Thank you for this brief history lesson! I had never heard of St. Augustine and his treatise.

How do you think his argument fares now that the concept of purgatory exists?

The assurance that you can just write without having to worry about where the note goes is so powerful.

Exactly this! Thank you!

And thanks for the suggestions, I will check them out!

Yes, it reloads and different posts appear and I am using the website of my instance.

Some pages are only my subscriptions, but some pages are contaminated with other content, things that look like they would or could be trending on all or local.

Wenn der Vermieter ‘sein’ Auto vom Käufer zurückklaut, könnte er sich dann vor Gericht nicht genauso gut verteidigen und auf seinem Diebstahl (eigentlich ja Eigentum) sitzen bleiben und das anwaltlich ausharren? Wie schlimm wäre das?

Polizist: “Bevor wir eintrafen, soll es da so eine Situation gegeben haben.”

Ist der blind? Hat dem keiner das Video gezeigt?

gefaaaaahndet

“Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.” 🫡

Can you elaborate?

But usually commercial use means “if a company is mandating it be used”

That is wrong. Commercial use is very clearly defined legal term.

Source: I work in software asset management and you wouldn’t believe the insane and sometimes malicious licensing models that actually exist, while you complain about and blow up this very benign issue.

What is the difference between me, one dude at my company, taking personal notes via obsidian, and some freelance developer using it in their business? Why does the number of people working at my employer make my use commercial?

If you are a freelancer, then you have to pay for all of your expenses yourself. The devs are in a similar situation and they know how hard it is, to keep yourself afloat, when software licenses are sometimes incredibly expensive.

If you are working in a company with two or more employees, then your employer has to provide and pay for any commercially used licenses that you require for your work.

If you are using Obsidian for work and consider getting a license, request it from your employer, explain how it would improve your workflow, save you time, etc. If your employer rejects your application, then you must stick to using the software that your employer provides you with. If that is MS Word, then your employer mandates you to use MS Word (or pen and paper) for note-taking.

Second brain inevitably includes work-related stuff. So, no, not free for that use, right?

Are work and private life not separate areas of life? Which would belong in separate vaults? And does your employer not provide you with a separate computer for work? Are you using your personal computer for work or are you using your work computer for personal stuff? If it’s the former you almost sound like a freelancer, if it’s the latter, then you shouldn’t do that.

If you just write about work in your diary notes or hold onto an idea for work that you got while grocery shopping, then this is not work use and you are fine, but if you attend a work meeting and take notes using Obsidian, then this is clearly commercial use.

There really is no magic to it. It’s not complicated or broad (quite the opposite actually). In the end, you can do what you want, but don’t frame indie developers as ‘scummy’ for trying to make a living, while you profit off of their work. With this I will now end this conversation.