The Roam team has since reached out to me to say that graphs in the browser local storage have been available to non-Believers for a while. Sorry about that! However, I still think storing there is as good as nothing, so the point stands.
I currently have a note taking app I use and I've been looking at multiple different options to level up my note management game; This has lead me to watching many different explainer and comparison videos. I was intrigued by the title, but also afraid of burning 9 mins to clickbait. I have to say this video was perhaps the most helpful on the topic I've seen so far. I think you articulated your message quite well and helped me better understand the comparisons and tradeoffs. thanks!
I'm happy to hear that you didn't feel it was clickbait in the end. :) I hate when UA-camrs do that so I make a concerted effort not to be hinting at something that isn't true, especially in the title. Glad I could help!
Nicole... you are amazing. This is just one of the most enjoyable videos I've ever watched... you are SO open and engaging, but it is just what I needed. I had bought the ROAM annual plan (and I'd getter check to make sure it doesn't auto-renew) and let is sit there for a year. Decided to try to use it and was immediately flummoxed!
@@nicolevdh Thank you so much for this clarification (as I just switched from Roam to Obsidian)! BTW, how are you doing that progress bar? Can you point me to the code or the app you're using?
Fair enough! I like Logseq a lot, especially since it's OSS. If it were more than an outliner, I might be convinced to switch to it, I like it that much. Logseq is everything I hoped Roam would be.
Nicole - I just found your UA-cam channel last week. I have been binge watching all your videos ever since. Excellent content and you have a wonderful video presence. Quick question. Does obsidian’s block reference syntax cause any problems if in several years I decide to migrate to a different mark down based no taking system?
Thank you so much for the nice words! And that's a good question! Yes, it could, but less so than Roam. In Roam, the IDs for each block are not stored in the Markdown. So you'll be left with unique identifiers of blocks that you can't identify. I THINK the mappings may be accessed another way (EDN export) but not in the markdown file. Obsidian assigns unique identifiers too, but it does tag the original block with it in the md file, so you'll be able to do a quick search for that block and even copy its contents even if you switch tools in the future.
Love your videos. Just an idea for a future topic: I noticed in some of your videos you are using multiple vaults. Would love to hear your insight into the advantages/disadvantages of having multiple vaults rather than trying to squeeze everything into a single vault.
Salamat din! Logseq is awesome! If it weren't only an outliner and if it had more plugins, I would be tempted. Still a great community and a solid open-source project, though!
Excellent points. Owning my data and being able to work offline was the dealbreaker for me (even though I have super fast fibre at home and amazing 5G coverage where I normally move about). The roam cult was extremely off-putting and gave no help at all when asked. And their funder, has time and again proved to be a very little person. Which is in huge contrast to the developers and users and community around Obsidian, both on Discord, the forum, Twitter and on Github. People help and suggests solutions, which is just a wonderful way to create an amazing product together. Obsidian has completely changed how I work and think and I'm just sad that it wasn't around when I started studying years ago. Love it.
I totally agree! The Obsidian community is so diverse and welcoming, and the Roam cult has been arrogant and homogenous. Happy to be out of the cult, and even happier to have found Obsidian. It seems silly to call it a "note-taking tool", when to me, it's so much more. Thanks for watching!
Your video helped me tremendously on deciding on what to use for my library of books with my own notes. I'll give Obsidian a try because I need that linking feature with the terms that is not found with notion (I think) and the subscription fee on Roam research is a bit too steep for me. Im actually binge watching your other obsidian-related videos and it's been truly helpful and entertaining. You really deserved more subs! Maraming salamat ate Nicole! ❤
So awesome. Thank you. I have never in my life been as productive in writing as I have been with Roam. It is still shocking to me how much I can write and think and link with Roam. BUT - the outlining messes with my publication ability. I think in paragraphs and documents, not in bullet points. Now that I have added Obsidian, I can pull things together so much more easily with a text file. Thanks again for the overview.
So happy to have found your channel (via Community Talks). I've just started using Obsidian and am now obsessed with it. Haven't used Roam before and thanks for the comparison. The progress bar is genius.
Oh, thanks for letting me know where you came from! I enjoyed that talk and learning from the other presenters. Welcome to the Obsidian community! Also thanks for mentioning the progress bars!
Thank you so much for making this video!! So comprehensive 👏 After much research into the various note-taking apps, I was down to Roam vs Obsidian. I started to lean more towards Obsidian then your video explained the advantages using values of digital note-taking I care about. I now feel more confident I'm making the right decision migrating to Obsidian, you're the best!
Hi Shemona! I'm happy I was able to help you! It took me a year to decide to make the switch. I'm confident you'll be happy with your decision. Welcome to the Obsidian community! It's full of good people. :)
Thank you. Simple and honest info. I'm just new to this kind of knowledge management app like Roam and Obsidian now I'm learning just more than regular taking note Google keep, MS OneNote. And nice to know that you are Filipino. I'm not but I use to go work there.
Really enjoyed this, thank you! I would love to see more about Dataview and Templater in particular. The others i think will be easier to pick up on my own but those feel like they have a lot of depth and i would love a learning accelerant!
Thank you, Doug, that is good feedback! They are definitely not plugins that are intuitive-- I still feel like I'm discovering new aspects to them! There is a bug in Templater right now that I'm waiting to be resolved before I make a video on it, but Dataview is definitely on the cards, and I've added your vote to it! I really appreciate you letting me know what you'd like to see! :)
Your comments about Roam's tendency to be cult-like reminds me of how personal note taking can be. We each have different reasons for taking notes, and we approach the need for a "second brain" differently. Which is actually where Obsidian shines: It's got a basic core, but with community plugins can be customized to fit a variety of approaches. I can tell by watching your videos that I'm using Obsidian very differently. But it's been great - I think I've finally settled on a note taking app that works for me.
