Obsidian is exploding in popularity as a note-taking and knowledge-management tool.

Users are switching because of some fundamental differences from other tools in this space.

What Is Obsidian

There has been an accelerated growth of personal knowledge management apps in recent years.

The one I use the most is Obsidian. Obsidian is a cross-platform application that takes a different approach to most of these apps. The critical distinction is that it's about being a tool that works with your data.

Most other apps of this kind have the data as part of the app, so it isn't your data until you export it somehow.

Made of Markdown Files

The main thing to know first is that it's all about Markdown files. Markdown is just a fundamental way of formatting text that is easily readable. They are just text files. Obsidian understands internal links and interprets the text to be presented usefully.

It's the most basic, transportable and flexible form of data you can have.

What is an Obsidian Vault

Obsidian is based on the concept of a vault.

A Vault is set as a top-level folder that you can place anywhere. It is where Obsidian will also save its data. This vault is your collection of folders and files. You can have multiple Vaults to keep things separate.

The Importance of Plugins in Obsidian

The most important aspect of the Obsidian app itself beyond any other feature is the concept of plugins.

Almost everything in Obsidian is a plugin you can have enabled or installed. It includes the built-in plugins, third-party available plugins or plugins you create yourself.

Do you use Obsidian and why or why not?