#139

This sounds like a feature request to me.

#140

Good idea done!

#141

for everybody that wants an open source obsidian, check out logseq:

I just started migrating. Its still in beta and early, but looks really promising and the community grows well. i love it so far. my guess is that because of them being os and having all the benefits that come with it, that they will surpass obsidian in the near future in popularity (fast dev cycles, pull requests, …)

2 Likes
#142

Not trying to speak against what you said. Just wanting to comment on some interesting analogy that you used.

Even if locking my front door is not fully secure, at least it turns the attackers to my neighbor’s unlocked door. Even if close-source can still be abused, at least it turns the attackers (or at least lazy attackers) to easier targets.

Of course they can sue those who violate their license. But they did mention that they don’t have the time for those things. Developing awesome software for us is already something. So just go for the convenient path.

And I fully agree with you. How many will actually go through open-sourced code? Also, false sense of security. Just because it is open-sourced, we think that it is secure.

5 Likes
#143

I am an avid user of logseq, I use obsidian and logseq for different types of notes. I use obsidian like a blog and logseq for fast firing

1 Like
#144

its in developers complete discretion to make a project closed source or open source.
AND I RESPECT THAT.

1 Like
#145

I respect whatever decisions take the developers. I’d only ask them for allowing some confidence people to dispose the code just in case something happens to them (hope not! :pray:)

1 Like
#146

Is adding the pledge to open up code access if Obsidian discontinues still under consideration? It would be awesome to have something more official written somewhere in the terms of service.

1 Like
#147

I understand the idea of getting the source of what could be considered as a critical software in our workflow, but this is not to the users to require it and given the notes are in an open format this is the only insurance to keep our notes. Also open sourcing would require people to maintain it.

#148

There’s another aspect to open-sourcing: allowing the use of Obsidian within corporations with strict policies on what software gets whitelisted.

Being open source allows software to be subjected to a security audit. This was the case when I worked at Google - employees could request certain software to be evaluated for use within that intranet. Being closed-sourced was often a show stopper.

5 Likes
#149

closed-source products are also audited, I worked on proprietary products audited by governmental agencies and big companies, this is often the case in the enterprise realm.

5 Likes
#150

Open source dev gets angry that Amazon and other big companies are using his software for free, comedy ensues:

#151

This idea would go a good distance toward alleviating concerns about longevity.

I noticed recently that the Vivaldi web browser (based on open source Chromium and other FOSS projects) does something that might be useful for Obsidan to consider. Vivaldi uses and contributes to those projects (so they publish those additions) but they also have a layer of work (their interface and special features), which are not licensed as open source. From what I understood, they still publish that code for anyone to see, they just do not enable people to reuse/redistribute it under an open source licence. So I suppose people might learn from, might possibly suggest bug fixes or whatnot, but couldn’t fork it.

It strikes me that if Obsidian did that in combination with a pledge to open source upon discontinuation, it might address many (though not all) of the concerns that people requesting open source code would hope for. Obsidian could keep it’s existing business model based on a proprietary licence as is but allay many of the worries that people currently have.

I’m not necessarily suggesting this is the best idea but if it hasn’t been considered, might be worth thinking about.

1 Like
#152

New user. Just wanted to also put my request in for open sourcing Obsidian.

Wonderful app! Thank you devs!

3 Likes
#153

Another person here who would pay monthly for Obsidian if it were FOSS. I was disappointed to find out that Obsidian isn’t FOSS and that the developers have such an uninformed view on the matter.
Thanks to all the people listing alternatives in this thread! I’ll be checking those out.

#154

Hey, just a new user here.

Want to say it’s really good application and I really appreciate the work developers doing.
But I’m really don’t get a point, why they’re strongly trying to avoid opening their project? I saw dev’s reply in 2020, but it doesn’t make much sense, in my opinion.

We live in the complicated world, and I can’t and won’t blindly trust anyone with closed source code. If someone’s interested read articles and opinions from Richard Stallman, founder of GNU, GPL licenses etc. And if you want so, you can dig dipper after that. Because it’s all about freedom to choose, contribute and inspect, because I want to know in 100% what product am I using exactly.

Don’t get me wrong, this app looks and feels smoothly, with community plugins it already became a really huge player on the scene. But everyone who reads this, always do your own research whatever you want to do and use.

4 Likes
#155

I’ve started using Logseq if anyone’s wondering. I like it even more than Obsidian and it’s FOSS with a huge community and developer base. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#156

Obsidian can earn more money by donating.

1 Like
#157

Hi, I just created an account to add my voice to this topic, because I really like Obsidian, but it being closed source is what kills it for me. So I switched to Logseq as well. I hope the devs listen and consider switching to open source.

4 Likes
#158

This is actually hugely disappointing. I was planning on supporting Google Drive in iOS and fixing a few bugs I have found, thinking that Obsidian was actually open source. What a disappointment to discover it is not open source at all. I thought it was licensed, but still open source…

This is really heart breaking, cause I was getting used to the tool. I’m seriously considering switching to something else (probably Logseq), in order to reduce the big risk of something potentially happening to the company behind Obsidian that would put at risk my notes and workflow.

1 Like