Yeah, I love that about Obsidian! I like its philosophy of starting from a very basic app and then letting us build on it. It's great that you use it a different way but it still works for you!
Super helpful🎉 I was attracted by roam’s network conception😂but as the notes grew, the net graph became unreadable 😢 And it’s expensive and public unfriendly, I am switching to obsidian too
What a great, informative and honest presentation, thanks Nicole! But, I must say that Roam's "weird bullet thing", as you put it, is still a dream way of capturing thoughts for a specific group of people (incl. myself). Besides that, Obsidian is a beauty & a winner in everything.
Thanks! I appreciate that, but my point was that it can't be changed in Roam. It's bullets, or nothing. In Obsidian, you can do bullets, too! But you can also write in paragraph form, so it's more flexible in that respect. However, if it works for you, it works! :) Thanks for watching!
I was caught up in the mass reddit bans, and was very turned off by how the founding team treated their community. Shockingly forcing your audience into submission through censorship and shaming creates a toxic culture. The "cult" aspects of roam were fun in the beginning...sort of a joke. Things changed though, and it became dangerous to give feedback that wasn't praising roam. Crazy that the CEO (Conor) just went after normal users like he did. Jumping to Obsidian was night and day. Such a wonderful and welcoming community. It's also revealed amazing creators like yourself! Obsidian 4 lyfe :). Please keep making videos. You are fabulous at it.
Hi Jory, sorry to hear that! I wasn't involved, but I was lurking as it all went down, and it was really pretty shocking. I'm glad your experience with the Obsidian community mirrors my own. Thanks so much for the support! :)
Great points! I'm fortunate to have discovered Obsidian first, and fallen in love with it, before even hearing about Roam. I feel I'm on the right track, then. Still a newbie, so only 500 notes thus far. Salamat din!
Thank you for an honest review and providing key reasons why you decided to switch. The more I use Roam, the more I think about the data integrity. I will definitely try Obsidian.
I agree with the Obsidian "freemium" pricing model and the open architecture that invites community and collaboration. I can think of a few FOSS projects in limbo that could have taken a page from these guys in how to monetize their efforts to sustain ongoing development.
I'm pretty happy with how they've operated so far as well. I do wish they would go open source, but they're still a far cry from walled gates like Roam.
Hi Nicole! I absolutely love your videos. Even as a long time Obsidian user, there's still so much to learn and your content is living proof of that. Oh and are you Filipino? Heard salamat at the end there :)
Salamat! This is helping validate that I may be choosing the right tool (Obsidian) for my second brain. I am attending BASB currently and tried out Notion, Logseq and Obsidian in a span of one week. I am using Evernote for personal notes and OneNote for work related notes. I am hoping to slowly migrate my notes to Obsidian. Your videos are very helpful for beginners like me, keep up the great content on this channel!
Salamat din! :) I think it's a good idea to try out many tools at the beignning because changing notes afterwards is really painful... I'm gald you're considering Obsidian as your main tool, though! I think you made the right choice too. :D
@@GoMiashPrivate I do! I mostly use the Obsidian Checklists plugin, but many do task management with Dataview. Actually just made a video about it yesterday: ua-cam.com/video/ccN5vJzXwvo/v-deo.html
@@nicolevdh Awesome timing, thanks so much! I was actually researching how to create daily notes in Obsidian so I can organize my notes from BASB, the video really helped me today :)
Hi Nicole -- I agree with all your points. I certainly got the KoolAid vibe from Roam, and like how I can tinker with Obsidian myself. Also agree that it's crazy fast. What are your thoughts or workflow for block-level references or meta-notes about a block?
Looking at your notes not seeing nested folder structure makes my brain hurt, but I'm slowly understand why as I believe you are a heavy user of dataview. It's taking me time to adapt lol.
Haha. I get that. No reason to do the same thing I do, though! Do what makes sense to you. For me, I didn't like having to decide whether a note was part of the work folder or the personal folder or the research folder or whatnot. My brain doesn't have folders, so I decided not to force it in my notes. Dataview was a recent addition.
Wow I love Obsidian Craft and Logseq but never understood why people called Roam followers a cult but now I see. How can you have so much “faith” in any app that doesn’t let you do anything…..outside of the parameters of Roam? Then they make it hard for you to leave….yea I actually believe that Roam is worst then Apple with keeping you locked in me I have and love apple and see their hypocrisy.
Ikr! The Roam Research community is quite unique among note-taking tools in that respect. They alone have chosen to be a "cult". It's not very inclusive.
Hi Martin! Glad to know it's not just me. I have indeed tested Logseq, and in fact I think it's the closest to Obsidian on the market right now. I LOVE that Logseq is open source. However, I don't love that it's a pure outliner, and its plugins are not quite comparable to Obsidian's yet. For now, Obsidian is still a slam dunk for me, but Logseq has real potential. Since it's so similar to Roam, I also think it might be better than Obsidian for ex-Roam users.
Great video! I’ve been a heavy Roam user for awhile now and really looking to move away to something more future proof. I guess the main thing is feeling like I actually own the notes I’m creating. The thing I struggled with with my last (admittedly half-assed) attempt to switch to Obsidian was the formatting issues of Roam exports. Any tips on resources that would help a not-so-technical person make the move?
I hear you! Ownership of your own data is really important. Unfortunately, to make the full transition, I had to write a few Python scripts to parse my notes. I wrote about what I did here: notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/Migrating+from+Roam+to+Obsidian . They don't require programming, but some of the steps do require you to install and run Python scripts. You could give it a go and see how far you can get!
