WikiSoftware
There are many free software projects out there. A large number of them are available on well-known source code repositories like Google Code, SourceForge and GitHub, but others are scattered throughout the Internet, such as on the author's personal home page. This normally wouldn't be a problem, except smaller websites are more likely to become defunct over time. Sometimes authors will even decide that they don't want to release their work under a free license anymore and actually remove it from their own websites, like in the case of Paint.NET and Nessus. And if the software isn't mirrored, it's likely gone for good.
| WikiSoftware | |
|---|---|
| Status of the proposal | |
| Status | rejected |
| Reason | a decade has passed and there is zero interest. Pecopteris (talk) 05:10, 19 August 2023 (UTC) |
| Technical requirements | |
Therefore, I am proposing WikiSoftware, a Wikimedia wiki for mirroring free software. It'll only be for storing public releases; in other words, it won't have bug trackers or revision control, etc. The wiki will be similar to Wikimedia Commons: binaries, libraries and source code are compressed and uploaded, along with a description of the files.
This project would be very useful because:
- A centralized repository of free software (analogous to Wikimedia Commons for free media files) would be very beneficial.
- It's easier to find obscure free software.
- Unless the Wikimedia Foundation shuts down, which is very unlikely, anything uploaded to WikiSoftware (save for copyright violations) is likely to stay for a long time.
Proposed by edit
Alternative names edit
- WikiCode
- WikiSourceCode
Related projects/proposals edit
Domain names edit
- wikisoftware.org
Mailing list links edit
- One alternative idea is to extend Wikimedia Commons to non-media files. See: http://wikimedia.7.n6.nabble.com/Fwd-Commons-ZIP-file-upload-for-admins-td1477067.html
Demos edit
Potential issues edit
- Copyright violations.
- Dealing with non-free files that come with free software packages. Do we allow such uploads, or should we filter out the binary blobs?
- Determining the criteria for inclusion.
- We also need guidelines on what type of releases should be uploaded (as we probably don't want developers to use this as a source code hosting service).