Although the Internet is becoming more and more widespread, there are still some poor countries and rural areas where network access is not an easy task. For this reason, many people do not have access to information from sites like Wikipedia. And, in the absence of local projects like Encarta and the like, Kiwix is a free software project that can help in these cases.
Kiwix basically it will offer you the possibility to access Wikipedia without an internet connection. You can also do the same with other similar MediaWiki-based web portals. Therefore, you can have a multitude of offline wikis at your fingertips. On the other hand, it also includes some interesting functions, in addition to being available for Windows, macOS, GNU / Linux, iOS and Android.
Kiwix was created by Emmanuel Engelhart and Renaud Gaudin, after unsuccessful attempts to publish the Wikipedia on a CD-ROM. At the beginning, the project was maintained by Linterweb, which would stop collaborating for commercial interests, since it did not agree with it being open source.
With Kiwix you can access all the information on Wikipedia and other offline wikis. All stored in a file ZIM format. In addition, you also have repositories with ZIM files ready to be used and in several languages.
On the other hand, Kiwix also includes a search engine, navigation system, and option to export the articles to PDF. It also includes a bookmarks and notes system, an HTTP server, a simple and multilingual user interface, navigation tabs, and a content and download manager.
On mobile devices, thanks to the integrated TTS system, you can also listen to the content with the voice synthesizer It reads the text for you, which is also great news for those who need accessibility options.