@@nicolevdh Awesome, will check that out! I'm toying with the idea of using a combo of Obsidian + Logseq after seeing this: ua-cam.com/video/WpnbSWt_mgM/v-deo.html Basically using both apps to manage the same database of .md files. Super interesting. Seems like a good way to get the benefits of Roam block-level referencing/embedding, the fantastic outlining/daily notes experience, AND Obisidian's extensibility and long-form writing experience. We'll see how it goes, seems a little too good to be true 🥳
@@JonMcCullough I love Santi Younger's stuff! I also saw that video. I think Logseq is really cool, and probably what I would switch to if Obsidian weren't around. I don't really miss outlining at all, with the Obsidian Outliner plugin. I do miss advanced block embeds/transclusions a bit, but not enough to add another tool to the mix... for now! Logseq has real potential, and I'm definitely keeping an eye on it!
I wasn't realy comfortable with Roam and, within a week, found Notion. The straw that broke this camel's back was the inability to empty the trash page: just how stupid were the developers to presume that no one would want to? This video has given me the impetus to try Obsidian out. Thank you.
I would still recommend Notion as a solid app (but certainly, the fact that they store all your data on their servers is a big minus for me), but not so with Roam. I definitely think Obsidian is worth a try in your case, as it seems like it would solve that issue for you-- you control your own files on Obsidian.
I personally stay in Roam because of the indentation blocks (the bullets). That, for me, is what has connected with my mind-flow way of thinking. But I guess that’s not for everybody.
Whatever works for you, works! :) With Obsidian, you can do both prose and bulleted styles, so I find it more flexible. Roam can only do the bulleted way. But if you're finding that it does the trick for you, good for you! No need to change apps in that case.
3:00 Obsidian is also in a way its own markdown, if you wanted to move away from obsidian there's data view and callouts which only work in obsidian. Not to mention the countless other plugins out there (e.g., Kaban). You would have to use awk and sed to convert obsidian markdown. On the callouts they should have done ```callout-note ...```, not that syntax they use.
My only reason for not switch from Roam to Obsidian is Obsidian doesn't use blocks for organize information. Blocks are very useful. Blocks can embed in another, is used for filters, etc.
While it's true that Obsidian is primarily based on notes, you CAN reference, embed, and search blocks in Obsidian, in addition to sections, tasks, and pages. In that regard it's significantly more flexible than Roam.
Really amazingly comprehensive summary, thanks for doing this! Have you tried Craft and have thoughts on it? I'm on the verge of making a decision right now.
Hi Oliver! Happy I could help you. I have not tried Craft, but am honestly not interested in apps that don't store notes locally. Craft limits the number of "blocks" you can have based on how much you pay. Obsidian is free to use and even when you stop using it, they can't delete or restrict access to your notes because you have them on your hard drive. Craft is not for me! But I'm sure it is great for many others.
Hello from Belgium Nicole... I am an Evernote user since 2010 and Roam Research since 2020. I plan to leave these two services for Obsidian... I have already started to migrate the notes... I am also testing Logseq which is amazing.. It's an RR without the disadvantages of price and data capture... It's complementary to Obsidian... I don't know if you had the opportunity to test it? Congratulations for your channel and your site, it's very interesting... Thank you. francis
I used Evernote too! Sounds like we already have three tools in common! I have tested Logseq, but I don't think I could switch to an outliner. I don't want to outline my notes -- I want to write publishable prose. I do LOVE that Logseq is open source - that is really important to me. Maybe if it expands beyond the bulleted format.... but that's a big if, as that seems to be fundamental to how it's built. Thanks for watching, Francis! :)
Awesome video.. and subbed instantly.. One question though, Can you please let me know how to add different types of bullet points in Obsidian. I only manage to get circle points only not like on 4:08.. I'm really new to Obsidian and it would be really helpful.. Again, Thank you very much for the awesome content and looking forward to more videos.. 😊
Hi Priyasad! Different themes handle bullet points differently. Mine distinguishes visually when I TAB and do a nested bullet point under the parent one, so maybe your theme does too! Give it a go. :) Thank you for the support and sub!
From what ive compared with other note taking apps, is obsidian is less resource intensive; community plugins may change that. Obviously a very simple note taking software like the one on every windows computer is much less resource intensive but for a software that has some complexity it is fairly lightweight in comparison to alternatives. i'm mostly looking at RAM and CPU
Agreed. These benchmarks don't cite RAM/CPU utilisation, but use practical tasks to benchmark: www.goedel.io/p/tft-performance-obsidian . He's also done benchmarks for other tools, and all of them include the test data for reproducing his results. Obsidian came out tops, by a long way.
Hey Nicole - I'm trying to do the same (moving my notes out of Roam) but have absolutely no idea how to use this Python script. Any chance you could shoot a YT video showing how for the code illiterate folks? I've spent a good little while on YT looking around at how to run Python scripts but I keep getting an error message whenever I try to run it. 😂
thank you, super valuable. After downloading the assets with the python script, is there a way to import them in obsidian inside the node they were initially uploaded?
OK so my Notes is taking up too much space on my iPhone. Is there no free notes app I can use to upload my notes on for storage purposes?! And also be able to take them.back whenever? (Personal notes)
Hey Nicole, I plan on switching to Obsidian but I am scared about successfully migrating my notes from Roam. What’s the cleanest and seamless way to do this?
