Oh, no… here we are again! This can't be real!
The last time I went on a rant about this, I settled on Obsidian as my ultimate note-taking and writing application. It sounded pretty final… I mean, the last chapter detailing why was called Endgame. Can't be more final than that—unless you work at Marvel!
So, yeah. Here I am again, ready to switch to yet another note-taking and/or writing application.
Welcome back!
This time, we are starting from Obsidian.
Obsidian
Obsidian is an incredible app. It's the best of its kind. It's the ultimate Evernote-killer.
With it you take notes like a champ. Classify them using world-class tools. And link them together into a mesh of ideas, trains of thoughts and such.
Yes, it's that good.
And writing in Obsidian feels good. But…
I don't need a living encyclopaedia.
And I'm way too easily distracted to write inside one.
I always get lost browsing my old crap instead of writing new things.
Obsidian is a platform. And apparently, I'm very good at customizing that platform—tweaking pixels in my CSS theme, hunting new plugins I don't need. So good, that I can't stop. So I don't write. Oops.
Time to ditch Obsidian.
It's not you, it's me.
But where am I even going?
So, as I said, I don't need a living encyclopaedia.
I mean, I barely need a writing environment at all. But I dream of having the perfect writing setup, so that perhaps one day, I can let myself write seriously. I'd love to publish a book one day, likely short science-fiction stories.
So, while searching again… I discovered that I was no longer looking for a note-taking app. I was looking for a word processor.
So, I'm back looking at MSWORD, Google Docs and the likes.
MS Word looks good, but it feels like it hasn't evolved in 25 years. I'd rather use Office 2003 than what Microsoft offers us nowadays.
Google Docs is a great application. But as I mentioned earlier, I get lost in the technical details. I keep fucking around with font sizes, families, margins and shit. It's a nightmare. So that's a no-go.
Specialized book-writing applications like Scrivener and yWriter are cool, but I don't want to manage my writing. I want to write!
Then I asked myself a question I never thought of: What are world-class sci-fi authors using? And the answer made me smile. Word? Scrivener? Nope, not even close.
WordStar
Isn't it curious that my search for (what I thought would be) a modern word processor to write my shit, would take me back in time to the 80s?
I love IT archaeology, so I went all-in and had a great time! And this research, here, had me learn the hard truth.
World-class authors still write their books primarily on versions 4.0 and version 7.0 of WordStar.
Holy shit. WordStar. 
WordStar 4.0
WordStar 4.0 dates from 1987—the year I was born.
It's what George R.R. Martin still writes on. All of A Song of Ice and Fire were written on WordStar 4.0.
Arthur C. Clarke called WordStar his "born-again writer" software back in 1978—it dragged him out of retirement. He stayed prolific until 2008, so the odds are, he never left 4.0.
WordStar 7.0d
WordStar 7.0d released in 1992 and it's the final MS-DOS release, so this is apparently peak WordStar.
It's the connoisseur's pick: every bug fix, every QoL features, every utility refinement, all in here.
Robert J. Sawyer champions it. He curated the manuals, built the emulator setups, made sure WordStar 7.0d runs on 2026 hardware. The guy's a badass.
Make sure you check it out here, it's awesome. You can even download it and try it out of the box: https://www.sfwriter.com/ws7.htm
So, no updates coming. No feature creep, no nothing. It's a closed system and that's the whole point. It's finished and permanent.
WordStar 7.0d is the end of the road for anyone who wants the Holy Grail of word processors.
There's nothing beyond that point. We're done.
Okay, so… what am I doing from here? I mean, WordStar 7 is awesome, it has a set of key features that are pretty unique, But man, it runs in an emulator. It also has its own file format… which means no Markdown here. It's not very convenient…
Mr. Sawyer's setup is amazing. It's a grand feat of IT archaeology. But it's clearly made for people who are already used to WordStar 7.
Not for noobs like here. As if I'd learn decades of WordStar muscle memory in my free times.
WordStar taught me something: the philosophy. A tight system. Just the words and nothing pulling focus away from them. That's what I was actually chasing.
So… What's the modern equivalent of WordStar 7.0?
What word processor attempts to fill this niche today?
Here are the key features I was looking for at this point:
- A word processor (no knowledge management or note-taking this time)
- WYSIWYG Markdown
- Excellent keyboard hotkeys
- Customizable themes
- Ideally compatible with my Obsidian Vault, so I keep organizing my files there, plus using Obsidian on mobile.
This new app I'm looking for will be my main word processor, but I expect to keep Obsidian and its vault as the container. It's a setup that delivers good features and a backup editor. And an excellent mobile app.
Well, the search didn't last long. It didn't have to.
Only one app remained. One I already knew but didn't want to pay for 2 years ago.
Typora
Welcome to Typora!
Typora is not a note-taking app. Nor is it a knowledge management platform or a digital library of sorts.
Sure, you can open an entire directory and navigate your MD files from the sidebar, but you don't have to. Or you can open your files manually from the Windows File Explorer if you want. But that's not the point.
The point is that Typora offers the best Markdown editor I know (even better than Obsidian's already excellent one.) And that's it.
There's nothing more to it. Open files, edit them with world-class word processing features. Look at them through the gorgeous themes available. Or create your own…
So I created myself 2 themes.
First one is inspired from the typography used in novels. Tight setup, Alegreya font-face, clean typography. It feels amazing. 
Second one imitates a green WordStar 7.0 setup. It's pretty sexy! Consolas font-face, DOS-inspired visuals, bright colours. I love it. 
I'm pretty proud of my WordStar theme. It's a nice homage to this legendary application's legacy and a great way to celebrate it.
Here's a side by side comparison of Mr Sawyer's screenshot, and the same exact text presented using my custom Typora theme on the right. I mean, look at the end of each line. It's a perfect fit. 
The name of my styles' CSS files start with numbers. So if I want to switch from a theme to the other, I simply tap Alt+T, followed by the number I want.
I also created an alternate version of both themes featuring a 0.5em space between paragraphs. Useful for writing poems.
Wait, there's more! I also setup a hotkey to switch on/off the option to indent the first line of paragraphs. So if I'm writing an IT procedure, I disable first line indent by taping Alt+R. If I'm writing a short sci-fi story, I enable it taping Alt+R.
Typora feels like a solid word processor. The sturdy, reliable writing application I was looking for all along it seems.
Writing hasn't felt that good in a long time. And I love it. Is Typora worth the $14.99? It totally is.
End of the road
Are we there yet?
Have we finally reached the end of the road?
Did we win?
Maybe. Two themes, two hotkeys, fullscreen typewriter mode… For the first time in a while, I'm not thinking about the app anymore.
I'm just writing.
Is this the true endgame?
Ask me again in 2027.
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