Obsidian User Curious About Emacs – What Should I Know?
I’ve loved using Obsidian for the past year. It’s my second brain — I use it for storing future ideas, managing current projects, writing, thinking things through, and organizing logical reasoning. It’s served me super well, and honestly, my laptop is basically just an Obsidian machine at this point.
But recently I stumbled across Emacs, and… you know how it goes — rabbit hole time . I'm not afraid of the rabbit hole, I just want to know about it! I love learning everything about a tool before deciding if it’s for me. When I learn all I can, I'm empowered to pursue what's best!
So I’m wondering:
What are Emacs really good at?
Where do they shine compared to Obsidian?
Where are they worse?
If you’ve used both (or made a switch), I’d love to hear your thoughts, workflows, or even your “aha!” moments.
Thanks in advance!
I started using Emacs org mode to help me make sense of a manuscript after struggling with Obsidian for some time. Emacs + writeroom mode has the feeling of a console typewriter. I hit a keybinding and poof, distractions are gone.
I used Emacs Writing Studio as a starting point and vibe-coded some of the Lisp with Claude.
You don’t have to go full-on one or the other. I still use both. Use .md files if you want Obsidian compatibility.