Start-Up Delivers Open Source Offerings to Build User Base

The new wiki start-up founded by former Microsoft employees, MindTouch, has just announced two new open source offerings to help bolster their user base. MindTouch Dream, a development framework and Deki, a wiki-based document sharing program that was built using Dream, will both be debuted at this year's OSCON, currently underway. From the article: "Applications written with MindTouch Dream can be done in PHP or .Net languages such as C# or Visual Basic. Programs can run on Microsoft Windows machines or Novell's Mono software for running .Net applications on Linux or Unix."

Cool idea - hope they displace SharePoint

Interesting that it is founded by former Microsoft Employees. The way they will make a profit on it is by selling it as a piece of hardware. If done right I could see corporations buying stuff like this...could be a good replacement for the horrid MS SharePoint

Windows Admin Tools [intelliadmin.com]

Actual links?

In the summary, can we please have the actual links to the projects?

http://opengarden.org/ [opengarden.org]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki [wikimedia.org]

MindTouch Dream?

The article really doesn't do a great job of articulating what the Mindtouch Dream framework actually is.

FTA:
Applications written with MindTouch Dream can be done in PHP or .Net languages such as C# or Visual Basic. Programs can run on Microsoft Windows machines or Novell's Mono software for running .Net applications on Linux or Unix.

I'm having a hard time understanding what MindTouch Dream actually provides. Is it a development environment framework? A IDE? It isn't clear to me how an application written in "MindTouch Dream" can also be PHP -or- .NET -or- C#.

Deki on the otherhand is clear to me, it is a port of MediaWiki http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki [mediawiki.org] with extensions and provisions for managing Microsoft documents, AJAX support, and exposure as a Web service (REST based).

All in all, I'm a little confused as to the exact value this release brings, other than some better support for M$ based content environments.

Re:MindTouch Dream?

All in all, I'm a little confused as to the exact value this release brings, other than some better support for M$ based content environments.

It is indeed vague, and since their site is thoroughly slashdotted right now, it will remain so if and until I remember to check it out later.

Support for MS document formats is, however, a pretty big deal. If I had a dollar for every time an OSS solution was rejected in my workplace because it didn't support MS docs, I'd have enough money to buy a legitimate copy of Windows XP. Some people regard playing nice with MS software to be some kind of impurity or treason, but as a practical matter, it provides for easy inroads to business environments.

Oh Noes!

I think I hear the sound of a chair hitting a wall!

Now I understand

on their site they say the love open source and use mono,debian,apache,etc...
now I understand why they don't work at MS anymore
they got canned

More MS innovation eh?

"Start-Up Delivers Open Source Offerings to Build User Base"

Yeah. Quick, think of ten other software houses that this could have ever been said about.

They ALMOST Get It

They seem so proud of themselves for being open source. Come to find out, their product only exists so users of MS Office can share their documents. Anyone else see the irony in that?

MediaWiki

MindTouch's primary business is selling a so-called wiki appliance to small and medium-size companies. The appliance includes a modified version of MediaWiki, the software behind Wikipedia, and a server that can be updated remotely, Bjorg said. MindTouch changed MediaWiki to make it easier to use for workers sharing Microsoft Office documents.

They dont have a choice. Media Wiki is released under GPL. As per GPL terms, derivatives of MediaWiki also be released under GPL. Otherwise they can be sued for GPL violations.

Formula for success, 100% guarantee

1. Make a product
2. Open source it and hype it to death in Slashdot
3. ?
4. Profit


Actually if you are clever, you can skip the part one, and just hype it to death and move to profit, also known as IPO.

Why didn't I invent this idea? ...well I guess I just have to buy their shares when they go to IPO.

A shame about the plagiarism

OpenGarden's download icon is DropSend's logo.

http://opengarden.org/dream [opengarden.org]

http://www.dropsend.com/ [dropsend.com]

Start-Up Uses Slashdot Article to Build User Base

Seriously, since when is this news? This is not a new or groundbreaking idea by any stretch of the imagination. Lucky /. has all these meta-moderating reminders ;)

GPL Interpretation

I think it's worth noting for anyone considering hosting a version of DekiWiki that MindTouch/OpenGarden interprets the GPL to mean that any USER of the software should have access to the full source including any modifications you've made (a la Affero GPL).

Also with AJAX based open source word processors

Source - http://www.kaneva.com/channel/channelPage.aspx?com munityId=12834&pageId=13293 [kaneva.com] ajaxWrite is a web-based word processor that can read and write Microsoft Word and other standard document formats. Anytime you need to open, read or write a word processor file, simply point your Firefox browser to www.ajaxwrite.com and in seconds a full-featured program will be available for you to open, edit, print and save. ajaxWrite has been designed to look like Microsoft Word, making it easy for anyone to start using it without needing to learn a new program. ajaxWrite also handles all the popular document formats so it's easy to share your files and collaborate with your co-workers and friends. Once finished with your document, you can easily save your work right to your hard drive. This keeps you organized and works in the same way that you're already accustomed to.

worst headline and summary EVAR

And the number of comments shows it. 30 comments after 6 hours on the main page? That must be a new low. Sorry ScuttleMonkey, but hang your head in shame.