6 ms·

Apple's relationship with open source is pretty average. In the end, they use open source strategically. If there's no benefit to open-sourcing something, they

Apple's relationship with open source is pretty average. In the end, they use open source strategically. If there's no benefit to open-sourcing something, they won't. Clang, WebKit and Swift are "proper" open source projects, done in the open. But there aren't many of those. They have no open source apps, and most frameworks such as Cocoa, AppKit etc. are completely proprietary. Some of their open source efforts have been half-hearted; Darwin was enthusiastically embraced by the community, then essentially shut down by Apple. The XNU sources are APL, but there's nothing open about its development. I/O Kit is closed, I believe.

zie 10y ago
They do have at least one open source application: https://www.cups.org/ https://www.cups.org/ it's fully open-source, and wholly owned by Apple, however they bought it, they didn't invent it.
- zeptomu 10y ago
  Interesting, I did not know that Apple is the maintainer of CUPS since 2007.
  - lobster_johnson 10y ago
    They hired the guy who originally made it, Michael Sweet [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sweet_(programmer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sweet_(programmer)
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
- trasz 10y ago
  They also lead development of LLVM and clang, which is a _huge_ project, and very useful (although sometimes without full realization of that fact) to the Open Source ecosystem.
madeofpalk 10y ago
> In the end, they use open source strategically. If there's no benefit to open-sourcing something, they won't. Wouldn't that apply for most companies? Let's not pretend that Facebook, Microsoft et al do open source as a charity
- nordsieck 10y ago
  >> Apple's relationship with open source is pretty average. That's literally what he said.
  - contras1970 10y ago
    I think you literally mean figuratively.
- lobster_johnson 10y ago
  A lot of companies routinely open-source lots of little things that could easily have stayed internal, but are genuinely useful to everyone else. (Admittedly, I think about 30% of them are Go logging libraries, but the point still stands.) I.e., open source by default as opposed to being the exception. That, of course, can be a strategy. A company can look cooler and attract talent by developing everything in the open.
  - scarface74 10y ago
    It's called "commoditizing your complements" Google open sourced Android to get advertising revenue. IBM supports open source and made money from server sells and still makes money from services. Apple open sourced WebKit (more than they had to) to gain industry support and later to kill off Flash. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/
    - savoytruffle 10y ago
      Webkit was open-source long before anticipating killing Flash. I think, like Darwin, it was originally open-source because it had to be, due to its origin in an existing open-source project that required derivatives also be open-source.
srssays 10y ago
Perhaps the exception that proves the rule, but TextEdit is open source! https://developer.apple.com/library/content/samplecode/TextEdit/Introduction/Intro.html https://developer.apple.com/library/content/samplecode/TextE...

zie 10y ago

They do have at least one open source application: https://www.cups.org/ https://www.cups.org/ it's fully open-source, and wholly owned by Apple, however they bought it, they didn't invent it.

zeptomu 10y ago
Interesting, I did not know that Apple is the maintainer of CUPS since 2007.
- lobster_johnson 10y ago
  They hired the guy who originally made it, Michael Sweet [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sweet_(programmer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sweet_(programmer)
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
trasz 10y ago
They also lead development of LLVM and clang, which is a _huge_ project, and very useful (although sometimes without full realization of that fact) to the Open Source ecosystem.

madeofpalk 10y ago

> In the end, they use open source strategically. If there's no benefit to open-sourcing something, they won't. Wouldn't that apply for most companies? Let's not pretend that Facebook, Microsoft et al do open source as a charity

nordsieck 10y ago
>> Apple's relationship with open source is pretty average. That's literally what he said.
- contras1970 10y ago
  I think you literally mean figuratively.
lobster_johnson 10y ago
A lot of companies routinely open-source lots of little things that could easily have stayed internal, but are genuinely useful to everyone else. (Admittedly, I think about 30% of them are Go logging libraries, but the point still stands.) I.e., open source by default as opposed to being the exception. That, of course, can be a strategy. A company can look cooler and attract talent by developing everything in the open.
- scarface74 10y ago
  It's called "commoditizing your complements" Google open sourced Android to get advertising revenue. IBM supports open source and made money from server sells and still makes money from services. Apple open sourced WebKit (more than they had to) to gain industry support and later to kill off Flash. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/
  - savoytruffle 10y ago
    Webkit was open-source long before anticipating killing Flash. I think, like Darwin, it was originally open-source because it had to be, due to its origin in an existing open-source project that required derivatives also be open-source.

srssays 10y ago

Perhaps the exception that proves the rule, but TextEdit is open source! https://developer.apple.com/library/content/samplecode/TextEdit/Introduction/Intro.html https://developer.apple.com/library/content/samplecode/TextE...