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."

Comments

MindTouch Dream?

[blantonl]

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 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?

[Locutus]

well, when I heard from a consultant that he knows of a few businesses who are using wiki's for software configuration management, I knew that the Windows software development market was still pretty screwed up. When I asked why they wouldn't use CVS or Subversion at the very least, he said that they are using a wiki because that is what they know....

So don't be surprised to find many a Windows shop using wiki's just for uploading MS-DOC files or other silly things.

LoB

A shame about the plagiarism

[Anonymous Coward]

OpenGarden's download icon is DropSend's logo.

http://opengarden.org/dream

http://www.dropsend.com/

Re:A shame about the plagiarism

[AaronRoe]

Thank you so much for pointing this out! MindTouch contracted U4EA Design (www.u4eadesign.com) to create the design for OpenGarden.org. Initially it was our opinion they did a pretty decent job. However, as we neared the end of the project our opinion changed because we felt they lacked a level of organization and professionalism that we would ordinarily expect from our contractors. Now, thanks to the person who posted this comment, we've discovered that they've likely infringed upon DropSend's copyrighted material. We're all stunned. All I can say is: we're very sorry. We had absolutely no idea. As soon as this was pointed out to us we immediately removed the images. I'm also authoring a letter of apology to DropSend. I encourage you all to send emails to U4EA Design and let them know what you think about this. Personally, I find it appalling and, of course, it makes me wonder if there are other parts of the site that are not their original work.

Thanks for pointing this out guys.

~ AaronF

Re:They ALMOST Get It

[badboy_tw2002]

Are you saying engineers from Microsoft are so tainted with evil they've never heard of OSS or Linux and can't grasp the same concepts your average non-Evil Inside (TM) Linux geek can?

Or are you trying to imply that there's no need for users of MS documents to share their documents?

Or perhaps that because they're interfacing with a proprietary format they might as well give up all hope of being Open Source? That the two can't live together?

GPL Interpretation

[zzzmarcus]

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

[Anonymous Coward]

Source - http://www.kaneva.com/channel/channelPage.aspx?com munityId=12834&pageId=13293 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.