This is the primary motivating factor for why I like https://prose.sh

You store your markdown files locally and then copy them to your hosted blog.

Just like Obsidian, right?

Yep except instead of it being a note-taking app, it's a blog platform.

But there's an entire workflow embedded in the use of Obsidian. It's not "just markdown". That's like saying you could move from vscode to notepad because it's "just text".

Yup and that is my problem with startups like supabase too. I have just started using pocketbase for that reason.

How does supabase not qualify as open source?

Their stack is primarily comprised of other independent open source projects. The one component that isn't is their "realtime" server that serves updates from postgres' WAL over websockets, but that is open sourced[0] under Apache 2.0. From my understanding the primary part that has not been open sourced is their database browser / web UI. There are plenty of alternative management tools for postgres though. As you can export your database what else would you need to ensure your portability and independence?

Granted they make their docs fairly opaque for trying to self host. Presumably to encourage you to just use their hosted service. Hosting open sourced projects seems like a very ecosystem friendly way of monetizing.

[0] https://github.com/supabase/realtime

> From my understanding the primary part that has not been open sourced is their database browser / web UI.

FYI, this is also open source: https://github.com/supabase/supabase/tree/master/studio

It’s not unreasonable to say I could build my own without having to reverse engineer the data format though.

I only lose the convenience of Obsidian, not the data I spent years building.

Yeah this. Would it suck? Yes. Would I be as fucked as some other platforms? No.

What's the workflow beyond opening up the app and starting to type in a new or existing document?

Your question is the equivalent to "how does Obsidian differ from a minimalist Markdown editor."

I don’t use Obsidian, but their bustiness model seems simple and honest. Hopefully, I think the worst that can happen is that they will get acquired by a larger company to be sunset.

lol, wasn't it the same with Plex? They just built lots of features around locally stored data.

Exactly. Actually, this blog post is about how it’s not very painful to migrate.