No, but those are now obsolete for audio, and unfortunate at the time they existed but Apple had no choice. You could also use iTunes itself to strip the DRM off the tracks, albeit not optimally (required burning to audio CD and reimporting) - something Apple strongly encouraged you to do every time you downloaded a track.
They also offered upgrades to all your previously purchased DRM music for a small fee ($0.20 per track I believe in the US, with volume discounts beyond that) when the store went DRM free.
The movies however, are still not DRM free. The content providers just will not allow it at this stage. Expect that if Apple ever convinces the studios to drop the DRM, the videos will be in plain H.264 with AAC audio (as they are now, but with no DRM).
It is unfortunate, but that's the nature of selling someone else's product - they can impose restrictions on it.
Well, they got to choose their HTML engine. They could have written a closed one, or gone with one that had a less restrictive licence but they very specifically chose the KHTML project when creating Webkit, ostensibly for speed and the size of the code (it was much leaner and faster than Gecko).
They could have chosen a different mailbox format, or a different Calendar format, or any number of these services - they have frequently tended towards open. They are what Windows should have been all along - a partially closed OS using open formats, so you can use it in a mixed environment with any other OS you like.
The iPod was already entrenched in the media player market by the time they made decisions like Webkit - and while it may be closed and vertically integrated, there's nothing stopping you using another player with your Mac. All the sync services are open and documented so you can get the same experience (or a very, very similar one). They even keep a duplicate copy of the iTunes library alongside their own database in human readable XML format to help with this. Ok, you don;t get the playcount syncing, and last played info etc, but the other stuff is all there.
On the desktop, they like open - just look at their recent release of libdispatch - there really was no reason to release it as open source other than "here's a project we created for OS X, but we're putting it into the OSS community so you guys can use it if you like".
Ah, thanks for the correction - I hadn't realised they had swapped the actual base format (although knew about mbox export). I had always just pulled the whole email folder from its top level out of the Library when making a quick manual backup, without looking inside for a long while.
Ok, so how exactly does Apple lock you into its ecosystem by using all those open formats?
How are you trapped into Apple's iWork software if you chose it for a startup business and then wanted to later migrate to Open Office?
How are you trapped into iTunes for music if you have bought music from the iTunes store? You're not - you can just move your AAC files to another ecosystem. (Not videos yet).
How are you locked into Apple's email program if you want to move your emails out to Thunderbird or some other mail client when they're all stored in.mbox format?
How are you locked into Apple's ecosystem if you design a web app that relies on their browser engine to render properly when that engine is Webkit?
This is all about the formats they use on their OS - how can it not be?
Also, you say "we" - that includes me - I am a citizen of the EU.
It's good that it is finally documented, but it has been documented since February this year. Nice to finally see it opened up after all these years.
So, which "many" of Apple's formats that I listed are restricted? Note that Apple does not own or control H.264 or AAC. These are open in the same way mp3 or GSM, or any number of patented but documented formats are.
I guess we can add.pst to the list now, as of February 2010.
You mean preventing Palm from spoofing their USB vendor ID, as guaranteed (contractually) to be unique to Apple by the USB-IF?
They are perfectly within their rights to enforce the USB spec as it is designed and contracted, or are you saying that Palm was right to just ignore its contract with the USB-IF and spoof Apple's ID? If so, is it ok for a company to just ignore any contract or licence, like the GPL for example?
There are documented ways (provided by Apple) to sync with iTunes, but Palm chose the cheap and dirty route. MarkSpace's "The Missing Sync" (http://www.markspace.com/products/missing-sync-family.html) uses exactly those documented methods [and ironically, the Missing Sync started as an app because Palm abandoned users of their hardware on the Mac, thus spawning a third party sync app that grew into The Missing Sync). Palm could have written something that uses those same sync APIs to achieve the same goal - music/contacts/calendar/mail/playlist/photo etc syncing with iTunes, but it chose not to put the effort in. It could also have just bundled The Missing Sync and worked out a licencing deal with MarkSpace, but wouldn't that have been embarrassing?
