- File Over App is a philosophy and an appeal to tool makers from [Steph Ango](https://stephango.com/file-over-app), the CEO of Obsidian: > “File over app is a philosophy: if you want to create digital artifacts that last, they must be files you can control, in formats that are easy to retrieve and read… [A]ll software is ephemeral… give people ownership over their data.” - This is exactly why Obsidian is such an important piece of software. It’s being built with the express intention of allowing us to create enduring artifacts — the exact opposite of the principles that lead us to [[{2.1} we're losing the magic of our life's ephemera to the cloud]].