Hey Andre! I hear ya! I did document my own experiences here: notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/Migrating+from+Roam+to+Obsidian I recommend you work your way down that list, although I wouldn't call the process seamless. Roam doesn't hold all information in Markdown files so it's not a 100% conversion, but you'll get most of the way there!
Hi Octavia, Obsidian doesn't really have plans. Instead, the basic functionality is free, and then if you want to be able to sync your notes to multiple devices, you can buy Obsidian Sync. :)
I really want to like Obsidian the best and use it for everything, but I need to be able to share notes with people in a similar way to how I can with Apple Notes. When I share a note in Apple Notes, I can update it later and it updates for all the people I shared it with. I don't see a way to do this with Obsidian.
You can do that with Obsidian using some other cloud sharing service. I share a Dropbox folder that contains my Obsidian vault, and everyone who has access to that vault also gets all the notes updated. However, if Apple Notes works for you, I'd say keep using it! :)
Hi Nicole! I'm in the process of switching from Roam to Obsidian and noticed all my code block formatting got totally messed up. Do you know of a solution for that? Thanks!
Hmmm, how do you mean they got messed up? It's been about two years since I last used Roam-- weren't codeblocks also denoted by three backticks? Or were they messed up because of the bullets?
@@nicolevdh, 1) which OSS do you find most compelling as potential Obsidian alternatives; and 2) having some familiarity with Obsidian's creators -I recall you mentioning, in one or more of your vids, having interacted with them on the forum or something- do you have any idea why they've chosen not to open-source it?
@@y9tw0t 1) I don't find any of them compelling right now. I guess Logseq would be the closest, but it's still so far from Obsidian in terms of my use cases that I'm not even tempted to switch. I DO love the Logseq community though. I'm also interested in exploring Anytype. Athens Research seemed promising, but I haven't heard too much more about it lately. 2) Yes, the creators are easily available on the Obsidian Discord: discord.gg/veuWUTm . I haven't personally asked them about it, but you can view some of their rationale here: forum.obsidian.md/t/open-sourcing-of-obsidian/1515/23 It seems like they don't want to open-source due to the effort required to do so and they feel Obsidian would be more future-proof and sustainable if they didn't. I wholeheartedly disagree with their opinions on open-source. At least the plugins are open-source!
The Roam team has since reached out to me to say that graphs in the browser local storage have been available to non-Believers for a while. Sorry about that! However, I still think storing there is as good as nothing, so the point stands.
This channel deserves more subs, such high quality content!
Really appreciate you saying that! Thank you!
Totally agree
I currently have a note taking app I use and I've been looking at multiple different options to level up my note management game; This has lead me to watching many different explainer and comparison videos. I was intrigued by the title, but also afraid of burning 9 mins to clickbait. I have to say this video was perhaps the most helpful on the topic I've seen so far. I think you articulated your message quite well and helped me better understand the comparisons and tradeoffs. thanks!
I'm happy to hear that you didn't feel it was clickbait in the end. :) I hate when UA-camrs do that so I make a concerted effort not to be hinting at something that isn't true, especially in the title. Glad I could help!
Nicole... you are amazing. This is just one of the most enjoyable videos I've ever watched... you are SO open and engaging, but it is just what I needed. I had bought the ROAM annual plan (and I'd getter check to make sure it doesn't auto-renew) and let is sit there for a year. Decided to try to use it and was immediately flummoxed!
This is awesome! I was never a Roam fan, but you cover all the reasons I like using Obsidian now. Also, I love your progress bar!
Thanks for noticing the progress bar, haha! Glad you like it!
@@nicolevdh Thank you so much for this clarification (as I just switched from Roam to Obsidian)! BTW, how are you doing that progress bar? Can you point me to the code or the app you're using?
Thank you for a very useful comparison between the two tools.
Now I know which to try first.
Thanks, Edmond! Good attitude to try both! Both are good tools that will add value to your life.
You Da Boss.
Bask in that declaration with confidence.
Haha! Thanks ;)
"Salamat" made me sub. 😂 Did not know you're from PH too and I just stared watching your vids on obsidian because it's very clear 👏.
I am! :) Thanks for the support, kababayan!
This video is 💯. Love the reasons you shared and the delivery/editing. Great job ❤
Thank you, Gift! That means a lot, coming from you.
Thanks for being so sincere about this.
I may give Obsidian another try at some point.
For now, Logseq does the job.
Fair enough! I like Logseq a lot, especially since it's OSS. If it were more than an outliner, I might be convinced to switch to it, I like it that much. Logseq is everything I hoped Roam would be.
Really loved the status/chapter bar! I’ve not seen that on other channels and it’s just a nice touch! Loved this one as usual!
Thank you so much for mentioning that! It's something I learned and tried for the first time in this video!
Nicole - I just found your UA-cam channel last week. I have been binge watching all your videos ever since. Excellent content and you have a wonderful video presence.
Quick question. Does obsidian’s block reference syntax cause any problems if in several years I decide to migrate to a different mark down based no taking system?
Thank you so much for the nice words! And that's a good question! Yes, it could, but less so than Roam.
In Roam, the IDs for each block are not stored in the Markdown. So you'll be left with unique identifiers of blocks that you can't identify. I THINK the mappings may be accessed another way (EDN export) but not in the markdown file. Obsidian assigns unique identifiers too, but it does tag the original block with it in the md file, so you'll be able to do a quick search for that block and even copy its contents even if you switch tools in the future.
Thanks for saving me hours of research and coming up such great reasoning.
That is so gratifying, thank you! I'm very glad I could help you out just by sharing what I went through for myself anyway. :)
Thanks for sharing this, gave me exactly what I was looking for super helpful, I just can't thank you enough.
