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OlaProisyesterday at 11:33 AM2 repliesview on HN

Valid skepticism! A few counterpoints:

Market exists: Obsidian has 1M+ users, Typora is popular, iA Writer has a loyal following. These aren't VS Code users who wandered off — they're writers, PKM enthusiasts, and note-takers who find IDE-style editors overwhelming for prose.

Different audience: Developers might prefer VS Code + Markdown Preview Enhanced. But Ferrite targets people who want a focused writing tool, not a general-purpose editor that happens to support Markdown. Think "writing app" vs "code editor with Markdown support."

Native advantage: Most Markdown tools are Electron (Obsidian, Typora, Mark Text). Ferrite offers instant startup, lower RAM, and native performance — appeals to the "I want my tools to feel fast" crowd.

You might be right that it won't achieve mass adoption. But there's a niche for "Obsidian but native and lighter" that I think is underserved.


Replies

koiueoyesterday at 2:30 PM

My impression was that Obsidian is more than an editor: personal wiki, todo tracker, database, etc..

The currently offered feature list in Ferrite — code blocks, mermaid — suggests you are targeting developers or tech people here, hence, not really iA Writer... Typora — never heard of it, can't comment.

Anyway, thanks for seeing this as skepticism, and not criticism. With my comment, I tried to subtly suggest that there should be more to it, than an editor.

Regardless, good luck!

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RealityVoidyesterday at 12:20 PM

Completely non-accusatory, just wondering. Did you write this post using an LLM? I sort of feel the typical "voice" if LLM writing here and wondering if I should calibrate myself a bit in this.

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