WHile wandering around r/pkms I found someone discussing using SilverBullet, a free "Programmable, Private, Browser-based, Open Source, Self Hosted, Personal Knowledge Management Platform" that's been in development for five years.

https://silverbullet.md/
https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet
https://fosstodon.org/@silverbulletmd

Intro & demo video from a year ago. (User page contains numerous SilverBullet videos.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mik1EbTshX4

It's a system you run locally inside a web browser. In the browser lives a Markdown editor with live preview as you type, a la Typora or Obsidian (which can be turned off if desired to provide inline Markdown).

You can navigate file-by-file via a meta glossary page, or via bi-directional links within pages. It has basic outlining capabilities, and folding, although no hoist or zoom -- it realistically is more a wiki than an outliner.

https://silverbullet.md/Outlines

Simple tasks with checkboxes.

https://silverbullet.md/Task

Simple database tables created using tagging, frontmatter attributes, and bidirectional links. You can query tables, tasks, tags, pages.

An attractive concept, but a very personal one. Frankly, all the messing about with frontmatter attributes, tagging etc. to produce databases, meta-glossaries etc. is a bit OTT (in fact, my appalled discovery that I was rapidly succumbing to the CRIMPer's ultimate temptation – to Optimise my System – is why I removed Dataview from Obsidian!).

But otherwise, Silverbullet is a rather attractive piece of software.

Whenever a maker suggests

Perhaps you [install this] on a Raspberry Pi you didn't have a use for

I see the rock guarding the entrance to a deep, dark rabbit hold sliding aside …

Silverbullet seems a rather optimistic name. If/when it folds (as so many apps do in this space) we'll be able to say "There is no Silverbullet".

Although I realise that some of the comments are rather tongue in cheek, I feel that the overall negative vibe towards Silverbullet is unwarranted.

I installed it practically when it was launched and ran it first locally, then hosted on Pikapods and now self-hosted on my own server and found it to be very powerful *despite* spending only minutes configuring it to my liking.

We really should be asking ourselves why we keep criticising note taking software for either being too focused but inflexible or, conversely, rabbit holes for futzing around with configs rather than getting anything done.

Silverbullet a refreshingly modern take on an old problem and, whilst exposing literally all the internals to the die hards, it manages to run on minimal resources on literally every platform and still looking good.

It is possible to modify every bit of its visual presentation as well as its functionality but you can get really far by just adapting already existing solutions in the forum or library.

Prion wrote:

We really should be asking ourselves why we keep criticising note taking software for either being too focused but inflexible or, conversely, rabbit holes for futzing around with configs rather than getting anything done.

Don't assume that a reply here means no evaluation is going on. I dug around in the SilverBullet site and found a beta standalone desktop version for macOS Silicon. I've been running it. I like much of what I see, but it overlaps in most respects with Obsidian and Tana (tags in SB vs supertags in Tana), both of which I use already.

It also reminds me of parts of Christian & Sascha's Archive app (interface, mainly), and parts of NVUltra.

I'll keep SilverBullet around as insurance since Tana looks to be sliding down the slippery slope toward oblivion.

Trouble is, when one's exchanging news and views in writing, it's not always easy to read (what passes for) humour into people's remarks, and in my experience quite a lot of the criticism on our forum is intended humorously. I mean, we wouldn't be here if we weren't interested in experimenting with different solutions! And as it happens, I've still got Silverbullet open in a browser tab and spend a few minutes every so often playing with it. I like it!

But as Paul says, I already use very similar solutions, so was perhaps unfairly dismissive in my earlier remarks. Apologies if that was the case! And it's nice to hear from someone who's actually using it "in anger", as it were, because positive feedback is actually much more valuable than anything else. Although it's also important to remember that negative feedback is a useful incentive to improve (usually in direct dialogue with the developer).

What underlies your comment about Tana sliding toward oblivion? The fumbled communications regarding its new version? The fact that it is basing its future on AI and shared workspaces? Something else? I have been using it for a couple of years, and while it has become more like Tinderbox in the requirement of real expertise to access many of its capabilities, it is still pretty usable and helpful for the basics (much like Tinderbox).

I will say, though, after reading favorable recent comments about Remnote "leapfrogging" Tana, I have been trying it out and have been impressed.

This is my personal reading of the situation. I love Tana and I admire the whole team. I just believe that doing a major pivot to build a "new Tana" (their words) with as-yet vaguely defined features and use cases, while promising to keep the old product, somehow, and while having earnest but not highly effective marketing skills, seems like a downward slope.

I strongly hope I'm wrong.

exatty95 wrote:

What underlies your comment about Tana sliding toward oblivion?

Although I realise that some of the comments are rather tongue in cheek, I feel that the overall negative vibe towards Silverbullet is unwarranted.

The developer can't expect to call something 'Silverbullet' and not get some ribbing for it. ;0)

At least it isn't as grandiose as 'The Last One':
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_One_(software

Interesting discussion and responses. I just want to make it clear that I am just a regular user of SB and many other pieces of software aiming to solve the same problem, i.e. NOT the author of some of these in disguise :-)
I feel similarly about the quest for the one and only solution, however futile it may be, being part of the fun hence absolutely no apology needed.

MadaboutDana wrote:

Trouble is, when one's exchanging news and views in writing, it's not always easy to read (what passes for) humour into people's remarks, and in my experience quite a lot of the criticism on our forum is intended humorously. I mean, we wouldn't be here if we weren't interested in experimenting with different solutions! And as it happens, I've still got Silverbullet open in a browser tab and spend a few minutes every so often playing with it. I like it!

But as Paul says, I already use very similar solutions, so was perhaps unfairly dismissive in my earlier remarks. Apologies if that was the case! And it's nice to hear from someone who's actually using it "in anger", as it were, because positive feedback is actually much more valuable than anything else. Although it's also important to remember that negative feedback is a useful incentive to improve (usually in direct dialogue with the developer).

Andy Brice wrote:

The developer can't expect to call something 'Silverbullet' and not get some ribbing for it. ;0)

At least it isn't as grandiose as 'The Last One':
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_One_(software

Haha, I totally understand and I hope that the eternal CRIMPers dilemma described above was recognised by many of you. I just thought it fair to also raise my voice and add a few positive aspects of Silverbullet to the mix to balance it out a bit.

I will say that my first look at the new Tana does not fill me with hope for sticking with the program. I just spent a couple of minutes with it, but it seems to be all about collaborative work. I don't see anything so far that suggests taking and making sense of notes has any significant role to play.