On 8/28/07, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
Who is "we" and "ourselves"? If someone wrote an integration patch for it, would that be accepted into the mainline? Would it be enabled for Wikipedia?
Almost certainly not (although it would surely be accepted as an extension). If someone wrote open-source code to do the same thing, it definitely would be accepted and enabled on Wikipedia, assuming it worked.
Why would they do that? Do we have a rule against integration with proprietary software?
I could easily be wrong, but I think the only proprietary software currently used throughout the entire process of serving pages to users is Linksys routers. Non-free software is not used unless there's a really compelling reason, such as no reasonable possibility to create a free equivalent.
So, as before, our choices aren't really between integrating with Picnik or doing it ourselves, because the latter option is unlikely to actually happen.
I don't see anyone stepping forward to do the former either. You've mentioned that maybe you'd be happy to do the integration, but Gregory has said he's working on an open-source solution.
Regardless, whether or not the latter is likely to happen, the former is not going to happen. Integrating with a proprietary solution will discourage anyone from ever bothering to make a free one.