[kepano]

Consider a quick search. I have answered this question many times over the years, e.g. https://x.com/kepano/status/1701359669791670416

If you look at my GitHub profile[1] you'll see that the majority of my time is spent on open source. But my priority is open sourcing the tools and libraries I would want if I were building an alternative to Obsidian (Defuddle, JSON Canvas, Web Clipper, Importer, Flexoki, etc) because I believe all software is ephemeral and that files matter more than apps[2].

Obsidian is a free app made by seven people. If we were purely financially-motivated there are many levers we could have pulled, e.g. adding feature gates, not allowing alternatives to our paid services into the official directory, etc. But as I wrote in the tweet linked above, I have spent decades making open source projects and those have never paid the bills. So yes, there is some financial motivation behind that decision.

[1]: https://github.com/kepano

[2]: https://stephango.com/file-over-app

[foofloobar]

I've read your twitter post. That makes sense. I've read a blog post or some kind forum thread in which it was said that the maintenance of Obsidian as an open source project would be an issue and some other similar statements. This was a while ago.

Some are OK with the use of a closed source note taking app. Perhaps an enterprise version with a different feature set might be useful to companies.

For notes written on my own computer, I use open source software to write and handle the sync myself.