Offline Wikipedia based on Mozilla technology
Wikimedia Foundation and Linterweb announced the release of Wikipedia on CD, a compilation of 1,964 articles from the English version of the famous online editable encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Kiwix, the software provided for browsing and searching the articles, was developed by Linterweb, and is based on XUL Runner 1.8.0.4, a runtime developed by Mozilla that delivers the same Firefox user interface capabilities to any application built on it.
I tried Kiwix briefly and it proved to be a very intuitive and capable tool. As you can see in the screen shot very few big buttons give easy access to its features. You can zoom text (with Ctrl + mouse wheel scroll, or Ctrl + =/Ctrl + -) and open an article in an external browser right clicking on any article. Unfortunately, instead of linking to an online version, it just opens the version provided on the CD. External links and references for each article point to online versions though.
Due to the limitation of having to fit everything in a single CD, you may soon realize that content is limited and pictures come in small versions only, but what is included is very helpful for quick off line references.
A French version is also in the works, as well as a Polish DVD (with more articles).
You can download Wikipedia on CD here or buy it for $13.99.
Via glazblog.
Comments
Aaron Strontsman
Don’t think Wikipedia should be shipped on a CD, what I’d like would be a modified version of Firefox that is a small download and searches the online Wikipedia.
If you were viewing any page in the only Wikipedia it would be stored offline, as well as linked pages. An update feature would follow RSS feeds of the page version and automatically update changed page every month or so (the program should not unnecessarily increase page visits on Wikipedia).
Oh: and those Kiwix buttons are far too big.
Bob
Does this mean we will soon have Encyclopedia Britannica style sales persons coming door-to-door again?
“Excuse me sir, would you like to buy this lovely volume of Wikipedia? We’ll give you the first CD for only $1.99, and subsequent volumes can be purchased for a low $5.99 each”
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