Ditching Obsidian and building my own

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Obsidian, Longevity, and Data Lock‑In

  • Many argue the author’s “20‑year longevity” concern is actually a point in favor of Obsidian: vaults are just Markdown in a normal folder, so other editors can replace Obsidian at any time.
  • Counterpoint: heavy plugin use creates “Obsidian‑flavored” Markdown and hidden dependencies on JavaScript features that may not survive or port easily.
  • Some report plugin breakage over the years (live preview changes, properties/frontmatter changes), seeing this as fragility vs. the long‑term stability of simpler tools (Emacs, plain text, org‑mode).

Syncing Notes and the $4–$8/month Debate

  • A major criticism of the article: treating Obsidian Sync as mandatory and expensive, ignoring that:
    • Sync can be done via iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, Syncthing, WebDAV, CouchDB+LiveSync, git, etc.
    • Obsidian’s own sync now has a cheaper $4/month plan and is end‑to‑end encrypted.
  • Many feel $4–$8/month is trivial compared to the value of a daily tool; others push back that recurring subscriptions accumulate and they prefer free/self‑hosted sync.
  • Several users describe robust setups: git+Working Copy, Syncthing‑fork, Nextcloud/WebDAV, or couchdb‑based live sync, often combined with local backups.

Rolling Your Own vs Extending Existing Tools

  • Some see building a full PKMS as overkill when the main pain point was sync; a plugin or external sync solution would have been far cheaper in time.
  • Others defend “reinventing” as a valid learning project and a way to fully own the stack, even if it sacrifices Obsidian’s ecosystem.
  • The choice of Directus (source‑available, BSL) is criticized as not fundamentally more future‑proof than Obsidian; it simply moves lock‑in from app to CMS.

Security, Self‑Hosting, and VPNs

  • Strong thread recommending: don’t expose personal services directly; put them behind WireGuard/Tailscale/Zerotier, or similar, often with home servers plus DDNS.
  • Debate around “perimeter security vs zero‑trust” in homelab contexts: some argue VPN‑only access is enough for personal threat models; others emphasize layered defenses and good auth even on LAN.

Alternative PKMS Tools and Workflows

  • Widely mentioned alternatives: Emacs+org‑mode (plus org‑roam), Joplin, Trilium, Silverbullet, Logseq, Anytype, Tana, Apple Notes, simple git+Markdown, VimWiki, custom CLIs, and VS Code.
  • Trilium and Silverbullet receive particular praise from self‑hosters for power and extensibility; Joplin for FOSS + sync; org‑mode for text‑centric “cognitive clay.”

Meta: PKMS Philosophy and Over‑Optimization

  • Several commenters caution against spending more time tuning note systems than actually thinking, writing, and revisiting notes.
  • Others highlight that the “right” PKMS is highly personal; some want minimal plaintext+git, others want rich graphs, templates, and LLM‑powered search.