I've looked for alternatives among desktop wikis that run on Linux and my favorite so far is Zim [3]. It uses Markdown and implements history through storing pages as text files in a Git repository. Unlike TiddlyWiki, it doesn't run in the browser. I am considering either switching to it or biting the bullet and setting up a local instance of MediaWiki (or another full-fledged wiki — suggestions welcome!). The latter will likely require more ongoing maintenance but it also keeps the advantages of a browser-based wiki that TiddlyWiki has like embedding images from remote hosts and customizing your user experience with JavaScript.
[1] http://classic.tiddlywiki.com/
[2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tiddlyfox/
I use it on a personal server with SSL (let's encrypt) + auth and works wonders for me. I have an rsync cronjob running every 5 minutes to keep a mirror directory as a backup. The system backup (tarsnap) backups everything anyway twice a day so, I never had any issues.
https://github.com/Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5
This is the Tiddlywiki built on Node, and it looks quite good.
Edit: It is currently built on Node 0.8.2, but preparing for 5.1.10, so that's good.