this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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[–] sakphul@discuss.tchncs.de 123 points 1 day ago (3 children)

This is something very important: Don't focus on aplications (FOSS or not) but on open data formats and proper import/export mechanisms so you can switch applications easily.

[–] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 22 points 1 day ago (5 children)

That's why I use Obsidian! It's not open source, but all my notes are just... pre-emptively saved as markdown files on disk. If they fuck me over I can just leave and open it in literally any markdown editor 😭

If they used a proprietary format, I probably just wouldn't have used them in the first place and would have had to use a shittier alternative.

[–] ornery_chemist@mander.xyz 1 points 21 minutes ago

Obsidian is pretty good. I currently use Logseq, which has a slightly different model that clicked a bit better for me. As a bonus, it's open-source.

[–] u_tamtam@programming.dev -1 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

You could, I don't know, use an open source note taking app? I mean, it's not like obsidian has some unique and unmatched capabilities ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[–] JustEnoughDucks@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

What is a plaintext (non-database) md editor that had wikilinks, LaTeX, back links, tags, PDF export, properties and dataviews, and a plugin community? Plus it needs an android app and desktop app that can be synced (even just via syncthing) seamlessly.

I am always open for switching!

[–] u_tamtam@programming.dev 1 points 30 minutes ago

If you drop the plaintext requirement (which IMO is anachronistic, if not for the necessity to fend against a potentially turning hostile developer in a close-source set-up), you may find https://triliumnotes.org/ liberating.

If you must stick to the "notes as plain text files" paradigm, siyuan is better than obsidian in about every aspect, and logseq in other, more niche ones. Trilium is better than them all (IMHO), being the only one that does "note as data" correctly and efficiently (you don't have the same data model divide like seen in notion between notes and databases).

[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

https://joplinapp.org/

Seems interesting

Im a VSCodium kind of guy myself

[–] u_tamtam@programming.dev 1 points 27 minutes ago

Joplin is reasonably good as long as you don't use so much metadata to keep things organised. It's also pretty rigid, and hence limiting. If you want something with the superficial simplicity of joplin, but that would scale up to your needs, I recommend giving https://triliumnotes.org/ a good look.

[–] JustEnoughDucks@slrpnk.net 1 points 28 minutes ago

Vscodium for notes, interesting.

I looked into joplin before obsidian actually, but it is much more of a standard note taker, not good for zettelkasten sort of notes (link and tag focused)

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (3 children)

The silence is deafening, because there isn’t a FOSS program that comes close to Obsidian’s functionality. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen someone drop the “lul just use FOSS instead” line to garner upvotes, when literally no FOSS alternative exists. There are some FOSS programs that come close in some regards, but none of them do everything Obsidian does and support multiple platforms.

Lemmy has an obsession with FOSS (for good reason) but that means many users basically try to act like FOSS vegans. They’d use six different (and largely incompatible) FOSS programs just to scratch the surface of what a closed-source program can do. And their hackles start to raise if you ever point out that there aren’t FOSS alternatives for everything.

[–] u_tamtam@programming.dev 1 points 18 minutes ago

ok, but there's not much substance to your comment besides unsubstantiated "zealotry" towards obsidian and some general hot takes against lemmy and the FOSS community through which it emerged.

Maybe you could start listing out a few aspects and features of obsidian that you deem so important and unique, and I'm sure that you may discover a few very compelling alternatives.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm all set with https://triliumnotes.org/ . It's not just a more versatile and capable note taking app, it's also one that I can deploy simultaneously "local first" and "as a web service", so my notes are reachable everywhere (even where I'm not allowed to install the heavy client).

[–] Chulk@lemmy.ml 1 points 31 minutes ago

I'm an Obsidian user myself, but I have heard good things about Logseq

[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

The silence of two hours ago lol

Chill brother. Like i get it, and FOSS advocates should lead with meaningful alternitives first imho, but there definitly seems to be some https://joplinapp.org/

I personally prefer vscodium and nvim myself for notes but that isnt a one for one comparison to obsidian (in either direction) imho

[–] Narwhalrus@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Do you have any recommendations?

[–] u_tamtam@programming.dev 1 points 17 minutes ago

Since it's a topic that comes back often on /c/selfhosted@lemmy.world I didn't want to open new floodgates, but I can only warmly recommend https://triliumnotes.org/ :-)

[–] R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 12 hours ago

Same! Them using markdown means I've been able to make an Obsidian-like app for Wear OS, with a phone app to sync your vault to the watch. Wouldn't have been possible if they weren't using markdown. Hoping to launch it on the Google Play store in a month or so :)

[–] lelovsky@szmer.info 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I love obsidian, I wanted to send a donation, but they only sell merch with expensive shipping :<

[–] sheogorath@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

Sub to their sync service for just one month?

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Which markdown format?

GitHub or Stack Exchange or Reddit?

[–] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 4 points 12 hours ago

A combination of CommonMark and GitHub Flavored Markdown so it's compatible with most markdown formatting people are used to. Also supports LaTeX and HTML. (and of course any custom syntax modifications you make with custom CSS or plugins)

Its the base layer required for the long game yeah

Real. Given common data formats and import/export mechanisms, it should be possible to use any application for the same ends.

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 108 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is not a recommendation or a preference, it is a mandate,

ODF’s mandate is the document-layer expression of that principle, as you cannot claim digital sovereignty while allowing your documents to be locked in proprietary formats controlled by a single vendor.

incredibly based

[–] uuj8za@piefed.social 12 points 1 day ago
[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 29 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

It's a typo, they wanted to make support of the IDF mandatory

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 6 points 13 hours ago

Lmao, that's fucken dark

[–] Aria@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 11 hours ago

Probably someone tipped them off that the kids are writing "IOF"

[–] agelord@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

Wouldn't be surprised.

[–] mogoh@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I think this is not (entirely) true. Or at least I have some questions:

  • Is this an enacted law that I missed? Because it looks like it is a work in progress.
  • "All levels of government" Really? We have federalism. I am not sure, if that can be mandated by the governments.

BTW: https://deutschland-stack.gov.de/

I have searched a bit further: For federal and state governments, ODF is binding through IT Planning Council resolutions and federal guidelines, but there is no formal law yet mandating its use. Also, this is not binding for local authorities, but virtual it is.

https://www.it-planungsrat.de/beschluss/beschluss-2025-06

[–] Tja@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago

Thank you for the effort!

[–] morto@piefed.social 16 points 1 day ago

At least something good amid all the bad news regarding the future of software systems

[–] uuj8za@piefed.social 13 points 1 day ago
[–] RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 day ago