Apple's Open Source Stew

Tor Slettnes sent us a link to a fairfax article that talks about the sticky situation Apple seems to have gotten itself into regarding Open Source. Touches on the Open Source Trademark issue, as well as the ever Popular Perens vs. ESR vs. RMS issues. It actually covers the bases pretty well. Worth a read.

Comments

Excellent Article, Sad Situtation

[Nameless]

That's a really good article, and a really sad situtation. The Open Source movement is really picking up steam (preaching to the choir ;) and it is encouraging to see companies putting their corporate weight behind it. Sadly, Apple jumped the gun. If they had done more research and gained some understanding of how the OS community works, they could have seen the arguments over the license they have constructed ahead of time. Had Apple done it's homework, they would have either 1) written a different license that appeased more of the OS community or 2) had a long list of arguments (and puns, especially "ring" ones ;) to use to support their lisence. All in all, I think Apple jumped the gun, but I'd rather have companies jumping behind OS with good intentions instead of companies who shoot people who even get *near* the source.

~Nameless, the fearless moderator! ;0

OSI and PSI arguing over "Open Source"

[kmj9907]

Does it seems humorous to anyone else that two of the largest "anti-intellectual property" groups are arguing over who owns the rights to a phrase? I know it's not exactly the same as releasing source code, but come on. "I thought up that word first, so you can't use it. Bye the way, let me see that code you wrote, I want to use it."

kmj

bitter political war

[pohl]

When Netscape announced their intent to release the mozilla source under an open-source license, there was extensive (and often hostile) debate in public fora. It eventually led to both clarification and modification of the first iteration of their license. Nobody in the press called it a "bitter political war." Maybe that's because back then the reporters didn't know where the discussion was taking place.

This kind of open debate, however bitter it may seem to outsiders, is how the collective operates. Somebody posts something to the net (be it draft code, or a draft license) and everybody who gives a shit starts to argue about the Right Way(tm) it should be done. Anything that a company offers to The Community is, implicitly, an RFC. If your request gets you no commentary, that's when there's a problem. Beware the day when any of the people involved want to stop the dialogue, not the day when the dialogue is passionate.