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Re: Xcode 2.3 source gone

El 18/08/2006, a las 21:05, Andrew Gallatin escribió: 
Basically it boils down to Apple's open source (for at least the
kernel) is read-only, and only when they are in the mood to make it
available.

That's fine as it is their code and their license. But my original
point still stands: Darwin, and Xnu in particular is far from a
shining example of what an open source project should be.

There are many was that something can be open source. "Community- driven" is one way which you seem to particularly value but it is not the only way. Apple's Darwin is another way; as you've said it's not really driven by the community, rather, all the work is basically done by Apple, mostly behind closed doors, and periodically released to the public.

But it seems to me that Apple never intended to make their open source effort community-driven, and doing so would not necessarily be an "improvement" in their eyes. They always intended to write/ maintain all the code themselves. They give back the source for three reasons, probably:

1. Public relations
2. Ethical reciprocity: give back something to those that gave to you (Apache, GCC, FreeBSD etc)
3. To allow developers working at low levels to have insight into the workings of the OS, to make their products work better

None of these goals require the community to be intimately involved in the process of making Darwin. Apple will probably make the community more involved as time goes by (Mac OS Forge, WebKit, for example) but only insofar as it doesn't get in the way of those three goals. And seeing as it's their OS that's fine by me; there are plenty of totally free, out-in-the-open alternatives if that's what you value. Needless to say even this latter form of open source is better than closed source.

G


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References: 
 >Re: Xcode 2.3 source gone (From: Andrew Gallatin <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Xcode 2.3 source gone (From: Andrew Gallatin <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Re: Xcode 2.3 source gone (From: "Shawn Erickson" <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Re: Xcode 2.3 source gone (From: Andrew Gallatin <email@hidden>)



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