On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 02:21:03PM -0400, Derric Atzrott wrote: > >As mentioned before, we can't use github enterprise at all, since it > doesn't allow for hosting public repos. Let's ignore that it even exists. > > I feel like as Wikipedia is one of the top 10 most visited sites on the > Internet we might be able to work out something special with them though > right? I'm not saying we have to go down that route, nor have I even > examined all the advantages and disadvantages of the idea. I feel though > that the possibility exists though and should be looked into. > > If I was GitHub and the WMF approached me about potentially using GitHub > Enterprise for MediaWiki and MediaWiki extensions and NOT for creating a > competition service to GitHub, then I would likely entertain the idea of > crafting a special set of terms for them. Furthermore, I personally might > even charge them differently given that that charging per developer would be > crippling to an open-source project. Of course, I am not GitHub, nor can I > anticipate what they might do, nor their internal policies, but I can speak > for myself and how I would run a FOSS focused company.
I think the BitKeeper story is relevant here: BitKeeper was one of the first DVCSes. It was (is?) a proprietary for-profit tool that gave special free licenses to certain free/open-source software projects, like Linux. Linux was using it for years, due to having some unique at the time features (and Linus liking it), although it was a controversial choice in the community. At one point, due to some "reverse engineering" (basically typing "help" at its server and showing that in a talk) by some community members, the company behind BitKeeper decided to revoke this free (as in beer) license from the community members, effectively halting Linux development. Git was first published a week after that. Now, the situation is a bit different here. But I can certainly imagine getting this "special" license exception revoked, GitHub Enterprise discontinued as a product or whatever else. Can you imagine the disruption that would cause to our development and operations? Regars, Faidon _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