Blocking Palm's USB spoofing was never about controlling access to iTunes, it was all about "hey, if you want to sync and ensure it works, stop trying to kludge and actually write some software"
You can sync your Pre quite happily with iTunes using The Missing Sync (or any app that uses the documented sync API in OS X), just don;t try to spoof a USB vendor ID - it's really not on.
A format can be an open standard and still be patented - look at GSM for example, or mp3, or H.264....
Incidentally, Apple owns very few patents on the formats listed in my original bullet point. Many of the formats Apple uses are open source as well as open standards.
And yes, they sell OS X to run on hardware they sell. How is that even relevant to openness and interoperability? You wouldn't buy a Chevy axle to put on your Ford truck? If you don;t have a machine that can run OS X, why would you get it?
iTunes sells music in AAC format. I addressed that point in the very first item on the list.
For the record, I play music I have bought on the iTunes store on Ubuntu. It's just plain AAC audio, works just fine.
The movies are still DRM locked, but that is not by choice - when the movie studio comes around, the DRM will go (but pigs might fly first). I do not buy any video content from the store for this reason - I don;t want the DRM.
Because not everything is. I do use some Apple stuff - iTunes and Safari, and iPhoto being the biggest. I like OS X, and it does what I need it to do, but I'm not beholden to it (I do run Ubuntu too, but not seriously at the moment - not comfortable enough with it yet to leave OS X behind on that box, and I was also bummed out that I couldn't put KDE on it, since it ha a PPC cpu, and from all the screenshots I have seen, it just looks nicer than Gnome [so sue me, I like eye candy - I use OS X!]).
I also like the physical format of the iMac. I bought an iMac specifically (over a Macbook Pro/Mac Pro) because of the form factor. You really can't beat a desktop unit that you can unplug from the wall, drop into its box (with carrying handle) with the keyboard and mouse in under 2 minutes, and check it in as baggage for a transatlantic trip (many times) and set it up on the other end in the same time. Plus, it takes up so little space on my desk, and freedom from a tower is a joy. The cost of the iMac for that alone was well worth it for me.
If I weren't using the iMac for the form factor I'd still use OS X over Windows, since I simply prefer it and have yet to find anything I couldn't do that I did before (switched over 10 years ago). I'm not under any illusion that is is magically immune from software threats, or that it magically makes the world better, it's just very nice to use.
But then the same is true for GSM, and other patented systems.
In some cases you just have to compromise. Mp3 is an open format, in that anyone can write a decoder (or encoder) for it, but it is patented also.
When we're talking about interoperability, the documented nature of the formats in question are the key. If you want to change format from H.264 you can do so - it is fully documented. It may cost you a fee for the decoder (or it may not) but you can write one using the published specs and change to something else.
It's not really disingenuous, since that is the term - it is just a crowded term that you really have to specify. I should have written "open standard" for some of those, and "open source" for others.
Yes, but CoreAudio is a specific framework for OS X - it is essentially an implementation of OpenAL, which is also available on OS X and is compatible with it.
I'm not saying that they don't use proprietary software, but in general they are not obtuse - for example, why reinvent the wheel for email when there's mbox.
If you want completely open, there's Linux (mostly, unless you use closed drivers for some hardware).
I think it is good that Apple uses all those technologies - it means that it is much more interoperable with everyone else who also uses them.
You burn the (unencrypted) DVD, which has no serial numbers or phone-home activation, and remove the text file that says "please do not steam OS X". Burn that to another DVD and install OS X on your EFI-equipped hackintosh.
For every other form of Mac development, it's free.
And developing for the iPhone is free (to see if it is something you might want to do as more than a hobby, but to get the ability to deploy on the hardware you need to pay for the tool).
This is no different to several other development environments for commercial mobile development.
You claim the.pst format is open and documented? I'd very much like to see the method (from Microsoft, no reverse engineered solution allowed) to get your emails out of.pst and into another format.
Also, your assertion about Google being open if you can buy it is a total non-sequitur.
Perhaps you should have mentioned Flash, which is also open.
You may just have stumped me. I assume none of the OSS players can do this, like VLC or Mplayer?
Quicktime 7 seems to do it - enable the "show AV controls" under the window menu and you can change the playback speed there with a slider. I just tested it with Dr Who and it seems to work without distortion, but I'm not sure if it is suitable - maybe it depends on the content you feed it?
