanted to see the content of all recent notes, you can write a custom query for the dataview extension that attempts it.
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para_parolu
I had the exact same problem. I ended up writing a small ios app. It only contains one textarea and sync text between devices.
It was rejected by appstore for simplicity. But works well for me.
gat1
Seems interesting ! What did you use to sync the text between devices please ?
TYMorningCoffee
Would adding a setting for the backend server sufficiently increase the complexity to get it published?
essive
Agreed - I have the very same issue as well. Google Keep is my goto mobile app for most of my note capture just due to its speed and ease of use. Now I have a few github utilities to download my Keep notes to markdown for Obsidian use later - but that isn't really ideal yet.
PS - all I can say about Canvas is 'wow'!!! Awesome feature!
eblanshey
Drop these quick notes into a folder (can be automated with Templater). Create another note that uses the DataView plugin to show you a table of all the files in this folder sorted by the creation date.
pilina
I use Nextcloud Notes for that. It has decent mobile app and works great with few notes (Nextcloud Notes doesn't work as second brain very much).
I have two notes in there - Buffer and Shopping list. Buffer is one note for all the small stuff you mentioned. I also have widget on phone homescreen for that note so I can access it pretty seamlessly. Of course, it also means, you need to access some Nextcloud instance (I run my own).
Edit: I use Obsidian synced with Nextcloud for all the "second brain" things.
dmje
I use Craft for this. Short term notes or stuff like receipt scans. Then (where relevant) I copy paste into Obsidian for longer term linking or whatever
probablynish
I just shifted from Logseq to Obsidian over the last couple of weeks. One of my reasons for doing so is that while Logseq does technically store your notes as local markdown files, there's so much added on top of that, that I can't really open my notes folder in Typora/[markdown editor of choice] and have a smooth experience reading my notes. The underlying format might be open, but there was still lock-in. Obsidian seems much better for that - there'll always be a tradeoff between features and portability, but I do prefer Obsidian's balance.
I wrote a very rough Python script to help me move my graph over to Obsidian - if anyone else is in the same boat, feel free to try it out https://github.com/NishantTharani/LogSeqToObsidian
wraptile
I feel like common markdown notes is a myth.
Once you start getting into your notes you quickly run into common markdowns limitations and it's super simple stuff like centering images or adding captions. Then you choose to either flavor your markdown or use HTML and it's no longer common markdown.
prashantsengar
Thanks a lot for sharing the script!
I too am considering switching to Obsidian at least to see the difference wrt LogSeq as per my current note-taking approach.
I like Obsidian's community and development better but used LogSeq because of the outliner experience.
sleight42
I've been concerned about Obsidian sync. IIRC, data goes to AWS servers but where does it go from there?
From reading the Obsidian website, they seem a tiny company. However, it is unclear where they are based and, therefore, what legal obligations they are operating under. What more, Obsidian has so far avoided the levels of compliance that allows for adoption by big businesses.
I love me some Obsidian but I'm mindful that, using their services, I just don't know how my data is being treated.
I realize vaults are encrypted locally. However, do we know that our vault secret isn't shared with Obsidian? Sure, it's (mostly?) an Electron app. But just how transparent and accountable is Obsidian about their operations?
joethei
No, we do not use AWS. The Sync and Publish servers are running in Digital Ocean datacenters in the US. How sync encrypts the data is documented here: https://help.obsidian.md/Obsidian+Sync/Security+and+privacy
As others have already pointed out, Sync is not the only option to synchronize notes, Obsidian sync is just a convenience option.
For compliance, I am guessing you mean certs like SOC 2 / ISO 27001?, or what are you referencing? As we are a tiny company (6 people, not all full time) we just can't expense the time needed to get such a certificate.
sasas
From the link:
> AES-256 is a military-grade encryption specification that's widely used in for example online banking.
The term “military grade” is meaningless and if anything raises a red flag (at least to me). What would be more useful is a detailed spec on the implementation.
Are the crypto routines implemented in house or has a well tested library been used? If in house, had there been an external code audit done? What were the results ?
s0ulphire
The data is successfully encrypted before it's sent (which you can verify with wireshark). What exactly are your concerns, given that the data isn't encrypted locally in the first place? And seriously with the question...what do you think is more likely, that the tiny team of 6 invested a ton of time reinventing the wheel with a custom in-house AES implementation, OR that they used any of the readily available and extremely well tested libraries? SMH
joethei
We did not implement the crypto part ourselves. We use the SuptleCrypto Web API implementation and a library called scrypt (this one: https://github.com/ricmoo/scrypt-js).
We also had someone from the EteSync/EteBase project take a look at the code before Obsidian Sync was released.
kepano
Obsidian is based in Canada. Obsidian Sync is E2E encrypted so the company has no way of accessing your files. The privacy policy is here https://obsidian.md/privacy
You also do not need to trust Obsidian with any of your data. The files are local to your device so you can sync them however you want. If you don't want to use Obsidian Sync you can use Git, Dropbox, Syncthing, etc.
