Apple Pulls Public Mac OS 10.4.8 Source

[jhu]

So then you only consider the BSD license to be free?

in a sense he's right. with a bsd license, you can really do whatever you want. you can modify the code to your hearts content and release or not release the code. perhaps there's an advertising clause, depending on the bsd license. and that's about it. however, with gpl, if you release the binary, you must release the code upon request.

 

[ClimbingTheLog]

in a sense he's right. with a bsd license, you can really do whatever you want

True - again, though, this is purely a user's perspective. With the BSD license, the developer loses all rights to say what happens to his code. The GPL gives the developer the right to stipulate a redistribution term. So the "most freedom" award can't be given in a vacuum.

Different tools for different jobs; both good; pick the right one, etc.

 

[shawnce]

The end-fact that Apple's source does not appear to be publicly accessible does not appear to be in dispute, but rather questions have arisen as to whether it was ever publicly accessible (publicly accessible as defined by not requiring registration with Apple. The source is still free).

Any item released under the APSL (Apple Public Source License) requires and has required since the dawn of the APSL users to register an account with Apple (free account). This is done so Apple can track that you have read the APSL before you gain access to the source. It has always been this way... in fact this registration requirement was talked about on and off for years on the Darwin lists (for example) and was one of the reasons that OpenDarwin was started (some folks just couldn't bring themselves to register).

A few years ago Apple integrated the open source account system with their Apple ID system so that if you have an Apple ID you didn't have to create a separate account you could just use that. See last paragraph of this email.

All Apple Developer Accounts (ADC) can be used as an Apple ID, as can .Mac accounts, Apple support forums accounts, Apple store accounts, etc.

Finally the 10.4.8 source never got linked on the top level darwin source page, only 10.4.7 got listed most recently (I have been looking for the last 3 weeks). The reason is that Apple is transitioning over to macosforge.org (that is the site that lists links to Intel version of XNU and only that site) and they appeared to have hit some system resource issue that has slowed this transition. As I noted in my prior post you can access 10.4.8 sources using a direct link to the tarball.

As a side note I have worked on Darwin sources since it was first put online under the APSL and I worked on aspects of OpenDarwin when it first got going. So I am speaking from a long history of experience with Darwin.

 

[peharri]

The thin veneer is off the vast majority of people that clamor for OSS.

Whenever I hear the OSS crowd scream "Software should be FREE!" I translate that to mean "I refuse to pay someone for their work, thus I will STEAL it"!

I don't blame Apple. The OSS community abused what they had and turned to piracy by stealing the GUI. Kudos Apple.

What on Earth are you talking about? What are people stealing in the Arn's summary? The modified code isn't capable of running OS X, and until they closed the source, Darwin worked on most generic x86 platforms anyway.

Someone fixes a lack of functionality that existed in previous public versions and you call it "stealing"? WTF?

 

[shawnce]

and until they closed the source, Darwin worked on most generic x86 platforms anyway.

umm... they didn't close the source...

 

[kresh]

What on Earth are you talking about? What are people stealing in the Arn's summary? The modified code isn't capable of running OS X, and until they closed the source, Darwin worked on most generic x86 platforms anyway.

Someone fixes a lack of functionality that existed in previous public versions and you call it "stealing"? WTF?

Because they fixed it with the intent to use it with Aqua. They will be stealing Aqua. I sincerely doubt anyone will go through the trouble just for command line only.

Even the blogger that was mentioned has a screen shot of Aqua running. There's the theft for ya