#1

Why did you choose obsidian instead of emacs?

2 Likes
#2

Three reasons:

  • looks nicer
  • extendable with Typescript which I know
  • uses Markdown (so it ca be used with any other markdown editor)

I tried ord-mode. Thatā€™s really powerful but when Iā€™m out of my desktop I canā€™t efficiently take notes.

I didnā€™t choose Obsidian. I chose Markdown.

Previously I had a long relationship with TiddlyWiki. And while itā€™s very powerful I had a hard time with it when I tried to use other tools with my vault. One of the reason - it uses custom syntax.

One of the reason why Iā€™m not deep diving into the Templater and Dataview plugins is the same. I had all that functionality in TiddlyWiki and more.

But I prefer more permanent and simplistic approach when it comes to my knowledge vault, now.

8 Likes
#3

Easy to answer : it was so difficult to start to learn !

3 Likes
#4

Same thing for tiddlywiki ! :wink:

3 Likes
#5

@szdavid Oh, I so much love TiddlyWiki what I would teach you how to use it if we hadnā€™t Obsidian :slight_smile:

1 Like
#6

about third one: there are some discussion about capability and future-proof of md-files.

#7

I used to use Trunk Notes until it disappeared. Iā€™ve tried a lot of different software packages and finally ended up looking at Obsidian based on a lot of comments I saw about Obsidian on reddit. Itā€™s not easy to find a good note organization tool that is fully accessible to the blind. Iā€™ve really fond of the Vim key bindings, I havenā€™t used emacs in eons.

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#8

I love Org mode and used it quite a lot for a few years.
I even wrote my thesis with it:

I stopped using Org and Emacs for a few reasons:

  • tasks and notes management on mobile was always a bit of a pain (this is by far the largest reason)
  • performance on Windows was never really that great (I have to use it at work)
  • itā€™s a bit too time consuming, while I could tweak everything to my liking and I mean really everything. It was really worth the effort even though it was really nice to work in.

I already gave up on it before Iā€™ve discovered Obsidian but it surely didnā€™t help.
The downside is now that I have to use multiple different tools instead of just a single one with a single interface.
And no I donā€™t think that itā€™s a case of a single tool for a single job.
I still think that something like Emacs with better mobile support and a more modern way to configure things would be the better tool.
In addition I think that the Org mode format would be far better to write than Markdown but that doesnā€™t help you if there arenā€™t any tools out there which support it.

Emacs was replace with:

  • VS Code + emagit
  • Todoist
  • Obsidian + VS Code
  • Google Docs
  • iOS reminders + Tasks lists in Obsidian
  • Probably something else which I forgot to mention
  • Toggl for time tracking
4 Likes
#9

Another former org-mode user here. Wound up switching away because thereā€™s just no good org-mode mobile support (particularly on iOS) that Iā€™ve been able to find. Everything thatā€™s out there is very task-oriented, rather than note-oriented.

Iā€™ve migrated everything to markdown now (which took a long time ā€” I have almost 20 years of notes!), so Iā€™m disinclined to go back. Though I do really miss the ability to track time in my notes and produce a report/invoice all in one appā€¦

3 Likes
#10

Ah yes I totally forgot the time tracking part.
That got replaced with Toggl.
What I miss the most about Org mode was mixing notes and tasks.
That made working on projects so much easier.

1 Like
#11

I experimented with org mode, but am not an expert. I found that there was always time and effort involved in deciding where to place information in the org tree (okay, there is org-capture, but this still assumes you will find information a home at a later date). With Obsidian you just need to get your thoughts down and hopefully Obsidian will ā€œfindā€ the structure.

#12

how about org-roam?

#13

I tried to set this up, but found the process difficult as an Emacs Newbie.

#14

org-roam is great but has zero mobile support.

I love org-mode too but using it on mobile sucks. Well orgzly on Android is better than nothing, but itā€™s really not on par (canā€™t use org-habits, edna, org-roam and probably a lot of stuff like tables with formulas).

1 Like
#15

Iā€™m working on a web app now that supports Markdown and Org Mode with Dropbox:

https://ryanpcmcquen.org/DrWrite/

Itā€™s completely client side code (running on GitHub pages). I just started on it, so no guarantees on robustness, but it does work reasonably well on mobile and desktop. Itā€™s super minimal. I am planning to write a plugin for Obsidian that will add Org Mode support as well (using the same CodeMirror library that DrWrite is using):

Hereā€™s the source code for that web app, BTW:

#16

Thank you!
However I try not to use any cloud services for storing data.
Beside that the other problems with Emacs still remain and Org mode without Emacs doesnā€™t make too much sense.

#17

Obsidian took me minutes to learn. Emacs, definitely not so much. I only have so much brainspace for the tools I use to do my work vs the work itself. I will say that I did experiment with org mode for a while (using a plugin for Sublime Text, if memory serves) and I liked it a lot.

#18

Holler:

2 Likes
#19

Do you know of a good way do write Org mode files on iOS?

#20

https://ryanpcmcquen.org/DrWrite/

Note that the Obsidian plugin does work on mobile.