Love your videos. Just an idea for a future topic: I noticed in some of your videos you are using multiple vaults. Would love to hear your insight into the advantages/disadvantages of having multiple vaults rather than trying to squeeze everything into a single vault.
Thank you, Brian! That's a good idea. Yes, I do use multiple vaults, despite having started with a single vault. I have added it to the list!
Salamat, Nicole. Very useful video. I appreciate how candid you are! (Personally Im pretty sold on Logseq, but this was still interesting)
Salamat din! Logseq is awesome! If it weren't only an outliner and if it had more plugins, I would be tempted. Still a great community and a solid open-source project, though!
Excellent points. Owning my data and being able to work offline was the dealbreaker for me (even though I have super fast fibre at home and amazing 5G coverage where I normally move about). The roam cult was extremely off-putting and gave no help at all when asked. And their funder, has time and again proved to be a very little person.
Which is in huge contrast to the developers and users and community around Obsidian, both on Discord, the forum, Twitter and on Github. People help and suggests solutions, which is just a wonderful way to create an amazing product together. Obsidian has completely changed how I work and think and I'm just sad that it wasn't around when I started studying years ago. Love it.
I totally agree! The Obsidian community is so diverse and welcoming, and the Roam cult has been arrogant and homogenous. Happy to be out of the cult, and even happier to have found Obsidian. It seems silly to call it a "note-taking tool", when to me, it's so much more. Thanks for watching!
Your video helped me tremendously on deciding on what to use for my library of books with my own notes. I'll give Obsidian a try because I need that linking feature with the terms that is not found with notion (I think) and the subscription fee on Roam research is a bit too steep for me. Im actually binge watching your other obsidian-related videos and it's been truly helpful and entertaining. You really deserved more subs! Maraming salamat ate Nicole! ❤
Salamat din sa iyo, Mon. :) It's actually amazing that Obsidian is free compared to Roam's subscription prices. Welcome to Obsidian! :)
Really like your easy-going yet thoroughly professional presentation. Thanks (new sub)
Thank you! I appreciate that, and the subscription too. :) Glad I could help!
Thanks for the review! The fact that "O" uses standard markdown seems like a plus. Also, love that you use Hugo!!
Can't argue with such a great and honest review. Sent to my wife, helping her pick.
Fantastic video. You really help me make up my mind. Thank you very much.
So awesome. Thank you. I have never in my life been as productive in writing as I have been with Roam. It is still shocking to me how much I can write and think and link with Roam. BUT - the outlining messes with my publication ability. I think in paragraphs and documents, not in bullet points. Now that I have added Obsidian, I can pull things together so much more easily with a text file. Thanks again for the overview.
Thank you so much, this was incredibly incisive. I'm set on Obsidian. No more questions from me!
So happy to have found your channel (via Community Talks). I've just started using Obsidian and am now obsessed with it. Haven't used Roam before and thanks for the comparison. The progress bar is genius.
Oh, thanks for letting me know where you came from! I enjoyed that talk and learning from the other presenters. Welcome to the Obsidian community! Also thanks for mentioning the progress bars!
Thank you so much for making this video!! So comprehensive 👏
After much research into the various note-taking apps, I was down to Roam vs Obsidian. I started to lean more towards Obsidian then your video explained the advantages using values of digital note-taking I care about. I now feel more confident I'm making the right decision migrating to Obsidian, you're the best!
Hi Shemona! I'm happy I was able to help you! It took me a year to decide to make the switch. I'm confident you'll be happy with your decision. Welcome to the Obsidian community! It's full of good people. :)
hello your tagalog in the end shook me 😳salamat din po para sa video! it was extra validation for all my reasons for loving obsidian as much as i do 😂
Haha! Nagulat ka? :) Salamat din sa iyo!
opo mukha po kayong foreigner 🥴 HAHAHA joke lang po!
Thanks for the video! I was deliberating about these two. Great breakdown.
Thanks Jose! Glad I could help!
Thank you. Simple and honest info. I'm just new to this kind of knowledge management app like Roam and Obsidian now I'm learning just more than regular taking note Google keep, MS OneNote. And nice to know that you are Filipino. I'm not but I use to go work there.
Glad you're liking my videos! Welcome to the Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) community! :)
Really enjoyed your video. Thank you. I learned a lot and am going to start with Obsidian.
Totally with you!
Thanks, I'm glad I'm not the only one!
@@nicolevdh Obsidian made an appearance in the recent apple event as well (saw an image on twitter) but there was no Roam icon 🤷♂️
Whoa really??? That is AWESOME!! So cool!
Really enjoyed this, thank you!
I would love to see more about Dataview and Templater in particular.
The others i think will be easier to pick up on my own but those feel like they have a lot of depth and i would love a learning accelerant!
Thank you, Doug, that is good feedback! They are definitely not plugins that are intuitive-- I still feel like I'm discovering new aspects to them! There is a bug in Templater right now that I'm waiting to be resolved before I make a video on it, but Dataview is definitely on the cards, and I've added your vote to it! I really appreciate you letting me know what you'd like to see! :)
Your comments about Roam's tendency to be cult-like reminds me of how personal note taking can be. We each have different reasons for taking notes, and we approach the need for a "second brain" differently. Which is actually where Obsidian shines: It's got a basic core, but with community plugins can be customized to fit a variety of approaches. I can tell by watching your videos that I'm using Obsidian very differently. But it's been great - I think I've finally settled on a note taking app that works for me.
Yeah, I love that about Obsidian! I like its philosophy of starting from a very basic app and then letting us build on it. It's great that you use it a different way but it still works for you!
