Apple OS X, BSD and Jordan Hubbard

We've had a number of posts noting that Boston.com's digitalMASS has a very decent article on Apple's OS X, BSD and Jordan Hubbard.

Comments

Darwin isn't enough

[Astral Traveller]

Does one token open-source project really make up for Apple's intense closed-mindedness? One need only look at their recent past to see that they are still up to their old schemes, what with the recent stink over Aqua-like themes and their continuing refusal to open the Sorensen codec, which powers nearly all the streaming media on the web. Darwin seems to me more like Apple trying to get a free ride by encouraging their users to develop their core operating system for them, while they reap the profits and keep their platform under an iron grip.

thanks, but that's not the way I see it

[Erris]

Apple has contributed back TONS of software to the community. The BSD license said they didn't have to give anything back at all, but Apple did. The opened up their entire base OS. They have provided patches, fixes and enhancements to BSD. They work with BSD developers on a daily basis. But all you can do is complain that it isn't Debian. Go crawl back in your hole.

Let's stick to the facts instead of name calling. They have not opened their entire base, and they continue to punish anyone who would violate their "look and feel". If they had really opened everything up, every Linux distro would come with Quicktime, DVD recording software and many other Apple goodies. The choice of underlying OS is not the issue, it's all the extra effort they go through to protect their goofey little IP. If they took advantage of FreeBSD, fine. My preference is for OpenBSD, but so what? The idea is that they should just concentrate on what they think is so important, look, feel, backwards compatibility issues, and and not the rest of it.

Is it so absurd to think of them pooling their resources to make Debian or some specific BSD better? Why don't they tap into a nice pre existing user community instead of going it alone all the time? I mention Debian because it's distrobution method is superior.

Oh yeah, they might put their central reporting requirments where they put their termination clause.