any-sync VS obsidian-releases

Co-founder of Anytype is here [1]. Excited to share the multi-player release is live!

Last time I shared how Anytype can be used to build encrypted, local-first spaces around your interests [2]. Today, these spaces can be shared and co-created together: with your family members, small communities, teams, neighbors and people with similar interests. Examples: https://gallery.any.coop/Collaboration.

When we were testing collaboration internally for the first time, it felt like magic - we as a team were editing the same page, even after switching off the Internet - changes happened in an instant and all of them were synced via wi-fi.

Unlike cloud applications, in Anytype the encryption keys are stored locally, so only creators have access to them, so they own the space with its data and social graph. Every change is cryptographically signed, spaces can be created offline and can sync in peer to peer ways in local networks. This is enabled by open source protocol AnySync that supports high-performant collaboration over encrypted data and creators’ controlled keys. All our code is open on Github - https://github.com/anyproto/any-sync.

This first version of collaboration is very basic - it’s an alpha. It’s far from polished. We will focus on making it complete by adding notifications, public spaces, comments, and many other essential features in the coming months.

Why we’ve built it? Why anytype is the way it is?

The closest editor that follows our first principle is Obsidian editor:

The solution was already installed on both my computer and my phone: Obsidian.

> why does open source need to "win"

Open source does not need to win.

But your ability to be in control of your computer needs to be preserved. A proprietary fridge cannot control your diet, while a proprietary App Store can control what software you install on YOUR phone (unless you live in EU, hello DMA!). The tail wags the dog, so to speak. Proprietary software has also been shown to break user workflows or remove functions in an update while leaving users with no choice whatsoever.

One alternative to having open source win is to ensure software must come with a robust warranty and other assurances you expect from the things you buy. EU's CRA will make software vulnerabilities in WiFi routers covered by warranty, for example.

You can also ensure robust and interoperable data storage options. For example, https://obsidian.md/ stores all notes in Markdown, not holding the data hostage in case users will not like how future versions will work. GDPR actually has a provision for data portability (Art. 20), but it does not seem to have a requisite effect on the industry yet.

And until the above issues are solved, open source remains the best way to ensure that a software tail cannot wag your computer dog.

[2] https://obsidian.md/

So I've had my fair share of personal websites and blogs. I have built them on stacks ranging from the most basic HTML and CSS, to hosted frameworks like Wordpress and Laravel, to the more modern single page applications built in Vue and React. For a simple content blog I think you can't go wrong with a Static Site Generator though. These days I am almost exclusively writing everything in Obsidian. Which is great because its all in standard markdown format. This allows for a really neat and easy content publishing workflow.

Consider making an Obsidian[^1] plugin, or writing to Obsidian-compatible Markdown files :)

[^1]: https://obsidian.md/

Obsidian is a writing application created to allow for offline / private note taking in markdown format, in an interface that looks a lot like our regular programming IDE. It is very flexible, with a good collection of community plugins that you can use to customize Obsidian to your heart contents.

Obsidian support via our Obsidian Plugin