Super helpful🎉 I was attracted by roam’s network conception😂but as the notes grew, the net graph became unreadable 😢 And it’s expensive and public unfriendly, I am switching to obsidian too
Hard same! The performance issues really became apparent for me. Glad you liked the video!
Sold! Thanks so much for this...
Very informative and well constructed video, thank you!
Thanks, I'm glad you liked this! :)
Great video, and convincing enough for me to consider trying Obsidian over Roam. Thanks for sharing. I've subbed to you based on this video alone.
What a great, informative and honest presentation, thanks Nicole!
But, I must say that Roam's "weird bullet thing", as you put it, is still a dream way of capturing thoughts for a specific group of people (incl. myself). Besides that, Obsidian is a beauty & a winner in everything.
Thanks! I appreciate that, but my point was that it can't be changed in Roam. It's bullets, or nothing. In Obsidian, you can do bullets, too! But you can also write in paragraph form, so it's more flexible in that respect. However, if it works for you, it works! :) Thanks for watching!
I was caught up in the mass reddit bans, and was very turned off by how the founding team treated their community. Shockingly forcing your audience into submission through censorship and shaming creates a toxic culture. The "cult" aspects of roam were fun in the beginning...sort of a joke. Things changed though, and it became dangerous to give feedback that wasn't praising roam. Crazy that the CEO (Conor) just went after normal users like he did. Jumping to Obsidian was night and day. Such a wonderful and welcoming community. It's also revealed amazing creators like yourself! Obsidian 4 lyfe :).
Please keep making videos. You are fabulous at it.
Hi Jory, sorry to hear that! I wasn't involved, but I was lurking as it all went down, and it was really pretty shocking. I'm glad your experience with the Obsidian community mirrors my own. Thanks so much for the support! :)
Great points! I'm fortunate to have discovered Obsidian first, and fallen in love with it, before even hearing about Roam. I feel I'm on the right track, then. Still a newbie, so only 500 notes thus far. Salamat din!
*I* definitely think you're on the right track. :) Yay for another Obsidian user!
Very helpful. Thank you.
I've been testing diff. note taking apps and this video made me lean more on obsidian, also I got surprise at the end, you speak tagalog too.
Syempre, Pinay ako. :) Salamat!
Great content 👍I like your pace of explaining stuff
Thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked this one. :)
Great review and honest insight about picking the right tool for your personnel usage.
Thanks, Ebert! I tried to be fair. Glad the right message got across!
Thank You. I have had people tell me about Roam, but I have not used it. I am going to try Obsidian.
Good choice, Greg! Good luck and welcome to the Obsidian community! :)
You're an Amazing comunicator!
+1 Subscriber
Thank you for an honest review and providing key reasons why you decided to switch. The more I use Roam, the more I think about the data integrity. I will definitely try Obsidian.
I'm glad to help! I'm glad you've decided to give Obsidian a try. Hope it works out for you, one way or another! :)
Awesome, thanks! That's good reassurance for staying on Obsidian, rather than shiny-new-toying with Roam 🙂
Absolutely! Having made the switch, I just wish I'd done it sooner! :)
I agree with the Obsidian "freemium" pricing model and the open architecture that invites community and collaboration. I can think of a few FOSS projects in limbo that could have taken a page from these guys in how to monetize their efforts to sustain ongoing development.
I'm pretty happy with how they've operated so far as well. I do wish they would go open source, but they're still a far cry from walled gates like Roam.
Very cool info!
Great comparison video Nicole!!!!
Thanks, Eve! Looking forward to your Notion video! :)
Salamat din po! 🙂
Thanks for your interesting comparison 👍🏻
Thanks for watching! Hope it explained my reasons adequately.
Hi Nicole! I absolutely love your videos. Even as a long time Obsidian user, there's still so much to learn and your content is living proof of that. Oh and are you Filipino? Heard salamat at the end there :)
Yup! I'm Filipino. :) Glad you're enjoying my videos! Buti may Pinoy din na gumagamit ng Obsidian!
Salamat! This is helping validate that I may be choosing the right tool (Obsidian) for my second brain. I am attending BASB currently and tried out Notion, Logseq and Obsidian in a span of one week. I am using Evernote for personal notes and OneNote for work related notes. I am hoping to slowly migrate my notes to Obsidian. Your videos are very helpful for beginners like me, keep up the great content on this channel!
Salamat din! :) I think it's a good idea to try out many tools at the beignning because changing notes afterwards is really painful... I'm gald you're considering Obsidian as your main tool, though! I think you made the right choice too. :D
@@nicolevdh Btw, are you using Obsidian for task management? I am currently using Emacs org-mode for tasks
@@GoMiashPrivate I do! I mostly use the Obsidian Checklists plugin, but many do task management with Dataview. Actually just made a video about it yesterday: ua-cam.com/video/ccN5vJzXwvo/v-deo.html
@@nicolevdh Awesome timing, thanks so much! I was actually researching how to create daily notes in Obsidian so I can organize my notes from BASB, the video really helped me today :)
@@GoMiashPrivate Oh, a friend of mine is mentoring in BASB! :) Enjoy the course! Glad I coudl help.
Great video, loved it! 😍
Thanks so much, glad you like it! :)
Hi Nicole -- I agree with all your points. I certainly got the KoolAid vibe from Roam, and like how I can tinker with Obsidian myself. Also agree that it's crazy fast. What are your thoughts or workflow for block-level references or meta-notes about a block?
Damn, the Roam subreddit rules are written in such an abrasive and passive-aggressive tone
I know, right? It's a huge red flag. It's hard for me to condone supporting such a company.
Great video! Thank u very much!
Thank you, Jochen! :) Happy you liked it.
