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Comment by yathaid | Hacker News Reader

> Obsidian charges $8 a month to access the same notes across multiple devices. While not a huge amount for such a useful app, it adds up to an eye-watering amount - almost $1,000 if I planned to use Obsidian for a decade.

This highlights one of my personal bugbears. People have a mental barrier when it comes to recurring, low-cost payments; even though the net sum is small in comparison to other things that they wouldn't think twice to pay for.

A $5 latte every workday comes to (260 * 5) $1300 annually. Obsidian sync is $96. Why would you not pay this amount for a tool you use everyday?

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> People have a mental barrier when it comes to recurring, low-cost payments;

It's because they add up. In this specific case, considering OP job and it's heavy use of obsidian, it makes no sense to not pay for the synchro, if only to support the company[1], but if I was paying 8€/month for all software and service I'm using I would be bankrupted immediately.

Ironically this hurt open source and companies proposing generous free tiers the most because the amount of money people have for software will go to the one they cannot get for free.

[1] actually it makes no sense to develop your own tool when alternatives already exists

Also it is competing with a free editor and USB stick that has been around since 2000. That's the anchor.

Then now you have Google docs, Dropbox, O365, Notion, Confluence, etc.

I mean, by this definition it's competing with a small paper noteblock and a graphite pencil. Lose the USB and everything is gone, forgo all features of Obsidian, etc.

Also Obsidian asks for permissions to read files in all of the device on Android. They don't explain clearly why that is necessary.

I don't see it being discussed that widely.

Also another aspect is that many people seems to think Obsidian is open source, while it is not so.

Not anymore. As of Obsidian 1.8.10 you can use app storage which doesn't require additional permissions. It's explained here:

https://help.obsidian.md/android

Still they are recommending people to use device storage permissions with "All files" permissions rather than the limited App Storage permissions.

They prefer that the users use the less secure option.

The primary reason it's recommended is that it provides more freedom and interoperability. Read this thread and you'll notice that many people sync their notes using Syncthing. You cannot use Syncthing with app storage because the files are sandboxed. Many people enjoy the freedom of being able to read/modify notes using multiple apps.

The secondary reason is related to user expectations and file deletion. The device storage option behaves more like desktop in that if you delete Obsidian your files will not be deleted.

For people who are okay with the tradeoffs, app storage is now an option. That's a good thing, no?

That(using whole device, all files access permissions) is entrusting all your files to the good senses of Obsidian, which is not an open source app.

There isn't a good reason to grant an app unlimited file access permissions.

If Obsidian didn't allow people to store files in the device storage it would be accused of forcing people to use the paid first-party Sync. Offering both options lets people make the choice that's better for them.

Well, the file reading/writing makes sense if you wish to store vaults in your filesystem, an ability which is one of obsidian's main and most attractive traits over alternatives.

> Also Obsidian asks for permissions to read files in all of the device on Android.

Oh interesting where did you find that?

> A $5 latte every workday comes to (260 * 5) $1300 annually.

I spend ~€10 on food per day. Paying $5 for a coffee _every day_ sounds like a lavish luxury. Fun fact: global median income is only ~$2500.

> Obsidian sync is $96. Why would you not pay this amount for a tool you use everyday?

If I paid $96 for my notes to sync, I'd still need to set up some synchronisation mechanism for other files (e.g.: photos, documents, music, etc).

I.e.: I would still need something like Syncthing. If I'm going through the effort of setting up Syncthing, including notes notes for it is trivial.

reoccuring costs for reoccuring labour (i.e. running a sync service) are IMO fine. You either pay with money, or with time for such things. At the price they're asking and for what is offered (sync and financial support of an awesome product) it seems like a steal to me.

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