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Apple Losing Touch With the OS Community?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-know-this-guy-named-steve dept.

InfoWorldMike writes to tell us that InfoWorld's Tom Yager recently had the chance to sit down and chat with Apple about their closing the OS X Kernel. From the article: "The Mac platform is an overflowing basket of raw materials for innovators and creators of all stripes. It's what Steve Jobs would fantasize about if he still worked out of his garage, and you can bet that he'd be livid to find that the vendor locked some portion of his chosen platform behind a gate without a word of notice or explanation."

2 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. Jobs upset? by TheWanderingHermit · · Score: 5, Informative

    I doubt Steve Jobs would have been the one to get upset about thing being closed off, since very little of the actual innovation, creative, and design work ever was his. I can see Steve Wozniak getting ticked off about it, but I imagine he'd hack away anyway.

    Jobs may be great at pushing the designers to do more, but he was NOT the one who did most of the hacking. He even exploded when Woz asked if he could help with the Apple's analog port.

  2. Only official Apple response by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Informative

    To sum up Apple's objections, they felt I had given a year-old story a fresh coat of paint and sensationalized it for an audience that wasn't affected by it.

    Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

    To date, the only official response has been:

    Just to be clear, Tom Yager was *speculating* about why we have -- so far -- not released the source code of the kernel for Intel-based Macintoshes. We continue to release *all* the Darwin sources for our PowerPC systems, and so far has released all the non-kernel Darwin sources for Intel.

    Nothing has been announced, so he (and everyone else) certainly has the right to speculate. But please don't confuse "speculation" with "fact."

    Thanks,
    -- Ernie P.

    Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D. (408) 974-3075
    Product Manager, Open Source & Open Standards; Mac OS X Product Marketing
    Apple Computer; 303-4SW 3 Infinite Loop; Cupertino, CA 95014


    and a response to a private message I sent:

    Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 12:08:45 -0700
    From: Ernest Prabhakar
    To: Dave Schroeder
    Subject: Re: [Fed-Talk] Apple [may not open] OS X Kernel for Intel

    Hi Dave,

    On May 21, 2006, at 11:41 AM, Dave Schroeder wrote:

     When *will* something regarding a xnu source release on x86 be announced?

    I know you probably can't answer this, so it's somewhat of a rhetorical question, but seriously: the lack of release of source for xnu on x86 represents a significant change in strategy to some customers with no corresponding announcement or roadmap. When will concerned customers be informed as to what is happening?

    Generally speaking, when a final, irreversible decision has been made, we will find
    _some_ way to let affected customers know about it.

    If nothing else, the very fact I am telling you to *not* assume that something is true,
    means *I* don't believe it is true. :-)

    -- Ernie P.

    Seriously, might there be kind of a, you know, huge developer conference coming up in a month and a half or so here where some of these questions might be answered? Especially since Tom Yager's speculation is just that - speculation - and extremely old news at that? Is it any wonder that both of Yager's articles are under "Opinion" headlines?