Royaljj
I can't answer any of your other questions but Obsidian is owned by Dynalist, which is based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Their OCN number is 2538019 if you want to search them up, they're also on CrunchBase https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dynalist
operator-name
You don't have to use obsidian sync. Workspaces are just markdown files in your prefered folder structure, with some obsidian metadata (plugins, recently opened, etc). You can back them up in the same way as any files/folders.
pjdkoch
https://syncthing.net/ is your friend, too.
bovermyer
I just have Obsidian save locally, and I use Sync to sync those files between machines.
LunarAurora
Coupled with a dynamic plugins ecosystem, this is going to be a game changer (even in an already somewhat crowded market [1])
For example, (future) plugins for advanced filtering and automatic layouts [2] will certainly help manipulate very large canvases.
[1] Most of it is online/collaborative (https://infinitecanvas.tools/gallery/) though so it is not exactly the same.
mknapper1
This looks like Obsidian's first move away from using some dialect of markdown? The .canvas files appear to be human readable json, but certainly not as readable as markdown. I'm excited to try this out, but I hope this isn't a trend towards using proprietary formats.
ericax
We considered many options to use Markdown but came to the conclusion that Canvas is not something that can fit into a readable Markdown file. Either the Markdown file would so messy that it becomes pointless (i.e. you would never open it in Typora to edit), or it would severely limit the power of Canvas.
After much internal debate we chose the JSON format. We stay committed to keep it as open and easy to work with as possible. Plugin developers are already parsing and modifying the JSON file to programmatically change a Canvas view, and I think that's a fantastic start!
LunarAurora
IMO it is the best compromise.
Now that you crossed that line, I hope the next "custom format" will be a "real" outliner. You are surely familiar with outliners ;-) It is about full block-level support really, and all what that allows (API, backlinks, query, aliases...)
Anyway, Canvas Rocks! Thanks!
threesmegiste
Opportunity cost. I wrote on your forums about the decioson of using plain markdown. Consider other formats to stop bloating(yaml and dataview variables) markdown files. Now you have bloated md files and another format. Now i am saying you will add sqlite after one or two years. Waiting for extra file formats making existing files ugly. Also obsidian needs multi user vaults. Start to think what extra file format needed for this.
kepano
The .canvas files are a JSON-based file format that we open-sourced under MIT license. Just like everything else in Obsidian, it's still all local files on your device.
You can see the spec for .canvas here: https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-api/blob/master/canva...
rchaud
The linked documents are still Markdown.
If I understand it correctly, the use case is to link existing MD notes visually. That's a different way of looking at the data than the two-way backlink approach that was the foundation of Obsidian (and other personal wiki tools).
I'm interested in this, as I currently use a combination of Obsidian + SimpleMind, but currently SimpleMind has more features (full fledged mindmapping app), and I like having two separate spaces to sketch out ideas.
steveylang
I also use both, Simplemind is a fantastic mind mapping app.
For smaller scale mindmapping though, I am finding Canvas very usable already for such an early release. The ability to easily link or embed to markdown files (or create new ones) is really nice, and I like having all my work in a common area. Community created plugins will also dramatically expand the app.
There will always be advantages for the dedicated apps as well, but this is going to be a great option for many.
chrisdhal
And there's nothing saying you have to use it, this doesn't remove the regular notes.
seanw444
Or even harder-to-parse open formats. Doesn't have to be proprietary to be a pain.
alpaca128
I am amazed how Obsidian adds new features that are exactly what I was looking for. I already liked using it with the Kanban plugin, and I think adding such support for graph/diagram-like notes is the last piece of the puzzle for many users.
tianqi
While the feature itself was interesting, adding such a feature made alarm in my head. I don't think this is necessarily a good trend. Please Obsidian needs to be very, very cautious about adding such large features.
I won't forget why I, and many others, gave up Evernote. It did too much, not too little.
kepano
Obsidian is built on a modular architecture. Canvas view is a plugin so you can turn it off if you don't want to use it. Not much is changing with the core. You can still run Obsidian as a very lightweight app with most plugins disabled.
localhost
I've taken to calling Obsidian "The VS Code of Text" for this very reason. Thanks for all you do for building a fantastic tool that I use every day!
niels_bom
It’s in that direction, but I also think VS Code offers more and more flexible extension points.
I was reading the plug-in development documentation [0] this morning and the ways in which you can extend Obsidian feels relatively limited. I hope they’ll add more things to hook into.
0: https://marcus.se.net/obsidian-plugin-docs/user-interface
tianqi
Thanks. That's what I like about Obsidian, a flexible tool kit, instead of KFC party bucket. I just wanted to (self-servingly) remind Obsidian to keep in mind not to go down that road.
huecow
Hmm, not sure what you talking about (and I also never use Evernote), because I always see Obsidian as a Toolbox that you could customize personally to your own taste.
