It doesnât seem very clear as to what you actually want to do. Do you need a file manager, somewhere to store notes and think, somewhere to undertake research, somewhere to write? Your primary purpose will dictate which tool is best for the job. DevonThink and Obsidian donât do the same job, in my opinion.
I primarily needed a file manager. I had millions (not literally⌠yet) of pdfs, emails, documents, etc., and I needed somewhere to store them so I could find things easily. It needed to handle different file types, and needed a strong search function. That was pretty much it. Thus, I became a DevonThink user. If thatâs what you need, Obsidian isnât ideal for that.
If you just want somewhere to write and think, maybe Obsidian is better for that, as itâs geared less towards archiving and managing content and more towards writing.
For what itâs worth, I did use Obsidian alongside DT for a few months, but I want my notes inside my âlibraryâ with my files, so it didnât add any value for me (actually I found it an annoying bit of friction in my workflow, since all my files were in DT and I still had to go in it, but then my notes werenât in the right place). Iâve gradually been closing it down.
But in any case, either you need a tool to do X now, or you do not. Assuming you do, start doing that in DT and see if it suits you. Itâs pointless trying to guess all future scenarios at the beginning. Unless youâve mapped out your workflow and donât plan on changing anything, you probably donât know what you will need in a yearâs time, and you should just start by fixing the problem you currently have.
I do far more with DT than Iâd planned, because as I grew more familiar with the software and solved my initial problem, I had capacity to think about what else I could do. I didnât even know what Markdown was before I started using DT, and now store many notes in that format. I would imagine most users start the same way with one specific action they need, and grow from there.