You can also use a Hackintosh, if you don't want to buy a new Mac (you can always buy a second hand one of course).
If you are seriously thinking about Mac development, then buying a second hand Mac might be the way to go, or you could just drop OS X on a hackintosh and be done with it.
Who'd have thought actually having the target platform would be necessary for decent development on that platform!
I did mention it: Apple uses HFS+, which is open source.
Apple provides read-only HFS+ drivers for Windows XP, Vista and 7 with boot camp (you can install these drivers using the Mac system's install DVD from within windows.
There are just few projects that have bothered to write a driver for it, since it is almost unheard of to use HFS+ outside of a Mac environment (and then you usually just get around it by sharing the Mac drive via SMB or NFS or something).
There are commercial tools that have built in HFS+ support though that run on Windows and other OSes, but there's nothing stopping a totally open project from including HFS+ support.
This is true - it is clear that Apple would like you to use an iPhone, with a Mac, with an iPad for the lounge etc, but it does not force you if you want to leave by using totally awkward and non-open formats.
If you want out of Outlook, you are in for a world of hurt - the.pst is a pain in the ass. If you want out of Mail.app, you just take your.mbox files to a new client on a new OS.
The App Store though, is a whole different ball game. The only thing I can see the EU being able to enforce is the ability to install third party apps without using the store, if the iOS ecosystem grows too large.
I don;t think they have to worry about Apple on the desktop - they are already in a similar position to a fully OSS OS, albeit with some patented formats as their open formats of choice (such as AAC, H.264 etc).
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No, but those are now obsolete for audio, and unfortunate at the time they existed but Apple had no choice. You could also use iTunes itself to strip the DRM off the tracks, albeit not optimally (required burning to audio CD and reimporting) - something Apple strongly encouraged you to do every time you downloaded a track.
They also offered upgrades to all your previously purchased DRM music for a small fee ($0.20 per track I believe in the US, with volume discounts beyond that) when the store went DRM free.
The movies however, are still not DRM free. The content providers just will not allow it at this stage. Expect that if Apple ever convinces the studios to drop the DRM, the videos will be in plain H.264 with AAC audio (as they are now, but with no DRM).
It is unfortunate, but that's the nature of selling someone else's product - they can impose restrictions on it.
Well, they got to choose their HTML engine. They could have written a closed one, or gone with one that had a less restrictive licence but they very specifically chose the KHTML project when creating Webkit, ostensibly for speed and the size of the code (it was much leaner and faster than Gecko).
They could have chosen a different mailbox format, or a different Calendar format, or any number of these services - they have frequently tended towards open. They are what Windows should have been all along - a partially closed OS using open formats, so you can use it in a mixed environment with any other OS you like.
The iPod was already entrenched in the media player market by the time they made decisions like Webkit - and while it may be closed and vertically integrated, there's nothing stopping you using another player with your Mac. All the sync services are open and documented so you can get the same experience (or a very, very similar one). They even keep a duplicate copy of the iTunes library alongside their own database in human readable XML format to help with this. Ok, you don;t get the playcount syncing, and last played info etc, but the other stuff is all there.
On the desktop, they like open - just look at their recent release of libdispatch - there really was no reason to release it as open source other than "here's a project we created for OS X, but we're putting it into the OSS community so you guys can use it if you like".
I think you have experienced a PEBKAC error. Not much OS X can do about that one.
Ah, thanks for the correction - I hadn't realised they had swapped the actual base format (although knew about mbox export). I had always just pulled the whole email folder from its top level out of the Library when making a quick manual backup, without looking inside for a long while.
Ok, so how exactly does Apple lock you into its ecosystem by using all those open formats?
How are you trapped into Apple's iWork software if you chose it for a startup business and then wanted to later migrate to Open Office?
How are you trapped into iTunes for music if you have bought music from the iTunes store? You're not - you can just move your AAC files to another ecosystem. (Not videos yet).
How are you locked into Apple's email program if you want to move your emails out to Thunderbird or some other mail client when they're all stored in .mbox format?
How are you locked into Apple's ecosystem if you design a web app that relies on their browser engine to render properly when that engine is Webkit?
This is all about the formats they use on their OS - how can it not be?
