Free software users and IBM/Apple Power4

Re: Free software users and IBM/Apple Power4

I think Apple will continue to resist where they legally can. They will probably do some lobbying as well, but they could easily be outspent.

I think there's a certainty irony in the idea of free software enthusiasts moving to hardware supplied by a single supplier, but the world has plenty of these ironies. I think it would do some of the free software movement some good to try Mac OS X (including getting the XNU source and tweaking it if they are brave enough and capable enough - kernel hacking is a much more specialised form of programming than most going), complete with extensive class libraries, and develop some Mac OS X applications that they open source. I've played with various *nix systems for many years now, and frankly can't be bothered to get too excited by the precise legal status or heritage of the kernel if it gets the job done for me. As for the comment on libraries: during conversation the other night, it was ponder that the uptake of perl, python and java are all partly driven by the degree to which many standard tasks are already solved. Cocoa provides a similar rich base environment, and one which is well worth having a play with.