Looking at your notes not seeing nested folder structure makes my brain hurt, but I'm slowly understand why as I believe you are a heavy user of dataview. It's taking me time to adapt lol.
Haha. I get that. No reason to do the same thing I do, though! Do what makes sense to you. For me, I didn't like having to decide whether a note was part of the work folder or the personal folder or the research folder or whatnot. My brain doesn't have folders, so I decided not to force it in my notes. Dataview was a recent addition.
Wow I love Obsidian Craft and Logseq but never understood why people called Roam followers a cult but now I see.
How can you have so much “faith” in any app that doesn’t let you do anything…..outside of the parameters of Roam? Then they make it hard for you to leave….yea I actually believe that Roam is worst then Apple with keeping you locked in me I have and love apple and see their hypocrisy.
Ikr! The Roam Research community is quite unique among note-taking tools in that respect. They alone have chosen to be a "cult". It's not very inclusive.
@@nicolevdh right but I’m still happy for the concept they made popular
Thank you for your thoughts. As a longtime Roam user I have to admit that I share most of your concerns. Have you ever tested Logseq?
Hi Martin! Glad to know it's not just me. I have indeed tested Logseq, and in fact I think it's the closest to Obsidian on the market right now. I LOVE that Logseq is open source. However, I don't love that it's a pure outliner, and its plugins are not quite comparable to Obsidian's yet. For now, Obsidian is still a slam dunk for me, but Logseq has real potential. Since it's so similar to Roam, I also think it might be better than Obsidian for ex-Roam users.
Great video! I’ve been a heavy Roam user for awhile now and really looking to move away to something more future proof. I guess the main thing is feeling like I actually own the notes I’m creating.
The thing I struggled with with my last (admittedly half-assed) attempt to switch to Obsidian was the formatting issues of Roam exports. Any tips on resources that would help a not-so-technical person make the move?
I hear you! Ownership of your own data is really important. Unfortunately, to make the full transition, I had to write a few Python scripts to parse my notes. I wrote about what I did here: notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/Migrating+from+Roam+to+Obsidian . They don't require programming, but some of the steps do require you to install and run Python scripts. You could give it a go and see how far you can get!
@@nicolevdh Awesome, will check that out! I'm toying with the idea of using a combo of Obsidian + Logseq after seeing this: ua-cam.com/video/WpnbSWt_mgM/v-deo.html Basically using both apps to manage the same database of .md files.
Super interesting. Seems like a good way to get the benefits of Roam block-level referencing/embedding, the fantastic outlining/daily notes experience, AND Obisidian's extensibility and long-form writing experience. We'll see how it goes, seems a little too good to be true 🥳
@@JonMcCullough I love Santi Younger's stuff! I also saw that video. I think Logseq is really cool, and probably what I would switch to if Obsidian weren't around. I don't really miss outlining at all, with the Obsidian Outliner plugin. I do miss advanced block embeds/transclusions a bit, but not enough to add another tool to the mix... for now! Logseq has real potential, and I'm definitely keeping an eye on it!
I wasn't realy comfortable with Roam and, within a week, found Notion. The straw that broke this camel's back was the inability to empty the trash page: just how stupid were the developers to presume that no one would want to? This video has given me the impetus to try Obsidian out. Thank you.
I would still recommend Notion as a solid app (but certainly, the fact that they store all your data on their servers is a big minus for me), but not so with Roam. I definitely think Obsidian is worth a try in your case, as it seems like it would solve that issue for you-- you control your own files on Obsidian.
I personally stay in Roam because of the indentation blocks (the bullets). That, for me, is what has connected with my mind-flow way of thinking. But I guess that’s not for everybody.
Whatever works for you, works! :) With Obsidian, you can do both prose and bulleted styles, so I find it more flexible. Roam can only do the bulleted way. But if you're finding that it does the trick for you, good for you! No need to change apps in that case.
3:00 Obsidian is also in a way its own markdown, if you wanted to move away from obsidian there's data view and callouts which only work in obsidian. Not to mention the countless other plugins out there (e.g., Kaban). You would have to use awk and sed to convert obsidian markdown. On the callouts they should have done ```callout-note ...```, not that syntax they use.
My only reason for not switch from Roam to Obsidian is Obsidian doesn't use blocks for organize information. Blocks are very useful. Blocks can embed in another, is used for filters, etc.
While it's true that Obsidian is primarily based on notes, you CAN reference, embed, and search blocks in Obsidian, in addition to sections, tasks, and pages. In that regard it's significantly more flexible than Roam.
@@nicolevdh wow. In roam connect a Block with (()), in obsidian is same?
Hi! No, In Obsidian you use: [[Filename^ and then start typing out text from the block you want to select.
Really amazingly comprehensive summary, thanks for doing this! Have you tried Craft and have thoughts on it? I'm on the verge of making a decision right now.
Hi Oliver! Happy I could help you. I have not tried Craft, but am honestly not interested in apps that don't store notes locally. Craft limits the number of "blocks" you can have based on how much you pay. Obsidian is free to use and even when you stop using it, they can't delete or restrict access to your notes because you have them on your hard drive. Craft is not for me! But I'm sure it is great for many others.
Hello from Belgium Nicole... I am an Evernote user since 2010 and Roam Research since 2020. I plan to leave these two services for Obsidian... I have already started to migrate the notes... I am also testing Logseq which is amazing.. It's an RR without the disadvantages of price and data capture... It's complementary to Obsidian... I don't know if you had the opportunity to test it? Congratulations for your channel and your site, it's very interesting... Thank you. francis
I used Evernote too! Sounds like we already have three tools in common! I have tested Logseq, but I don't think I could switch to an outliner. I don't want to outline my notes -- I want to write publishable prose. I do LOVE that Logseq is open source - that is really important to me. Maybe if it expands beyond the bulleted format.... but that's a big if, as that seems to be fundamental to how it's built. Thanks for watching, Francis! :)
Thx!
