I don't think adding a couple more services is
going to drastically alter the current situation.
MediaWik core and most of the extensions actually only depend on php and mysql, both are
de facto standard included most in webhosting packages, which makes MediaWiki to run (in
theory) on a wide range of web hosting packages, and updating isn't too difficult, if
you follow the steps on the upgrade page on
mediawiki.org [1] (ok, more difficult as other
software packages). Adding new services, like parsoid or other stuff, makes upgrading core
and extensions more complicated:
-> you need to update the service as well (or hold it on a compatible version) (see my
last point, too)
-> you need shell access (most web hosting packages don't offer shell access, which
isn't good, yeah, but maybe, for some wiki administrators it's better, that they
don't have shell access (even without root access))
-> maybe for some services it's more as just "run apt-get upgrade" or
upload your ftp files to the server and run the update script, which makes the whole
process much more complicated
[1]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Upgrading
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: wikitech-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikitech-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] Im Auftrag von Ryan Lane
Gesendet: Freitag, 16. Januar 2015 18:28
An: Wikimedia developers
Betreff: Re: [Wikitech-l] The future of shared hosting
On Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 4:29 AM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 16 January 2015 at 07:38, Chad
<innocentkiller(a)gmail.com> wrote:
These days I'm not convinced it's our job
to support every possible
scale of wiki install. There's several simpler and smaller wiki
solutions for people who can't do more than FTP a few files to a folder.
In this case the problem is leaving users and their wiki content
unsupported. Because they won't move while it "works", even as it
becomes a Swiss cheese of security holes. Because their content is
important to them.
This is the part of the mission that involves everyone else producing
the sum of human knowledge. They used our software, if we're
abandoning them then don't pretend there's a viable alternative for
them. You know there isn't.
What you're forgetting is that WMF abandoned MediaWiki as an Open Source
project quite a while ago (at least 2 years ago). There's a separate org that gets a
grant from WMF to handle third party use, and it's funded just well enough to keep the
lights on.
Take a look at the current state of MediaWiki on the internet. I'd be surprised if
less than 99% of the MediaWiki wikis in existence are out of date. Most are probably
running a version from years ago. The level of effort required to upgrade MediaWiki and
its extensions that don't list compatibility with core versions is past the skill
level of most people that use the software. Even places with a dedicated ops team find
MediaWiki difficult to keep up to date. Hell, I find it difficult and I worked for WMF on
the ops team and have been a MediaWiki dev since 1.3.
I don't think adding a couple more services is going to drastically alter the current
situation.
- Ryan
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