Ask HN: What does Org Mode or Neorg do better than Obsidian with J.S. plugins?

3 points

2 years ago

I read a bunch of comments comparing Org Mode to Markdown and editors like Obsidian but there are some points I want to discuss. A big benefit Emacs Org Mode seems to be the built in functionality for things like tasks and times, but that can be done in Obsidian with plugins like Dataview, for every other functionality Org Mode has like that can be done with an Obsidian plugin. I've also read a lot of comments that you can make your own Org Mode functionality using Elisp, Obsidian OTOH uses JS for plugins and code snippets, and I've written a handful of my own snippets. the JS library ecosystem is much larger.

I get that Emacs has been around for much longer and the [Lindy Effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect) where things that have lasted a long time are likely to last for much longer, however there seems to be far less support for Org outside of Emacs (besides Neorg). OTOH there are many Markdown editors and libraries, so if I decide I want to switch from Obsidian then I could and my Markdown Notes would render fine. I have many notes and don't have much proprietary Markdown in them. What if I became heavily invested in Emacs but in the future felt like using another editor? Or the slim possibility of Emacs development eventually stopping? A lot of Org Mode functionality seems to be specific to Emacs / Emacs' environment (same thing Obsidian JS really). I read one comment saying that implementations outside of Emacs are half baked, like support for Vim motions and features outside of Vim and Neovim.

I've been spending lots of time setting up Neovim, and right now I'm thinking of using that with Obsidian for Markdown editing with Vim motions. But I want to know if Org Mode / Neorg would be worthwhile.