logseq

30 Oct 2021 02:15 - 22 Jul 2022 07:49
Open in Logseq
    • Logseq is an open-source alternative to Roam, and I'm in the process of switching over to it from Roam.
    • My main reason for switching is that Roam seems to be run by crazy people, so I don't want to give them money any more, and I don't trust them with my data. But Logseq has some other advantages (and disadvantages), discussed below although this is in no way a complete list.
    • Good points

      • Major
        • Local storage of graphs, rather than trusting them to the cloud.
        • Open Source (and in Clojure!) so theoretically hackable
        • Almost every feature of Roam that's important to me is copied
      • Minor
        • Links do popup previews, pretty zippy
        • If you use the app and store your stuff in a git repo, it does automagic backups
    • Bad points

      • [note: it's different kvetching about Logseq than it is for Roam, because it's open source so I could in theory address any of these points myself if I cared to.
      • Also the Logseq authors seem to welcome bug reports and negative feedback, I assume because they are smart enough to know that that is a valuable form of feedback for software builders, open source or otherwise.]
      • Logseq uses markdown files as its backing store (and a Datascript DB internally, like Roam does, but not as the basis of truth). This has some advantages, but it also sort of works against some things that Roam does better, like keeping block-level metadata. As it happens I use the edit-time metadata in Roam a lot, eg to produce the recent changes page which is now kind of useless.
      • Can't have more than one open window. This is a major flaw, and I find it hard to believe Electron won't support multiple windows.
        • Partly can compensate by putting auxiliary pages in the sidebar.
        • FIXED
      • Search is kind of shit (but at least it tells you the page name of a matched block, something Roam never managed to get right).
      • Can't print a page (neither could Roam)
      • Can't copy and paste out of it to GDoc etc (Roam can do this)
      • Can't easily spin out a chunk to a new page (neither could Roam)
        • FIXED there's a plugin, sweet
      • Lacks Roam's easy way to turn Unlinked references into Links (a weird omission)
      • A lot of minor clumsiness with the UI, eg the navigation keys aren't quite what they should be, makes the whole thing feel not as smooth as a tool-for-thought needs to be