Re:Ask HN: I have many PDFs – what is the best local way to ...
by bendsawyer on Thursday May 30, 2024 @06:05PM
(#40529239)
I looked into this for sensitive material recently. In the end I got a purpose-built local system built and am having it remotely maintained. Cost: around 5k a year. I used http://www.skunkwerx.ai, who are US based.
The result is a huge step up from 'full text search' solutions, for my use case. I can have conversations with decades of documents, and it's incredibly helpful. The support scheme keeps my original documents unconnected from the machine, which I own, while updates are done over a remote link. It's great, and I feel safe.
Things change so fast in this space that there did not seem to be a cheap, stable, local alternative. I honestly doubt one is coming. This is not a on-size-fits-all problem.
The result is a huge step up from 'full text search' solutions, for my use case. I can have conversations with decades of documents, and it's incredibly helpful. The support scheme keeps my original documents unconnected from the machine, which I own, while updates are done over a remote link. It's great, and I feel safe.
Things change so fast in this space that there did not seem to be a cheap, stable, local alternative. I honestly doubt one is coming. This is not a on-size-fits-all problem.