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Obsidian for Writing Manuals (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by hutchmcnugget@lemmy.world to c/obsidianmd@lemmy.world

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Is Obsidian a good tool to use for writing technical manuals? I would like to write an Operation Manual for municipality's water system. There will be embedded screenshots and some links to other sections of the document.

Ideally we could "publish" to offline html. The customer would also like a printed manual.

If Obsidian is no good, I would love suggestions on software you have used to write short manuals with pictures, preferably not Word.

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[–] laurelinae@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It’s bad news for Obsidian, not me.

How is that bad news for Obsidian? The creators don't care that you don't use their product if you are not willing to pay for it. What a strange way to frame it like Obsidian Dev Team would need to woo you to use their product by giving it to you for free or something like that. Bizarre.

There’s a million note taking applications out there.

Those have commercial licensing requirements as well. The issue is not Obsidian, but your intent on commercial use. Obsidian actually has very generous terms btw: free for education, private use and freelance. Compare that to the license requirement of any other common software you use.

[–] effingjoe@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

A vast majority don't care how any individual uses them. They put collaboration features behind a paywall, but they also host the data. I liked the idea of hosting my files myself, which is what makes this all the more ridiculous. What extra cost does Obsidian incur whether I take a note about a book I read or I take a note about a meeting I was in?

[–] laurelinae@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You miss the point. The same argument could be brought forth against any other commercial license, like MS Office. But you are right, the answer is: none and I consider myself a FOSS advocate, but this is not the world we live in. Obsidian Dev Team puts in work and for them to be able to continue doing so, they need compensation, it's work after all.

Most software doesn't even differentiate between private and commercial use or let's you pay for both, but makes private use cheaper. What obligation does Obsidian suddenly have to be free for commercial use? It's already free for private use, educational purposes and even for freelance work. If someone is making money using a tool, then why is it ridiculous to pay for the tool?

[–] effingjoe@kbin.social -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are you serious? I explained it in the comment you replied to.

[–] laurelinae@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, you didn't or I counter-argued and you seem to not have understood my question in the new context that I provided.

[–] effingjoe@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I am no longer going to maintain two forked discussions. Let's combine these into one.