Notion/Obsidian/etc Are Just Crippled Office Suites

1. Notion/Obsidian/etc Are Just Crippled Office Suites
- 1.1. Notion/Obsidian Features
- 1.2. Office Suites

1. Notion/Obsidian/etc Are Just Crippled Office Suites

Scattered thoughts after class

1.1. Notion/Obsidian Features

Hyperlinking
Databases
Writing (pages etc)
Automations (buttons for DB, etc)
Sharing
Templates
Drawing canvas

1.2. Office Suites

Using LibreOffice as an example, we can cover all the features with the base install using the GUI.

1.2.1. Writing, hyperlinking, templates

All in Writer. You got hyperlinking to anything under the sun¹, pages structure, template creation & use, plus indexing, referencing, commenting, etc.

1.2.2. Database

Base. Comes with a proper SQL database², imports from whatever you need³, hooks into everything else, exports to whatever you need.

1.2.3. Drawing

Draw. Simple as.

1.2.4. Automations

Absolutely everywhere; everything hooks into everything else via macros or registering data sources within LibreOffice itself⁴; you can hook actions up to forms and buttons anywhere you please.

1.2.5. Sharing

That's what email is for.

(Downside of using local applications: all of the files are under your control, so you have to share them yourself)

1.2.6. Extras

You also get slideshows and spreadsheets, without having to futz with Google Sheets, and you hang onto everything on your own computer, and it's egressable⁵, and you don't need a fucking Internet connection! Crazy!

There's a lot of functionality packed into office suites, funnily enough. Do a bit of exploring and you may find that your workflow can get a lot more efficient⁶, or that you don't need some of the extra apps that you've been using⁷. RTFM and think about what you actually need to accomplish your goals⁸.

1.2.7. But, but, you use Emacs! You're violating your own principles here!

I program. What's your excuse?

Footnotes:

I.e., web, FTP, mail, existing documents, or new documents (if you're doing a depth-first search)

Not whatever tomfoolery

Including your Writer files or spreadsheets.

⁴

C-S-F4 pulls up the databases you've got registered

⁵

Unless Microsoft decides to remove Word's ability to export to text or HTML

⁶

Especially if you already know how to program, you can cook up some diabolical shit with macros.

⁷

Fun experiment: look at the tools available to you in a given office suite and see whether or not it can, alone, replace your personal wiki system or blog generator. The answer is probably yes!

⁸

E.g., "I need a personal wiki" → "I should hyperlink between stuff & have an index of the pages", "I need a site generator" → "I need something that exports HTML", "I need to fine-tune my setup" → "I'm procrastinating".