Taken from Freenode.net #opengarden IRC channel. I’m especially proud of the fact that no employees of MindTouch are involved in this conversation ->

ikaruga2099 hi guys, love the software … but why do you guys use Mono when its so non-standard on servers?

TelarianW I don’t represent Open Garden in any way, but why would you ever want to suggest that only the most commonly distributed software should be used for development?

TelarianW By that thinking I suppose we should all just go back to COBOL and be done with all this newfangled technosnazziness.

TelarianW Plus it’s basically .net compatible so it’s not exactly uncommon either.

ikaruga2099 TelarianW: so that more people can install it … DUH … for example, I can only use opengarden at work where I have the server sitting in my office… however, I can’t use it in my personal web server (hostmonster) … even though it already supports a bunch of other tools ….

ikaruga2099 TelarianW: I’m not really an expert on Mono … but you’re saying that a windows server should support opengarden? that’s not the impressing I got from the wiki

TelarianW it does

ikaruga2099 TelarianW: err impression

TelarianW not by itself mind you

ikaruga2099 TelarianW: what does?

TelarianW gotta have a web server and a database for dekiwiki to function

TelarianW windows server does for instance

ikaruga2099 TelarianW: by “windows server” I meant a host service that runs windows…. not a desktop pc running windows

TelarianW I run it on win2k3 server with iis6

TelarianW although I have to tell you it’s harder to set up that way than using the vmware system

ikaruga2099 TelarianW: I guess my real issue is how common is mono on linux servers? my impression is that it’s not common …

TelarianW that’s super simple

TelarianW I would say it probably isn’t that common

ikaruga2099 TelarianW: yeah, that’s basically my complaint

TelarianW so shall I prepare your COBOL installation for you then?

TelarianW
ikaruga2099 TelarianW: dude, you’re missing my point — that’s alienating a user base … but nevermind as you are not affiliated with opengarden
bhill_nexcess mono is easy to install on linux

ikaruga2099 bhill_nexcess: I don’t have root access

TelarianW basically you’re saying that everything should use java right?

bhill_nexcess yea, you’ll need that

TelarianW php maybe?

bhill_nexcess i run dekiwiki in a shared hosting environment

bhill_nexcess well, made a system to allow dekiwiki to run in our shared hosting environment

ikaruga2099 bhill_nexcess: the only problem is that I can’t install mono on hostmonster so I can’t use it… I suppose I can ask the admins …

bhill_nexcess well, the company i work for offers dekiwiki ready to go if you’re ever interested

bhill_nexcess /end shameless sales pitch

TelarianW well maybe I’m missing your point and maybe I’m not, but I would point out that had that been the prevailing thinking when php was initially brought about it wouldn’t be common in the first place

ikaruga2099 bhill_nexcess: thanx ….
ikaruga2099 TelarianW: you’re right … however, that only means that I won’t be able to use dekiwiki until mono is popular … DOH (I’m being cheap)

TelarianW heh well you can always use wik.is

TelarianW it’s free if you don’t want your own domain and cheap if you do

ikaruga2099 TelarianW: nah, I like to host things myself …

TelarianW and I don’t work for any such person

TelarianW hmm… well perhaps another solution will present itself

ikaruga2099 TelarianW: (or really I mean setup the software myself…that way I can add/tweak to fit)

ikaruga2099 one can only hope

TelarianW any host that can take a vmware instance will do as well

TelarianW maybe that’s an angle

TelarianW or maybe the admins at your current host will be interested enough to help you out

ikaruga2099 thanx

TelarianW sorry I couldn’t be more helpful

I’ll add: Thanks to the architecture of MindTouch Deki Wiki, you can extend the platform in WHATEVER programming language you want. I’ve seen it extended in Java, PHP, C#, VB, VBA, and more…