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> Car manufacturers don't release their source code either, yet people trust something as important as their life to it daily.

I personally find it extremely disturbing. Two bads don't make a good.



What's so disturbing?

The incentives are aligned -> If a specific car model won't be safe, people won't buy it. Also, there is regulation in place.

I think we need exactly the right combo in software too. Obsidian is not open source, but you can gauge what they track in their privacy policy. You can try to confirm it using apps like Little Snitch. Also, all their notes are just plaintext so your data is portable.


> If a specific car model won't be safe, people won't buy it.

The world is not this black and white. This assumes the customer actually knows all of the pros and cons of available options and is able to take the time to make a decision that best aligns with their values. In practice (at least in the US) we have and infrastructure that makes it practically impossible for many people to live their lives without a car, and purchasing decisions are based almost exclusively on marketing materials and social forces.

> Obsidian is not open source, but you can gauge what they track in their privacy policy

A privacy policy is a pinkie promise. Why depend on something so fragile for such an important function in your life, when there are much more trustworthy options? Logseq, Org Roam, and Joplin immediately come to mind.


Safety-wise, the chance of choosing a non-safe new car today is very low since they're not on the market (a lot due to current regulation).

> A privacy policy is a pinkie promise. Why depend on something so fragile for such an important function in your life, when there are much more trustworthy options? Logseq, Org Roam, and Joplin immediately come to mind.

Yep, I agree. This is why my own previous note-taking app is completely open source[1]. But this comes with many difficulties, and often times subpar experience compared to closed source apps. That's why I decided to close source my next note taking app[2].

[1] https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38584960




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