For all of you who want to install Wikidot v1 or Wikidot v2 we have prepared a virtual machine that runs under VMWare products (including the free VMWare Player). In fact this is derived from a reference virtual machine that we are using at Wikidot Inc.

Why virtualization? Wikidot requires quite a lot of extra software to run, and to run it smoothly you would have to recompile some base packages in Linux distributions. Also it is quite challenging to install Wikidot on Windows or MacOsX machines and it looks like it stops many from actually getting involved in the Wikidot project. So we have done all the hard work for you ;-)

Using the VM you can have Wikidot running within minutes without any software installation. The image should also be suitable for production installations of Wikidot v1.

More information can be found on the Developers' Wiki at http://dev.wikidot.org/virtual-machine.

In case any of you goes to FOSDEM this year (23-24 Feb, Brussels), you can meet us there. Pieter Hintjens (pieterh) is giving an opening talk on Software Patents on Saturday and I will surely hang around web/Java/vierualization-related talks.

FOSDEM is an annual event for Open Source developers, enthusiasts and users. Read more at http://www.fosdem.org/2008/

The Wikidot Team is happy to announce the open-source release of the Wikidot software. We are opening both the Version 1 codebase that currently powers Wikidot.com and the new development code for Wikidot 2, our next generation wiki platform, both under GNU Affero General Public License version 3.

We have spent many, many hours on converting Wikidot.com into an open-source project but we believe it is worth the effort. Not only you (users, administrators, developers) get another piece of useful software, but hopefully the Wikidot project itself will benefit from feedback and contributions from users and developers.

We have redesigned the wikidot.org website so that it can now be a community hub for Wikidot users. For developers we are preparing a Development wiki and later on we will discuss the development workflow.

Needless to say, we count on the community. There are several ways you could actively support Wikidot.

The current software release is as stable and bug-free as we could do within our time limits and resources. It is greatly enhanced, more modular and configurable than the original software at Wikidot.com. So if you are planning to use Wikidot in real environment (your work, school, university), give it a try! If there are bugs, we will try to fix them ASAP. (Or, if you could submit fixes, it would be even faster).

So, for all of you who are code-hungry, open-source fans and hard-core wiki users — get Wikidot, read Installation docs (and the great Debian Quickstart) and play with it!

If you want to help developing the Wikidot, join us at dev.wikidot.org!

Good luck!

The Wikidot Team

More links:
Press release