Similar experiences here.
I started my analog bullet-journal system 5 years ago, and though it's evolved a lot, continue to use it today. In parallel, I'd spent a few years writing what I call "devnotes" in markdown files on local fs. But they were sporadic and poorly organized. Then in 2020 I tried Roam Research, loved it (backlinks ftw), spent just over a year using it daily, but eventually abandoned it, faced w/ a "choice" between abysmal performance [the offline UX depended on Chrome local storage, and as my graph grew it kept getting worse] and putting my private thoughts in the cloud. Enter Obsidian. Finally! Offline, local fs, markdown, backlinks, plugins galore (eg Excalidraw integration)... it's exactly what I wanted. I've been delighted with it for the last 6 months, and recommend it to anyone interested in "tools
for thought", PKM, note-taking, GTD, etc.
For what it's worth, Roam team has just recently added end-to-end encryption option for graphs.
I'm a Roam user, although I've tried Obsidian, Bear, Zettlr and vimwiki. I keep coming back to Roam because I find thinking in blocks suits me better than thinking in documents.
Similar experiences here. I started my analog bullet-journal system 5 years ago, and though it's evolved a lot, continue to use it today. In parallel, I'd spent a few years writing what I call "devnotes" in markdown files on local fs. But they were sporadic and poorly organized. Then in 2020 I tried Roam Research, loved it (backlinks ftw), spent just over a year using it daily, but eventually abandoned it, faced w/ a "choice" between abysmal performance [the offline UX depended on Chrome local storage, and as my graph grew it kept getting worse] and putting my private thoughts in the cloud. Enter Obsidian. Finally! Offline, local fs, markdown, backlinks, plugins galore (eg Excalidraw integration)... it's exactly what I wanted. I've been delighted with it for the last 6 months, and recommend it to anyone interested in "tools for thought", PKM, note-taking, GTD, etc.