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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. "

9 of 557 comments (clear)

  1. Re:But it's still just Linux with a better UI, rig by Rolan · · Score: 4, Informative

    BSD actually, not Linux.

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    - AMW
  2. Code Drama Queens by maggard · · Score: 4, Informative
    For all of those crowing "I told you so!" the files are all where they should be, still under an open license. There was apparently a hiccup which Apple fixed as soon as they found out about the oversight.

    You may now move on to other pumped-up / days-old non-dramas.

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    I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
  3. cctools is now released by dmoen · · Score: 5, Informative

    I RTFA, and I saw this in the email thread about cctools:

    >>>I was amazed to find that the gas sources had been split out of cctools, so they could be provided in accordance with the GPL, but no other part of cctools was made available. So I never did get an answer to my question.

    >>I see today a much more populated source tree for x86.
    >>Thank you to everyone responsible.

    >Indeed, I also would like to pass along my thanks, since I was one of the people to comment on this with my concern before.

    Doug Moen

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    I have written a truly remarkable program which this sig is too small to contain.
  4. Re:But it's still just Linux with a better UI, rig by WindBourne · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mach actually, with a BSD API and a mish mash of OSS tools.

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    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  5. 1. What is Darwin? by demon411 · · Score: 3, Informative

    wondering what the british naturalist has to do with a kernel?

    Darwin is used as the UNIX core of OS X. Darwin iteself is a version of the BSD UNIX operating system that offers advanced networking, services such as the Apache web server, and support for both Macintosh and UNIX file systems. It was originally released in March 1999. Darwin currently runs on PowerPC-based Macintosh computers, and is currently being ported to Intel processor-based computers and compatible systems by the Darwin community.

    XNU is the name of the kernel that Apple developed for use in the Mac OS X operating system and released as open source as part of the Darwin operating system. It is a hybrid kernel combining the Mach kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University with components from the FreeBSD kernel as well as a C++ API for writing drivers called IOKit. XNU is an acronym for X is Not Unix.[1]

          1. ^ (2005). Porting UNIX/Linux Applications to Mac OS X: Glossary. Apple Computer. URL accessed on December 13, 2005.

  6. Another WRONG Slashdot article by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

    See this comment. Apple made a quick mistake and fixed it, and the sources ARE available.

    Next.

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    "Sufferin' succotash."
  7. Re:I shed the tiniest of tears by turgid · · Score: 3, Informative

    Honestly, I don't care too much about the kernel. I would however love to see open standards for NextStep/Cocoa, and then maybe more people would use it. It is really nice, but Jobs can't have his cake and eat it too.

    You're a decade late

    There's a free-as-in-speech implementation right here

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    Stick Men
  8. Mod Story Down, it was a mistake at worst. by javaxman · · Score: 3, Informative
    Ok, I'm going to admit this is somewhat redundant, as a number of posts already point this out, but the story just isn't true.

    Might the Intel transition impact Darwin's open source status a bit? Sure, it might. It will certainly make releases a bit slower as code is reviewed and seriously sensitive bits ( if any ) removed, but I'm not sure I see the reason why Darwin builds shouldn't be able to be done going forward...

  9. Re:Apple wants to use closed-source Linux-NTFS dri by mdarksbane · · Score: 4, Informative

    Note that since that fiasco they have complied with almost every term requested by the Konqueror developers, setting up a cvs visible external to apple and working with the KDE developers to get them security clearance to see the apple proprietary stuff.

    Just because they were slow in doing it because they were busy getting a project to market doesn't make them evil, since they did make a significant turnaround in this space. if you're going to criticise them (rightly) for following the bare minimum initially, you can at least mention that they have improved significantly since then.