@mayintoronto Without using one of the "bad" services like Google or Amazon or whatever, our options are pretty limited.

There is a TON of software out there that can do this stuff, but it tends to be pricey or have a monthly fee, which are both dealbreakers for me.

Not sure if you're on Linux or not, but if you are I encourage you to check out ZimWiki (or check alternativeto.com for similar options).

Whenever I go through this it seems like every other application wants to do "everything", and that makes them all just ungainly and taxing for the system for functionality that I simply won't use. I don't need a fucking word cloud that can build a powerpoint presentation. I need a way to keep track of many moving parts on many different projects, bonus if you can add pictures...which sounds like what you're after too. ZimWiki does this, but transportability isn't awesome.