Also, you say "we" - that includes me - I am a citizen of the EU.
Same as mp3. Open, except for the patents...
Open standard and patented or not mutually exclusive.
"Revision history:
02/19/2010 - 1.0 - Major - Initial Availability"
It's good that it is finally documented, but it has been documented since February this year. Nice to finally see it opened up after all these years.
So, which "many" of Apple's formats that I listed are restricted? Note that Apple does not own or control H.264 or AAC. These are open in the same way mp3 or GSM, or any number of patented but documented formats are.
I guess we can add .pst to the list now, as of February 2010.
You mean preventing Palm from spoofing their USB vendor ID, as guaranteed (contractually) to be unique to Apple by the USB-IF?
They are perfectly within their rights to enforce the USB spec as it is designed and contracted, or are you saying that Palm was right to just ignore its contract with the USB-IF and spoof Apple's ID? If so, is it ok for a company to just ignore any contract or licence, like the GPL for example?
There are documented ways (provided by Apple) to sync with iTunes, but Palm chose the cheap and dirty route. MarkSpace's "The Missing Sync" (http://www.markspace.com/products/missing-sync-family.html) uses exactly those documented methods [and ironically, the Missing Sync started as an app because Palm abandoned users of their hardware on the Mac, thus spawning a third party sync app that grew into The Missing Sync). Palm could have written something that uses those same sync APIs to achieve the same goal - music/contacts/calendar/mail/playlist/photo etc syncing with iTunes, but it chose not to put the effort in. It could also have just bundled The Missing Sync and worked out a licencing deal with MarkSpace, but wouldn't that have been embarrassing?
Blocking Palm's USB spoofing was never about controlling access to iTunes, it was all about "hey, if you want to sync and ensure it works, stop trying to kludge and actually write some software"
You can sync your Pre quite happily with iTunes using The Missing Sync (or any app that uses the documented sync API in OS X), just don;t try to spoof a USB vendor ID - it's really not on.
Which is the whole point!
You want a system that uses open protocols and standards! So why not use the open and standard ones?! No need to reinvent the wheel.
And H.264 is an open standard, just like mp3, and GSM, and Flash.
I run Ubuntu on my 15" Powerbook G4.
So, possibility to run Linux: yep.
Unless you're saying Ubuntu is not Linux?
Patents are a different game entirely.
A format can be an open standard and still be patented - look at GSM for example, or mp3, or H.264....
Incidentally, Apple owns very few patents on the formats listed in my original bullet point. Many of the formats Apple uses are open source as well as open standards.
And yes, they sell OS X to run on hardware they sell. How is that even relevant to openness and interoperability? You wouldn't buy a Chevy axle to put on your Ford truck? If you don;t have a machine that can run OS X, why would you get it?
iTunes sells music in AAC format. I addressed that point in the very first item on the list.
For the record, I play music I have bought on the iTunes store on Ubuntu. It's just plain AAC audio, works just fine.
The movies are still DRM locked, but that is not by choice - when the movie studio comes around, the DRM will go (but pigs might fly first). I do not buy any video content from the store for this reason - I don;t want the DRM.
Yes it does, some are open, some are not.
Open formats are not exclusive to Apple, and I'm glad that's the case. The more open formats the better.
Because not everything is. I do use some Apple stuff - iTunes and Safari, and iPhoto being the biggest. I like OS X, and it does what I need it to do, but I'm not beholden to it (I do run Ubuntu too, but not seriously at the moment - not comfortable enough with it yet to leave OS X behind on that box, and I was also bummed out that I couldn't put KDE on it, since it ha a PPC cpu, and from all the screenshots I have seen, it just looks nicer than Gnome [so sue me, I like eye candy - I use OS X!]).
I also like the physical format of the iMac. I bought an iMac specifically (over a Macbook Pro/Mac Pro) because of the form factor. You really can't beat a desktop unit that you can unplug from the wall, drop into its box (with carrying handle) with the keyboard and mouse in under 2 minutes, and check it in as baggage for a transatlantic trip (many times) and set it up on the other end in the same time. Plus, it takes up so little space on my desk, and freedom from a tower is a joy. The cost of the iMac for that alone was well worth it for me.
