What does it mean that OS X and iOS will be Open Source?

[Luba]

Btw, will watchOS also be Open Source?

Open Source means anybody can see all the lines of code?

Could anybody tweak the lines of code like they do with Linux such that there are different variations of Linux?

And looking into the future what does this mean? Those building Hackintoshes will be legally free to do so?? When it was announced at WWDC there was a huge roar of approval. I don't understand the significance of this.

 

[xmichaelp]

Their new programming language is open source, not their OSes...

 

[adib]

But a significant chunk of their OSes are open source:

• OS X
• iOS

 

[Luba]

Their new programming language is open source, not their OSes...

Hmmm, even more confusing to me. Since Swift is Open Source others can tweak how the programming language works?

 

[Shirasaki]

Hmmm, even more confusing to me. Since Swift is Open Source others can tweak how the programming language works?

Theoretically, open source means anyone can view and modify the code. But Apple didn't piblicly say swift will become fully open source. I guess.
I don't know much about this either.

 

[danmart]

My guess, especially given that they are also planning to support Linux with Swift 2, is that they want to encourage games developers to use the language as their first or second choice. Valve have made a push into supporting Linux, and the 'Steambox' consoles will be built off Linux. So Swift 2 games would presumably run natively on both Macs and Linux Steamboxes.

One of the classic things holding people back from going all-Mac is a dirth of AAA games on the platform, so this could be major breakthrough in that regard.

 

[TheBuffather]

The general notion of open source is that anyone can modify the code, including distributing "their own" copies and/or portions of code that they modified/added. Some of these changes made by independent developers (or teams) may be noticed by Apple, and they may choose to incorporate the changes / additions into the master version of the language.

 

[Shirasaki]

My guess, especially given that they are also planning to support Linux with Swift 2, is that they want to encourage games developers to use the language as their first or second choice. Valve have made a push into supporting Linux, and the 'Steambox' consoles will be built off Linux. So Swift 2 games would presumably run natively on both Macs and Linux Steamboxes.

One of the classic things holding people back from going all-Mac is a dirth of AAA games on the platform, so this could be major breakthrough in that regard.

Although everyone sees the bold growth of the mac, I don't think it is the time to completely remove windows from our daily life. First reason should be the superiority of office in Windows.
Talking about the game, although metal is a really amazing gaming engine announced by Apple, it is still not so mature as a good gaming engine, while there are still thousands of games only support windows, and directx. I admit my comment does not have sufficient data source support, although if I choose a game platform, I still chose windows, not mac.
Of course, as long as new games realise the real power of metal, running more games on Mac should not be a dream.

 

[danmart]

MS shot them selves in the foot from a gaming perspective when they said that Windows 10 would only allow purchases from an official MS AppStore. That really upset Valve, and whilst I think MS have rowed back from their position the genie is out of the bottle now.

If they can promote a standard Linux build for games machines that could significantly change the gaming PC landscape. With Swift 2 maybe Apple can hitch a ride on that shift?