On 2016-03-21 6:15 PM, James Salsman wrote:
Is there a list of equipment that WMF uses without
viable FLOSS
alternatives, please?
The switches and routers for one; as far as I know, high-end networking
hardware is not available with Libre OSes, nor would the supplier
support one flashed with a non-proprietary OS (as one can do with some
mid-range gear).
And there is a fuzzy line about being "all-FLOSS". Do you use servers
with only open source BIOS and firmware on all attached hardware? At
best, that severely crimps your options and I'm not sure there exists
viable alternative for /all/ required hardware.
The *important* thing is that anyone can grab Mediawiki, the dumps, and
a Libre OS supporting LAMP and make the projects run. Beyond that, best
effort to always favour FLOSS when it gets the job done is a solid
philosophical stance that is universally applied. But, like most
principles, it cannot be a suicide pact. We cannot, as a movement,
refuse to get the job done unless we reinvent every proprietary wheel -
this way lies both madness and a tremendous waste of donors' money[1].
-- Coren / Marc
[1] For instance, a common thing that is surfaced is to home-spin
software when the only FLOSS alternatives require either serious
customization or maintenance; we *could* hypothetically hire enough
engineers to maintain every bit of needed software - or even write the
bits that don't exist - but that's not what we *do* (nor should it be).