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Siyuan: Privacy-first, self-hosted personal knowledge management software

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Re: Siyuan: Privacy-first, self-hosted personal knowledge management software

#91

Post by packetlost »

sunshine-o wrote: post #56

Looks cool, but as I have been on this knowledge management / productivity journey like everybody. Here are my findings: If you are reasonably comfortable with computers / Unix. - You need to first rely on a directory structures, filenames, plaintext, lists and maybe markdown. Stick with a "File over app", Unix approach. - Try to sort things with universal concepts: locations, things, people, events, metrics, howtos.…

This is exactly the conclusion I came to. I still use Obsidian for a lot of things, but I've developed my own task management software that uses plain text files and fzf for everything: https://codeberg.org/ngp/tsk

It has worked great for me! That being said, sync and mobile usage is still a bit of a sore spot with it. It works beautifully with Termux, but I wish there was some way to slap a basic UI on top of a CLI application for mobile. Tk/Tcl is the closest but there's only options on Android (I'm mostly an iOS user) and even then it's not really ideal. For sync, I at least have a reasonable plan: IMAP4 or git-based sync. The roadmap and tasks for the project are tracked in-repo with itself, so it definitely works.

Re: Siyuan: Privacy-first, self-hosted personal knowledge management software

#92

Post by packetlost »

heavensteeth wrote: post #87
sunshine-o wrote: post #56

Looks cool, but as I have been on this knowledge management / productivity journey like everybody. Here are my findings: If you are reasonably comfortable with computers / Unix. - You need to first rely on a directory structures, filenames, plaintext, lists and maybe markdown. Stick with a "File over app", Unix approach. - Try to sort things with universal concepts: locations, things, people, events, metrics, howtos.…

I'll leave my imcomplete mind dump below for posterity but I'll make it known that while writing it, I did realise that what I've invented is a text editor. ---------------------------------- I had an idea for a deeply unix-y note taking software a while ago and I've continued to think it would actually work very well. Notes could either be an sqlite database (nets you compression, performance, easy backups, etc.) or…

I do this except with git, fzf, and a simple CLI tool:

https://codeberg.org/ngp/tsk

Contributions welcome :)

Re: Siyuan: Privacy-first, self-hosted personal knowledge management software

#93

Post by brunoqc »

oefrha wrote: post #36

The licensing is kind of strange. Self-hosted syncing is supposedly a paid feature, and there are indeed license checks in the code, but unlike your typical open core product with a separately licensed ee/ directory, this one including license checking code is entirely under AGPL, and FAQ specifically stresses “SiYuan is completely open source”. As such one can patch out the license check (literally a one line change…

> though that would be a major jerk move

Would it? If they don't want people to do it they could just use a proprietary license.

Re: Siyuan: Privacy-first, self-hosted personal knowledge management software

#94

Post by wumeow »

TheGeminon wrote: post #69
bflesch wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The link you posted gives me "According to relevant legal regulations, access is temporarily not supported in your current location." and "If your device or the Wi-Fi environment you are in is using a VPN service, please disable it and try again." I'm not using any VPN. Normal internet from Germany

It is also unavailable from Canada.

Same in the US.

Re: Siyuan: Privacy-first, self-hosted personal knowledge management software

#95

Post by sigmonsays »

I can second the recommendations i've read here.

My approach to knowledge management has been super simple. Everything is in git, in a big directory structure i've organically grown over time. I have so many notes.. 7 to 8 thousands of them.

Keeping it in git has allowed me flexibility to use it how i see fit. Sometimes i'm in emacs/nevom. Most the time i'm in sublime text because I have workspaces per project/concept.

Finally, for mobile, I push them all to my own gitea instance. I rarely need access to my notes on mobile but it's been something i've been thinking about more.

If anyone has any recommendations on how to read a directory of text files on android, i'm all ears.

Re: Siyuan: Privacy-first, self-hosted personal knowledge management software

#96

Post by randomcatuser »

janwillemb wrote: post #32
coldblues wrote: post #29

I keep seeing these note-taking tools pop up again and again. I am heavily invested into Logseq already and the new database version is coming out soon. Unless these tools provide import and export utilities to convert your notes between the most popular applications like Logseq and Obsidian, only new users will use them and people with very few notes who can put in the time to move.

Creating a note taking, personal productivity app is an elaborate but common procrastination technique for developers.

right up there with creating your own personal website

Re: Siyuan: Privacy-first, self-hosted personal knowledge management software

#99

Post by kortilla »

cal85 wrote: post #85
zelphirkalt wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tagging is a strictly more powerful tool than hierarchies, at least with same amount tags vs directories/categories, because an item can be tagged using multiple different tags, but can only be in one directory, unless you create duplicates or symlinks or whatever.

I find the opposite. Being forced to consider hierarchical categorisation leads to a more powerful system in practice. It helps me create a mental reference to the item being stored. And it often causes me to see a better way to form an item in the first place — eg maybe this note is really two notes, maybe this idea can actually just be discarded, etc. Or, on rare occasions, a new item doesn’t fit anywhere (but is i…

Hierarchy doesn’t make sense if you care about multiple dimensions, which I often do with notes.

Sometimes I want to look at all notes relating to c++, sometimes everything related to a personal project. Directories don’t support that without symlinking everything that mentions c++ into a folder for that.

Re: Siyuan: Privacy-first, self-hosted personal knowledge management software

#100

Post by pessimizer »

wumeow wrote: post #94
TheGeminon wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is also unavailable from Canada.

Same in the US.

I vaguely recall this being part of a tit-for-tat thing between China and the anti-Chinese. There have been movements to restrict Chinese access to FOSS, because forking FOSS lowers Chinese dependence on the West, along with (ironic) accusations that the "authoritarian" Chinese are limiting access to Western tech products. I thought there was some sort of legislative or judicial outcome that came out of it, but no luck with a quick google.

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U.S. restriction on Chinese use of open-source microchip tech would be hard to enforce - October 13, 2023

> U.S. lawmakers are pressuring the administration of President Joseph Biden to place restrictions on RISC-V to prevent China from benefiting from the technology as it attempts to develop its semiconductor industry.

https://thechinaproject.com/2023/10/13/u-s-bar-on-chinese-us...

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China’s Use of Foreign Open-Source Software, and How to Counter It - April 2, 2024

> Democratic governments also need to reassess which products should not be made open-source because they’re at risk of being weaponized by malign actors.

https://chinaobservers.eu/chinas-use-of-foreign-open-source-...

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Whatever the US did, Europe would do. Anybody in the US or Europe working on a FOSS project with Chinese contributors that they're friendly with? Has anything happened recently?

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