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Will MacIntel Kill Apple Open Source Efforts?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the somethign-to-think-about dept.

An anonymous reader writes in to say that "Rob Braun (OpenDarwin core developer claims Apple's open source efforts are now dead, because Apple is afraid of assisting OSx86 piracy. First, Apple withheld the source of cctools required to to build Darwin. Now it seems they are no longer releasing the source to OS X's xnu kernel. "

2 of 557 comments (clear)

  1. But it's still just Linux with a better UI, right? by defile · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Exactly why I resisted the pressure to abandon Linux for MacOS X on the desktop. It's not Linux with a better UI, it's a proprietary system with candy coating.

    And its true colors finally come out.

    Will the cool hackers still dig it?

  2. that would be a self-destruct by idlake · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    In the end, Apple doesn't care about the underlying OS. Mach was handy, they only need a substrate to run their desktop environment atop. [...] Sooner or later Steve will swollow his pride and create a subsystem consisting of a modernized POSIX and NextStep and that will be OS XI. It will also ship with all of the Vista subsystem. That will allow all the device installers to run and gain the ability to run all Windows apps besides. Which also solves the Microsoft Office availibility problem.

    That would reduce Apple to an application vendor. How long do you think Apple is going to last as a vendor of iApplications and Cocoa libraries? They'd be competing with software companies having a few dozen employees and (in the case of Cocoa) better libraries and better IDEs.

    Apple has no unique technology, they have almost no research, and they don't really innovate. What Apple has going for them is branding, style, and an all-in-one solution. That's enough to be successful in this market (many other companies survive on branding and style alone), but if they try to take on Windows software houses or PC hardware vendors head-on on price and functionality, they're going to lose.

    The one thing Apple could and should do is become a little more open to open source technologies. In particular, Apple should make X11 and Gnome a GUI environment on equal footing with Carbon and Cocoa. Right now, Gnome is a cumbersome third party install, and their X11 integration sucks.