4 ms·

I have realised a long ago that Apple has for a long time now been working towards steering the Macintosh way from its open, Unix-based foundation. I used to w

I have realised a long ago that Apple has for a long time now been working towards steering the Macintosh way from its open, Unix-based foundation. I used to work with the old MacOS, long before OSX, and it was just the way they wanted it: a closed platform with a nice (for the time) user interface and giving Apple full control over what is being developed on it and how. Dropping this platform for NeXTSTEP-based OS X was the right choice at the time it was made, when they needed a more advanced platform, and they needed it immediately. But the side effect was that it opened the Mac as a development platform, and Apple has since been trying to close it back, without affecting the existing users too hard. The success of mobile/tablet market allowed them to build a new, closed platform, with precisely the features described above. After MacBook Air was first released I expected them to soon release an OSX-based tablet, but I have soon realised that it is not going to happen: instead of pushing Mac to the tablets, they will more and more push iOS to the Mac, until they have one uniform platform that will make it nearly impossible to develop on except if sanctioned by Apple.

jfkwingmsk 7y ago
Which we’re going to see how that sits with antitrust law pretty soon.
- scarface74 7y ago
  The same as “it sits” with console makers.....
II2II 7y ago
Anyone could develop software for the Macintosh prior to the release of OS X. There were third-party tools to do so. You could extend the system software. You could distribute your software as you pleased. Depending upon how you look at it, it was actually more open than OS X development since modern releases of OS X lock certain things down in the name of security. Both are a far cry from iOS development.
scarface74 7y ago
Apple full control over what is being developed on it and how. What “control” did Apple have on what was developed on classic MacOS? Famously, the only decent compiler during the early PPC years was made by a third party.
pjmlp 7y ago
The UNIX foundation of NeXTSTEP was there only to help bring software into the platform and having a foot on workstation market. NeXTSTEP application development in Objective-C, or for that matter Mac OS X in Objective-C/Swift, has anything to do with its UNIX based foundation. The fact that many have bought Apple devices just as convenience to not have to bother setting up X properly or dealing with power configuration on Linux laptops is no longer relevant for Apple sales department. They care about the developers that buy Apple devices to actually target Apple devices with their software, none of which uses frameworks that depend on the OS being UNIX.

jfkwingmsk 7y ago

Which we’re going to see how that sits with antitrust law pretty soon.

scarface74 7y ago
The same as “it sits” with console makers.....

II2II 7y ago

Anyone could develop software for the Macintosh prior to the release of OS X. There were third-party tools to do so. You could extend the system software. You could distribute your software as you pleased. Depending upon how you look at it, it was actually more open than OS X development since modern releases of OS X lock certain things down in the name of security. Both are a far cry from iOS development.

scarface74 7y ago

Apple full control over what is being developed on it and how. What “control” did Apple have on what was developed on classic MacOS? Famously, the only decent compiler during the early PPC years was made by a third party.

pjmlp 7y ago

The UNIX foundation of NeXTSTEP was there only to help bring software into the platform and having a foot on workstation market. NeXTSTEP application development in Objective-C, or for that matter Mac OS X in Objective-C/Swift, has anything to do with its UNIX based foundation. The fact that many have bought Apple devices just as convenience to not have to bother setting up X properly or dealing with power configuration on Linux laptops is no longer relevant for Apple sales department. They care about the developers that buy Apple devices to actually target Apple devices with their software, none of which uses frameworks that depend on the OS being UNIX.