But I do understand why you came up with that thinking, can't denied that a lot of us did fall into that pitfall of overcomplicating stuff.
PurpleRamen
> It did too much, not too little.
Not sure whether this is true. Evernote did much, but on the wrongs parts, in the wrong ways, and then abounded them often in poor state. So in fact they did not enough on the important parts. They barely added the things people demanded, instead added features barely anyone asked for, or rewrote the clients for third or fourth time.
Obsidian on the other side has a sleak core, and everything else is in extensions. Even the core-app itself comes with most parts in extensions. While also allowing the users themselves to add extensions for their demand. This is significant more healthy than whatever evernote did.
codalan
It wasn't the feature-bloat that made me give up on EN. It was the broken sync, the difficulty getting an export of my notes from their server, the brutally sluggish mobile and desktop apps, etc.
Obsidian doesn't seem to be going down that road. Using another provider to store the notes (Dropbox, S3, Blob, self-hosted disk space, etc.) takes care of issues #1 and #2. Making this an optional plugin answer #3.
mpalmer
Did it do too much, or was it too opinionated and bloated? Obsidian is neither!
Obsidian devs have shown repeatedly that they understand why Obsidian is successful - just look at how they released this. No canvas-specific core software changes, just a new plugin that can be disabled.
input_sh
Like any core plugin, you can just disable it if you don't need it.
mackrevinack
this feature is actually related to note taking though. its not like evernote where they were off making nonsense contacts or food rating apps instead of improving their core note taking app
mmastrac
I would kill for some sort of integration between Remarkable and Obsidian. Both are excellent tools and the Remarkable is great for sketching on the go. I just wish I could keep both in sync somehow.
azeirah
I'm working on a sync tool specifically for ReMarkable to Obsidian.
It's still in beta for now, so it's definitely not flawless, but it does work! You can choose which files from your tree to sync, they will appear as pdf files in your vault.
mattivc
Just purchased the "Early bird tier" to give it a try. I just get a "500 Server Error" when clicking the "View Content" link in gumroad.
azeirah
Just fixed the error, I was loading an old page
daviross
When this gets to reasonable stability, this may be enough to get me to buy ReMarkable just for it. It might be worth seeing if they have any sort of referral program. "Buy ReMarkable through me & get X months syncing free!" type deal.
azeirah
A dream would be first-party integration. Syncing from one to the other is one thing, but a first-party obsidian application running on the ReMarkable? I'd let ReMarkable hire me to make this happen if this is something they'd be interested in
(I love my current job though!)
MrDrone
This is exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you! Very excited to use this.
sofixa
That's one of the reasons i went with an Onyx Boox tablet instead of a Remarkable - that way i have the Android Obsidian app, in sync, and i can sketch on it (with Excalidraw, i haven't tested Canvas yet).
dhc02
Onyx + obsidian is such a great combo
vorpalhex
It appears to be convoluted but Remarkable -> Rextract -> Readwise -> Obsidian looks like a path.
ilrwbwrkhv
Supernote is the superior device compared to Remarkable
crucialfelix
Feels nice and solid!
One thing I immediately wanted was key commands and fast clicking to create cards like FigJam https://www.figma.com/figjam/ This is an amazing tool for brainstorming and collaborating during meetings.
It looks like we can't assign key commands for the canvas actions yet. That will make it much faster to work with.
Imagine: - C then click to place a card. This would go into text edit mode inside the card right away. (currently it gets snaggled up with VIM mode requiring me to go into insert) - I then click to place an image, then the asset search dialog opens - N then click to place a Note, then note search dialog opens
When you are brainstorming you want to add cards really quick. Deleting, moving, cloning should all be really immediate. I'm sure this can be easily achieved.
Thank you so much for Obsidian!
desireco42
This is fantastic development, something that really makes a difference in how you can use Obsidian. I got notified from LogSeq group that they are also introducing whiteboard, so clearly innovation is happening at really good pace.
There is more room for innovation, as these "thinking spaces" are still inflexible and I expect to see more good things. Obsidian has huge advantage that is open and you are never scared to lose your work in somebody's walled garden.
To me, this is more important then any VR or anything like this as it helps us use computers to think and collaborate, augment our abilities. What were original reason for making computers, not just enslaving our attention in dopamine loop.
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Obsidian Canvas uses a new JSON-based file format that we have open-sourced under MIT license. You can see the spec here:
https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-api/blob/master/canva...
Just like all other files in Obsidian, canvas files are your own and local to your device. You're still linking to your own Markdown files which are just as future-proof as ever.
We decided to create the .canvas format because there wasn't any pre-existing canvas-type format we could find that fit our priorities around longevity, readability, interoperability and extensibility.
The .canvas format is designed to be as easy to parse as possible. We've already seen a few plugins take advantage of it, and we hope that more tools will become available that can use the .canvas format.