Some New Software (For Posting)
I've started using a handful of new software lately, and wanted to give a quick rundown on why and how they're doing for me.
Obsidian
Seen a lot of chatter about Obsidian for Notes and blog writing lately, and thought I'd give it a look.
I'd previously been using QOwnNotes - a very functional, fully text-driven Tag-based notes app that had been getting on my nerves a bit since they added optional-but-easy AI integration.
As it stores notes as just a folder of .md files, the notebook was very portable to Obsidian, though Tags don't seem to translate.
I'm not even remotely leveraging all the things Obsidian can do so far, but I'm enjoying the experience. The easy swapping between source and render modes is a big plus already, and it just feels that bit more user-friendly than QOwnNotes did. It had functions to do basic formatting and inserts via the toolbars, but very little was surfaced in the right-click menu and it was really starting to get on my nerves tbh!
I'll keep using it for a now, as going back should be easy if I find it objectionable, but honestly I don't see any reason why I'd stop using this - where it's good, it's very solid, and elsewhere it seems entirely inoffensive. I don't really want to worry about the "features" of my notebook.
NextCloud
This and the next one are born from me finally getting a NAS setup/homeserver setup I'm vaguely satisfied with, and having the confidence to finally tinker and setup my own services.
NextCloud is a self-hosted cloud storage app that basically lets you manage your own dropbox. I don't know a huge amount about it's security or reliability, but I've been desperately looking for something more responsive than daily backups, and more secure than... just... kind of hoping nothing breaks?
It's pretty cool to see sync files and access them across multiple devices so easily and naturally.
That said, I've found the syncing to be... inconsistent? The desktop app driving it just seems to have given up syncing my Notes folder (that I use to draft these posts) since I reorganised it to play nicer with Obsidian. This may be an issue with how I've set things up, or my NAS playing up, but I don't love having to figure this out when I have like a few megabytes stored - it's not going to get easier with more stuff in there. Anyway my gut says the linux flatpak app just sucks, so I might have to figure something else out.
FreshRSS
Very similar to QOwnNotes, I've been using Inoreader for my RSS since getting back into it, and while it had a lot of design and features that I liked they started doing a bunch of AI bullshit recently, so I've been looking for an offramp.
With my homeserver set up and functioning properly, I'd previously looked for a self-hosted option but never came up with much, until recently finding out about FreshRSS.
It's not as pretty and full-featured as Inoreader, but it pretty much does the job. It's at least a decade old and has the inexorable feel of sticking power that entails. One thing it lacks is the ability to search for a website more broadly and have it recommend the feed from previous follows - but that's a small sacrifice and something I can just use Inoreader for when it comes up.
One thing I would really like is a proper thumbnail view like Inoreader has - it's very basic of me but I like seeing what people put for the image on their posts. It doesn't affect my clicking habits, but I like the visual when I have a lot to catch up on.
I haven't looked much into extensions for it, because they're kind of a ball-ache to install with my setup, but also because none of them jumped out at me on a first skim.
One thing that gives FreshRSS a boost in my books is that I really like to actually visit the website from my RSS feed, and I strongly dislike the push to inline everything to the reader. I get that we call them "readers" but really for me it's a homepage, a place to jump off and go visit other people's sites. It feels more personal.