MindTouch Review

Submitted by tensai on Mon, 10/12/2009 - 9:15pm

I heard about MindTouch on FLOSS Weekly last week and decided to give it a try. It's a fork of MediaWiki, the framework behind Wikipedia. I've been looking for a wiki for a while so this was a perfect opportunity. Based on the FLOSS Weekly interview I had high hopes, but unfortunately I was quite let down.

The tech in MindTouch is actually pretty cool. The install goes very smoothly. It requires a number of web packages, including Apache, MySQL, and PHP which I already had installed so nothing further was required. The setup was just a few more clicks and away I was going, setting up my wiki.

At that point things seemed great. I spent a few hours creating pages and linking them around. It worked rather smoothly. I really like the embedded FCKeditor which made markup a snap. Life seemed good.

I did have a few problems with the configuration, mainly because just about anything interesting you want to do with the software, beyond an RSS feed, is locked away in the "enterprise" versions. I wanted to set up LDAP authentication or Twitter integration, but no go. Looking through the version lists it seems that they're trying to only put the bare minimum into the open source version. But I figured it was worth a test drive for a few weeks at least.

And then Monday morning hit and I got a curious email in my mailbox. Sam Montes had written to see if I needed any assistance with my MindTouch install. He just wanted to know more about my company and how we planned to use it. Say what?! I went through the roof. At no point during the install was there a "phone home" option displayed. If there had been you can rest assured I wouldn't have selected it (in fact there was an option to join their mailing list and I declined). The fact that they would spy on my like that leads me to suspect their motives. How do I know they're not keeping tabs on all my data? At this point I can't trust anything they say.

I responded to Sam and voiced my concerns. He replied with some drivel about providing the highest level of service and integrity. I'm sorry but I just can't forgive this affront of my privacy. This is the sort of behavior I might expect from a proprietary software company, but I expect more from open source developers.

I've received further email from MindTouch because apparently they put me on their mailing list, despite my request otherwise. I just can't get past this and I shall be uninstalling MindTouch soon. What a shame.

4 Comments

Thanks for the feedback!

Submitted by Steve Bjorg (not verified) on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 8:31am

Well, looks like something is not quite right here. First, let's clear up some stuff. MindTouch Core supports virtually all extensions including Twitter and LDAP. In fact, Core does probably everything you'll ever want to do unless you're company.

Now, concerning the follow-up email. I'd like to know if you downloaded and installed Core or Trial and if you provided your email address at any other point than during the installation. Trial will automatically hook you up for a follow up to make sure you get the most out of the product. However, Core should leave you alone unless you opt in. If it doesn't, let me know and I'll track it down.

Cheers,

- Steve

Your experience

Submitted by Stan Frommel (not verified) on Sat, 10/17/2009 - 11:42am

Tensai, I believe you are being rather unfair to Mindtouch. How will spying reveal your email address? You probably gave it to them when activating the free license you received. What's wronG with a customer service email? Most people appreciate a quick check in to ensure customer satisfaction, but not you? And you complain?

What seems to be unfair is your taking open source software using it for free then whining about the experience. Did you contribute anything to theIr open source community besides this review? This reminds me of those that take free handouts and complain about the service.

Ardent open source advocate

Your experience

Submitted by Stan Frommel (not verified) on Sat, 10/17/2009 - 12:07pm

Ardent open source advocate

Sam, MindTouch and privacy

Submitted by Aaron Fulkerson (not verified) on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 10:58am

Thanks for writing about and evaluating MindTouch. I am writing to clear up some misconceptions.

First, all the functionality you describe as being stripped out of MindTouch Core is, in fact, available in MindTouch Core.

One should also note the DekiScript runtime engine is packaged in Core. So, many of the capabilities that MindTouch has written and include only in MindTouch 2009 (the paid version) can be implemented in MindTouch Core too. Also, you should really look at how easy it is to write extensions to understand the significance of the platform.

As for Sam reaching out to you. Well, he was acting on information you volunteered during the installation process. Sam, and other MindTouchers, always contact folks who install MindTouch to see if you have any questions or concerns. This is entirely about helping you kick butt with MindTouch. He's not calling to sell you anything. He's only interested in making sure you had an exceptional experience, to answer any questions you might have, provide resources and to take feedback from you should you have any about how we can improve.

In fact, Sam can not sell you anything even if you wanted him to. He is NOT a sales guy. If you expressed an interest in purchasing a license or services he would refer you to a sales guy.

In summary, MindTouch is so committed to developing a quality product, in receiving feedback (positive or negative) and in making absolutely certain all users (free and commercial) have all their questions answered we take the time (and money) to reach out to every one we can. Personally, I wish more companies did this. Indeed we do this because I was so impressed by Audible.com when they did this for me when I renewed my subscription.

With respect to private information, we don't collect any specific information about you or your data. We do assign a cookie when you visit our site for analytics though.

I hope this helps. Hopefully you will reconsider MindTouch.