As we all know wikipedia is a bitch to set up. now that we are talking about switching
from one
distro to another, it will be even more of a bitch to set up.
Here is the solution: UML, user mode linux (it lets you run an complet emulation of linux
inside
your own linux box). So: instead of telling people they need php 4.3.2 and apache 2.0.48
with this
and that compile option (a combination which might not be available to some distros),
simply: use
dd to create a running image that people can run right off the bat (they could probably
use the
thing that lets you run linux inside windows as well...).
The beautiful thing about UML is that it has no hardware requirements: eg no kernel
compile need
be done by the image makers (like knoppix for example which just throws every imaginable
driver on
there), eg up and running within minutes.
But does the beauty of this idea stop here ? NO. This is fine for testing purposes
(running a
slow UML image that is), but if someone wants to run wikipedia without limits then they
can simply
find a kernel that works for their machine, drop it into the image (maybe a small touch of
hacking
required by us to create a utility to drop a kernel in), and then use a tool designed to
plop
images directly onto a harddrive (like the proprietary "symantec ghost").
Aside from allowing the world an unprecentedly easy way to hack,tinker,consider,or use
wikipedia
on their own, this process will make operations inside wikipedia easier. Yes, all code
should be
included in this image, the database code the web code: so that any machine can be an:
all-in-one,
or database-only eg...with an /etc/wikipedia-node.conf file (this would help when new
machines
come in AND when important machines go down).
This idea originally spawned out of the fact that all parts of wikipedia's code are
not on
sourceforge, when i asked why i was told "there is some site specific code". The
only thing that
is site specific in my mind are the passwords everything else should be exactly what the
public is
getting, down to the byte. And its great to make it in an extrememly easy to use format as
well
which defeats the difficult-to-setup aspect.
Well as I hope you can understand, its better for all that its wholly open setup and why
not make
it easy!
I hereby declare wikipedia an OS.
-Hunter Peress
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