Nice🙌
Awesome video.. and subbed instantly.. One question though, Can you please let me know how to add different types of bullet points in Obsidian. I only manage to get circle points only not like on 4:08.. I'm really new to Obsidian and it would be really helpful.. Again, Thank you very much for the awesome content and looking forward to more videos.. 😊
Hi Priyasad! Different themes handle bullet points differently. Mine distinguishes visually when I TAB and do a nested bullet point under the parent one, so maybe your theme does too! Give it a go. :)
Thank you for the support and sub!
@@nicolevdh Thank you very much for answering.. i'll certainly be trying out more themes.. 😊
From what ive compared with other note taking apps, is obsidian is less resource intensive; community plugins may change that. Obviously a very simple note taking software like the one on every windows computer is much less resource intensive but for a software that has some complexity it is fairly lightweight in comparison to alternatives. i'm mostly looking at RAM and CPU
Agreed. These benchmarks don't cite RAM/CPU utilisation, but use practical tasks to benchmark: www.goedel.io/p/tft-performance-obsidian . He's also done benchmarks for other tools, and all of them include the test data for reproducing his results. Obsidian came out tops, by a long way.
Yay for Hugo!
Love Hugo! Easy, performant, and reliable! :)
Hey Nicole - I'm trying to do the same (moving my notes out of Roam) but have absolutely no idea how to use this Python script.
Any chance you could shoot a YT video showing how for the code illiterate folks?
I've spent a good little while on YT looking around at how to run Python scripts but I keep getting an error message whenever I try to run it. 😂
Roam is still a charm to use, even when it comes with a higher price.
To each their own! :)
thank you, super valuable. After downloading the assets with the python script, is there a way to import them in obsidian inside the node they were initially uploaded?
OK so my Notes is taking up too much space on my iPhone. Is there no free notes app I can use to upload my notes on for storage purposes?! And also be able to take them.back whenever? (Personal notes)
I made the right decision choosing Obsidian.
Hey Nicole, I plan on switching to Obsidian but I am scared about successfully migrating my notes from Roam. What’s the cleanest and seamless way to do this?
Hey Andre! I hear ya! I did document my own experiences here: notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/Migrating+from+Roam+to+Obsidian
I recommend you work your way down that list, although I wouldn't call the process seamless. Roam doesn't hold all information in Markdown files so it's not a 100% conversion, but you'll get most of the way there!
@@nicolevdh thanks so much
Can you add photos and links to media to pages?
Which plan do you recommend for having sync all your data between your computer and cellphone? Thanks!
Hi Octavia, Obsidian doesn't really have plans. Instead, the basic functionality is free, and then if you want to be able to sync your notes to multiple devices, you can buy Obsidian Sync. :)
I really want to like Obsidian the best and use it for everything, but I need to be able to share notes with people in a similar way to how I can with Apple Notes. When I share a note in Apple Notes, I can update it later and it updates for all the people I shared it with. I don't see a way to do this with Obsidian.
You can do that with Obsidian using some other cloud sharing service. I share a Dropbox folder that contains my Obsidian vault, and everyone who has access to that vault also gets all the notes updated. However, if Apple Notes works for you, I'd say keep using it! :)
Which is better Obsidian or Notion
I made a video about that! ua-cam.com/video/AhhFLXfldJQ/v-deo.html
Hi Nicole! I'm in the process of switching from Roam to Obsidian and noticed all my code block formatting got totally messed up. Do you know of a solution for that? Thanks!
Hmmm, how do you mean they got messed up? It's been about two years since I last used Roam-- weren't codeblocks also denoted by three backticks? Or were they messed up because of the bullets?
@@nicolevdh I think it was the indenting and/or bullets!
Big L for Obsidian, in my book: !OSS
Totally agree! It's the thing most likely to make me switch, honestly.
@@nicolevdh,
1) which OSS do you find most compelling as potential Obsidian alternatives; and
2) having some familiarity with Obsidian's creators -I recall you mentioning, in one or more of your vids, having interacted with them on the forum or something- do you have any idea why they've chosen not to open-source it?
@@y9tw0t 1) I don't find any of them compelling right now. I guess Logseq would be the closest, but it's still so far from Obsidian in terms of my use cases that I'm not even tempted to switch. I DO love the Logseq community though. I'm also interested in exploring Anytype. Athens Research seemed promising, but I haven't heard too much more about it lately.
2) Yes, the creators are easily available on the Obsidian Discord: discord.gg/veuWUTm . I haven't personally asked them about it, but you can view some of their rationale here: forum.obsidian.md/t/open-sourcing-of-obsidian/1515/23 It seems like they don't want to open-source due to the effort required to do so and they feel Obsidian would be more future-proof and sustainable if they didn't. I wholeheartedly disagree with their opinions on open-source. At least the plugins are open-source!
me too
Cool to find someone who thought the same! :)
Why not to logseq ?
Some people like the block-based approach of Logseq, others prefer the page-base like Obsidian.
I use Google Keep
Almost every one uses Keep. I use it AND I also use Obsidian. Not the same tool and the same purpose. Obsidian is on another level.
I liked the python script
Thanks! I don't maintain it anymore, but it is still out there. :)
You can tell Roam's owners are arrogant from their prices
Still actual?
If you're asking whether this is current, yes, it still is.