2010/1/7 Robert Rohde <[email protected]>: > The historical position has been that absolutely nothing goes into the > WMF software pool unless it is open source. As I recall, the only > recognized exception was the closed source firmware running the > routers at the server farm. By that standard, even a freebie is not > good enough if the system is closed source. > However, my recollection is based on discussions years ago. On > searching, I couldn't find any policy forbidding closed source > software (is there one?). So, it is possible that closed source might > be looked on as a more acceptable possibility for some functions now > (though I wouldn't bet on it).
The reasoning is that having the data be free content is not enough - the systems you need to use the data need to be free software as well. Lucene is free software, but was out for a while as Java wasn't free software then. I believe we used a rewritten version in C# for a while, in fact. A Java version of Lucene started being used again when Java was in the process of being freed up, I think we were using it before there was an entirely free software Java. (corrections welcomed!) - d. _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
