J. Paul Reed (preed@sigkill.com)
Tue, 16 Mar 1999 22:22:16 -0800 (PST)
On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Evan Read wrote:
> Doesn't this kinda take the fire out from under Linux since MacOS X
> may (or may not) get some heavy duty improvements from this
> inititive....
Linux in general?
No.
Does Mac OS X run on x86, Alpha, MIPS, and PowerPC (I'm probably
forgetting some here too) hardware?
Is the support from the user/developer community there?
Has Apple released ALL of the source code, from the kernel up to the
"window manager" and everything in between?
I was reading the Apple license this code is distributed under, and it has
some weak points that may cause "open source" developers to pause for a
moment as well: Apple limits you from directly charging for applications
which you BUILD upon the source you get from Apple, save the "services"
covered in section 6 of the license. However, any source code you write
effectively becomes the property of Apple, since according to section 3b,
Apple (and others) can take your code and redistribute (sell) it on
whatever terms they like.
In addition, from what I read, section five essentially says: "We grant
you these patent rights, but no more, and if we see something we like that
you've made using our source code, we may require you to get additional
patent licenses from us."
Now, this may change the game of Linux on PPC, but I can assure you that
Linux in general will chug along just fine.
And with the kind of messed up licensing restrictions, it may not even
fall under the classic definition of open source, and we may be surprised
to see that developers in general won't touch it.
Later,
Paul
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
J. Paul Reed preed@sigkill.com || preed@area.com
First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at
twice the price? -- S.R. Hadden, Contact
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