If I weren't using the iMac for the form factor I'd still use OS X over Windows, since I simply prefer it and have yet to find anything I couldn't do that I did before (switched over 10 years ago). I'm not under any illusion that is is magically immune from software threats, or that it magically makes the world better, it's just very nice to use.
But then the same is true for GSM, and other patented systems.
In some cases you just have to compromise. Mp3 is an open format, in that anyone can write a decoder (or encoder) for it, but it is patented also.
When we're talking about interoperability, the documented nature of the formats in question are the key. If you want to change format from H.264 you can do so - it is fully documented. It may cost you a fee for the decoder (or it may not) but you can write one using the published specs and change to something else.
It's not really disingenuous, since that is the term - it is just a crowded term that you really have to specify. I should have written "open standard" for some of those, and "open source" for others.
Yes, but CoreAudio is a specific framework for OS X - it is essentially an implementation of OpenAL, which is also available on OS X and is compatible with it.
I'm not saying that they don't use proprietary software, but in general they are not obtuse - for example, why reinvent the wheel for email when there's mbox.
If you want completely open, there's Linux (mostly, unless you use closed drivers for some hardware).
I think it is good that Apple uses all those technologies - it means that it is much more interoperable with everyone else who also uses them.
Have you tried?
You burn the (unencrypted) DVD, which has no serial numbers or phone-home activation, and remove the text file that says "please do not steam OS X". Burn that to another DVD and install OS X on your EFI-equipped hackintosh.
They *really* make it hard.
If you want to run it on a phone, pay the $99.
For every other form of Mac development, it's free.
And developing for the iPhone is free (to see if it is something you might want to do as more than a hobby, but to get the ability to deploy on the hardware you need to pay for the tool).
This is no different to several other development environments for commercial mobile development.
Developing for OS X is totally free though.
You know very well what I mean by open.
You claim the .pst format is open and documented? I'd very much like to see the method (from Microsoft, no reverse engineered solution allowed) to get your emails out of .pst and into another format.
Also, your assertion about Google being open if you can buy it is a total non-sequitur.
Perhaps you should have mentioned Flash, which is also open.
That is true, but any company that makes use of BSD code really can't be "abusing" it as the original assertion was.
You may just have stumped me. I assume none of the OSS players can do this, like VLC or Mplayer?
Quicktime 7 seems to do it - enable the "show AV controls" under the window menu and you can change the playback speed there with a slider. I just tested it with Dr Who and it seems to work without distortion, but I'm not sure if it is suitable - maybe it depends on the content you feed it?
You can also use a Hackintosh, if you don't want to buy a new Mac (you can always buy a second hand one of course).
If you are seriously thinking about Mac development, then buying a second hand Mac might be the way to go, or you could just drop OS X on a hackintosh and be done with it.
Who'd have thought actually having the target platform would be necessary for decent development on that platform!
In what way is posting factual information being "apologist".
Facts are facts.
"I'm sorry, Apple uses open formats!"
I did mention it: Apple uses HFS+, which is open source.
Apple provides read-only HFS+ drivers for Windows XP, Vista and 7 with boot camp (you can install these drivers using the Mac system's install DVD from within windows.
There are just few projects that have bothered to write a driver for it, since it is almost unheard of to use HFS+ outside of a Mac environment (and then you usually just get around it by sharing the Mac drive via SMB or NFS or something).
There are commercial tools that have built in HFS+ support though that run on Windows and other OSes, but there's nothing stopping a totally open project from including HFS+ support.
In fact, it has been done already:
http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/hfsx.html
This is true - it is clear that Apple would like you to use an iPhone, with a Mac, with an iPad for the lounge etc, but it does not force you if you want to leave by using totally awkward and non-open formats.
If you want out of Outlook, you are in for a world of hurt - the .pst is a pain in the ass. If you want out of Mail.app, you just take your .mbox files to a new client on a new OS.
The App Store though, is a whole different ball game. The only thing I can see the EU being able to enforce is the ability to install third party apps without using the store, if the iOS ecosystem grows too large.
I don;t think they have to worry about Apple on the desktop - they are already in a similar position to a fully OSS OS, albeit with some patented formats as their open formats of choice (such as AAC, H.264 etc).