source: trunk/w/README @ 1484

2008-11-11

For system requirements, installation and upgrade details, see the files 
RELEASE-NOTES, INSTALL, and UPGRADE.

== MediaWiki ==

MediaWiki is the software used for Wikipedia [http://www.wikipedia.org/] and the
other Wikimedia Foundation websites. Compared to other wikis, it has an
excellent range of features and support for high-traffic websites using
multiple servers (Wikimedia sites peak in the 60000+ requests per second range
as of November 2008).

While quite usable on smaller sites, you may find you have to "roll your own"
local documentation, and some aspects of configuration may seem overcomplicated
because MediaWiki is primarily targeted as an in-house tool.

The MediaWiki software was written by:
* Lee Daniel Crocker
* Magnus Manske
* Jan Hidders
* Brion Vibber
* Axel Boldt
* Geoffrey T. Dairiki
* Tomasz Wegrzanowski
* Erik Moeller
* Tim Starling
* Gabriel Wicke
* Ashar Voultoiz
* Evan Prodromou
* Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
* Niklas Laxström
* Domas Mituzas
* Rob Church
* Jens Frank
* Yuri Astrakhan
* Aryeh Gregor
* Aaron Schulz
* Several others (view CREDITS for a more complete list)

The contributors hold the copyright to this work, and it is licensed under the
terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later[1] (see
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html). Derivative works and later
versions of the code must be free software licensed under the same or a
compatible license. This includes "extensions" that use MediaWiki functions or
variables; see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLAndPlugins for
details.

The Wikimedia Foundation currently has no legal rights to the software.

[1] Sections of code written exclusively by Lee Crocker or Erik Moeller are also
released into the public domain, which does not impair the obligations of users
under the GPL for use of the whole code or other sections thereof.

[2] MediaWiki makes use of the Sajax Toolkit by modernmethod,
        http://www.modernmethod.com/sajax/
    which has the following license:

       'This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution
        License. To view a copy of this license, visit
        http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ or send a letter
        to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way,
        Stanford, California 94305, USA.'

Many thanks to the Wikimedia regulars for testing and suggestions.

The official website for MediaWiki is located at:

  http://www.mediawiki.org/

The code is currently maintained in a Subversion repository at
svn.wikimedia.org. See http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Subversion for details.

Please report bugs and make feature requests in our Bugzilla system:

  https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/

Documentation and discussion on new features may be found at:

  http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ
  http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
  http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Development

Extensions are listed at:

  http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:Extensions

If you are setting up your own wiki based on this software, it is highly
recommended that you subscribe to mediawiki-announce:

  https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce

The mailing list is very low volume, and is intended primarily for announcements
of new versions, bug fixes, and security issues.

A higher volume support mailing list can be found at:

  https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l

Developer discussion takes place at:

  https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

There is also a development and support channel #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net,
and an unoffical support forum at www.mwusers.com.