The emergence of SiYuan, a self-hosted knowledge management tool, has ignited discussions within the developer community about the trade-offs between proprietary formats, open-source licensing, and the evolution of personal knowledge management systems.
File Format Concerns
A significant point of contention among potential users is SiYuan's choice to use a proprietary JSON-based file format instead of plain Markdown files. While the software allows for Markdown export, some community members express concerns about vendor lock-in, contrasting it with Obsidian's file over app philosophy. This decision has sparked debate about the balance between feature richness and data portability.
Licensing and Business Model Innovation
SiYuan's licensing approach has caught the attention of developers, implementing an unusual open-core model under AGPL. The software includes license checks for premium features while maintaining complete source code accessibility. This has led to interesting discussions about sustainable business models for open-source software.
My company does exactly this intentionally for everything we sell at our extension store. Everything under LGPL, license checks that you could bypass with not much effort. It allows selling actually free software and can work well if you do this well.
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| Visual representation of SiYuan's development and open-source licensing on GitHub |
Feature Set and Competition
The software positions itself as an alternative to established tools like Obsidian and Logseq, offering WYSIWYG editing and self-hosting capabilities. Community members highlight its strong feature set, including graph views, backlinks, and database functionality. However, some users note limitations such as the absence of Vim bindings and multi-user collaboration, though the latter is reportedly on the roadmap.
Self-Hosting and Privacy
For users prioritizing data sovereignty, SiYuan's self-hosting capability has emerged as a key differentiator. While some express concerns about the Chinese origin of the software, others point out that the open-source nature and self-hosting options effectively address privacy considerations.
In conclusion, while SiYuan introduces an interesting approach to knowledge management with its open-source foundation and unique business model, the community remains divided on whether its benefits outweigh the commitment to a proprietary file format. The ongoing discussion reflects broader tensions in the personal knowledge management space between innovation, openness, and user control.
Reference: SiYuan: A Privacy-First, Self-Hosted, Fully Open Source Personal Knowledge Management Software