I’m starting on the path of 14.11-life-admin-pack and I see that Obsidian is popular. It is entirely new to me and I try to avoid locally-installed software, preferring self-hosted web-based solutions for easier access from anywhere. For reference, I am a huge fan of the online outliner Workflowy.
I found this self-hostable version of Obsidian. It seems to be a simple linux setup, ready to start using. Benefits would be that I don’t need to pay for Obsidian Sync, and I could access this from any device (it might not be useful on a phone though).
Has anyone tried something like this? Recommendations? Advice? Warnings?!
At this point I’m not even asking how to import the 14.11 template structure. I just want to understand this tool itself, to decide whether to use it at all.
Oh I notice one drawback of this self-hostable version: it’s not protected by a login, so should only be used on the local network or via tunnel, not public.
Too bad they don’t make an online version, but then they wouldn’t be able to sell their Sync subscription.
Without digging deep, I suspect that project is just downloading the linux version of the Obsidian client package and containerizing it and it’s probably not endorsed by the company. If you can make it work for you, that’s great and it scratches an itch.
Obsidian’s manifesto is pretty clear that they don’t want your data on their servers (unless it’s fully encrypted, i.e. Sync.) And they are very purposeful in choosing the open Markdown format so your data isn’t tied to their app. I’m sure if they hosted a web version they would charge accordingly, but that’s not their philosophy.
And given that they are not Open Source, I don’t see them offering an Obsidian-backed self hosting solution any time soon. But if they did, I would absolutely use it for the same reasons you suggest.
I guess my suggestion would be to experiment with a local copy of Obsidian and make sure you really want to go that route before putting too much effort into self-hosting it and sorting out the ramifications. You’ll always be able to drop your vault onto whatever host you want as they are literally just markdown files.
I run a small formfactor PC (Win10 Pro) as a server, that I can access from anywhere, either via Chrome Remote Desktop - or VPN & rdp. Possible to get refurbished units quite cheap, so also budget friendly. I installed a new SSD.
Long:
I have used Workflowy as my key source of truth for more than a decade. Workflowy is web-based and I love that I can access it from anywhere. I want the same for any other system I rely on.
I am aware that Obsidian is inherently a desktop product, and that people can use either the Obsidian-provided or third-party sync tools. But these choices still mean that I need to have Obsidian and that sync solution installed on whatever device I want to use.
It was my hope that self-hosting like this could provide me with a similar flexibility, but that is not the case.
Obsidian offers a paid built-in sync functionality or you can use iCloud if you are in Apple universe. Nothing to install with those solutions. Never tried Syncthing.
But hum…why would you switch from workflowy? I mean it’s quite easy to setup a full index in an outliner, easily. If it has been a source of truth for more than a decade now, and fits the bill still, why change?
I would highly, HIGHLY, recommend that instead of going the route you are heading down that you consider connecting your vault to a github/lab project that you have either self-hosted or made private in the online version of the tool. costs absolutely nothing and your vault is backed up with a very simple push hotkey within obsidian. I have and continue to use obsidian for work and life use and the gitlab connection is fairly straight forward and has given me great piece of mind that all of my work information in that vault is backed up to my firms private gitlab instance.
to your point of deciding if you want to use it I think Obsidian is the best note taking tool. I have tried seemingly everything and this one just cannot be beaten because of its level of customizability. If you are familiar with HTML or CSS you can make it look however you like, and beyond that if you can think of it there is probably a plugin for it.
