I don’t use some of them nearly enough, but I really like Zim Wiki on desktop/laptop for the ability to link to different files in my notes. For on the go, I tend to use Joplin right now as I like that it’s open source & relatively easy to sync between my PC & phone.
I’ve dabbled a little with TiddlyWiki, but I feel like I need to learn more to really customize it more to my tastes. I’ve also been meaning to try running DokuWiki from a flash drive, as I like the wiki format a lot, but I feel like it may be a bit overkill.
I’ve seen some mention of Evernote & Obsidian here, but I’ve not used those personally. Also sorry if personal wikis are out of scope for this community, they’re just among the first to come to mind when I read the name & sidebar!
Personal Wikis fit right in, if you ask me! I too tried out a wiki first (wiki.js) and it was really nice, but somehow obsidian felt “right” to me. No Web Browser to open, local files, offline access. It lowers the barriers a lot and I can quickly open it, write down a word I’d like to remember, and close it again. It is basically a wonderful PKMS but also my favourite quick note App.
The best thing about Obsidian is it follows your flow, not the other way around. I moved from Joplin (for 2 reasons, No plugins in mobile and no metadata mechanism) and luckily I moved early before making too many notes to migrate.