Published on Nov. 19, 2014, [http://philbio.net philbioPhilBio.net] was created by [http://shamiller.net Shawn A. Miller], a [http://philosophy.ucdavis.edu/people/shamille Ph.D. candidate ] in the Department of Philosophy and the Science & Technology Studies Program at UC Davis. It is the basis of the Creative Commons template available at [http://philwiki.net PhilWiki.net] that allows anyone to essentially clone this site.
Though there isn't any bleeding-edge technology running behind the scenes of PhilBio.net, the software is still a big part of the equation. Particularly notable is that all of the essential pieces running the server are open-source software. Nothing of what follows is necessary for using the site, but everyone who visits here and finds it useful owes a big debt of gratitude to those who wrote the software, and then gave it away for free.
== What Server? ==
PhilBio.net runs on a server in San Francisco hosted by [http://digitalocean.com DigitalOcean] for a modest cost. PhilWikiPhilBio.net is actually a so-called ''virtual machine'', which means that it is an autonomous software entity that exists with other such entities on the same piece of hardware. Through software, the virtual machine is made to look like, and functions as, its very own computer. In this way, DigitalOcean and other cloud hosting services such as [https://www.linode.com/ linode] differ from web hosting services such as GoDaddy or Hostgator, where one basically rents hard drive space on a web server but does not have access to additional software programs.
The following are the key open-source software pieces of the PhilBio.net virtual machine:
=== [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki v1.24.0] ===
This is the software that users and editors interact with most directly; it is the wiki server software. It is what you are looking at right now. MediaWiki was originally developed for use on Wikipedia and is available under a [https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GNU General Public License (GPL)]. The software is written in PHP, and the installation file is a mere 20 MB.
=== [http://ubuntu.com Ubuntu v14.04] ===
=== [http://httpd.apache.org/ Apache v2.4.7] ===
Apache is web server—or HTTP server—software. It makes the resources of a computer visible and available to the outside world and is, thus, essential. After all, Wiki Program Pages detailing the interdisciplinary intricacies of philosophy Ph.D. programs specializing in cognitive science do precious little good if they sit inert on a warehoused computer in New York that isn't visible on the World Wide Web. Apache software is open source and available via its own [http://www.apache.org/licenses/ license]. [http://wiki.nginx.org/Main Nginx] is also open source server software.
=== [http://www.mysql.com/ MySQL v5.5.40] ===
* '''[http://gnometerminator.blogspot.com/p/introduction.html Terminator]''' is a terminal, that is, a program that users interact with by typing in commands.
* '''[http://tmux.sourceforge.net/ tmux]''' is a terminal multiplexer that allows users to run multiple programs inside one, e.g., Terminator terminal running OpenSSH.
* '''[http://www.vim.org/ vim]''' is a text editor. A great deal of the server maintenance done to PhilBio.net is simply editing manipulating text files.