Roam v. Obsidian

Posted by MadaboutDana
May 24, 2021 at 09:29 AM

Couple of points here, just for info:

Bear’s search function is exceptionally good – general searches automatically extend to individual notes and highlight search terms in those notes accordingly (unlike most other notetaking software). Actually, it’s always been pretty good, so I’m a bit surprised at the criticism. Ulysses is great, but locks you into its proprietary database. While it’s perfectly possible to export Ulysses content (as e.g. markup files), it’s not possible to use Ulysses files with anything other than Ulysses. There are good reasons for this, of course.

UpNote does in fact put a quick note icon in the Menu Bar, which works perfectly well. You can also kick off searches from the Menu Bar.

satis wrote:
I think you can see where the overlap is, the question is how much you
>need the additional linking features, and how much you’re willing to
>migrate to apps with pretty restricted typography/theming compared to
>OmniOutliner or Bear.
> >Speaking of Bear, I’ve tried it many times but just didn’t gel with the
>UI and the limited font choice, and never really found it measurably
>better *for my own needs* than Apple Notes. You might find this recent
>comparison article interesting, from someone who used Bear for years
>then switched to Ulysses
> >https://woorkup.com/ulysses-review/
> >(Did Bear ever finally add search inside notes?)
> >Although OmniOutliner seems relegated to maintenance mode, it’s still
>the most powerful pure standalone outliner for Mac and iOS, and your
>files remain locally (and synced via iCloud) in your control. If you’re
>looking to switch Roam is probably a better all-in-one app as its
>outlining functionality remains better than Obsidian’s (although I
>prefer Obsidian’s sister app/service Dynalist for outlining.
>
>But overall I’m wary of using Roam - because of its UI/look, it’s
>relative lock-in, the dramatic growth of competitors adding backlinks,
>the pricing, and the CEO’s promotion of ‘cult’ status for the app
>(alongside a small, vocal contingent of noisome fanboys for the product
>on Twitter and Reddit).
> >I am a promiscuous dabbler when it comes to apps for writing,
>note-taking, task management, pinboards, and kanbans, but I’m very
>conservative when it comes to switching to another app. Right now, for
>example, I’ve paid for the one-time Premium upgrade of UpNote and am
>using it as an Apple Notes replacement, but for my needs in most ways it
>barely improves on Apple Notes, mainly offering backlinks but lacking
>the macOS menubar quick-note feature I like so much in SnipNotes. The
>most recent version of the app replaced some fonts without notice, but
>added some features like page info.
> >And I think that with Roam and Obsidian you’ll also see that the apps
>are similarly in flux, with features added and improved and the apps
>leapfrogging each other in different ways. I feel like this is still
>early times for this particular type of outliner/notetaker and I’m not
>ready to abandon my current core apps until something become too
>compelling not to switch.