Slashdot Mirror
Safari vs. KHTML
Johnny Mnemonic writes "CNET has a story that describes the divergence between the code base of Safari and KHTML. Although there were high hopes that Apple would contribute significantly to the OSS project, that optimism has all but disappeared. Is an unrealized danger of OSS that others may take your project in a direction you didn't intend? Can OSS code and goals harmonize with the goals and needs of corporation designed code? Is it that Apple mismanaged the relationship, or that the KHTML guys expected too much? Interesting warning for other OSS-corporate marriages." We've previously reported on the frustration in the OSS community on this issue.
Apple is just a lousy company to co-operate with in an open source project. It is interesting that the KDE people mention that the fixes from Apple are more like hacks that break other things. This is _exactly_ the same as what happens with GCC. Always quick hacks to pass some benchmark or validation suite, or to paper over real bugs in dreadful ways. Never any real, constructive co-operation. Somehow, Apple appears to be unable to work with a community, instead of against it.
The thing is, the KDE guys did Apple a favor, and DID make it easy for them to get at the code. Apple just spit on their courtesy by just releasing their monolithic patches. That's what people are pissed about. Not legality, not anything other than Apple code releases just generally not being of much use in the form they're released in, especially after the OSS guys did so much to help them.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Apple, of course. It being apple trumps DMCA, illegal abuse of monopolies, being anti-hacker, and so on, which we know outweigh open source.
I am trolling
So you are saying that he didn't mean what he said? That KHTML did become worse because of Apple's involvement? And what the hell have you done to make KHTML any better? You are a whiner, nothing else.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
You're so wrong, you can't possibly be any wronger.
The KHTML devs are not complaining about apple not contributing back. They're complaining about all the mindless apple fanboys spouting "OMG APPLE DOES SO MUCH FOR KHTML YOU KHTML GUYS ARE A BUNCH OF LAZY FUCKS FOR NOT MERGING APPLES PATCHES IMMEDIATELY"
They took it for so long, but are no longer willing to stay silent on the issue.
In other words, their issue is with the legions of apple retards. Are you one of them?