It's what I've heard rehashed around HN, but afaik the actual policy is more or less as described here:

https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/18922

Essentially it works like it should anywhere else: If you don't publish source code and someone complains, you're out. In an ideal world Google Play would hold itself to the same standards.

However, the App Store does impart restrictions which are incompatible with GPL, so it's not so much that Apple doesn't allow it as it is that GPL doesn't allow it.

Apple has no official statement on this of course, but we know how they feel about GPL code given that they've removed every bit of it from their OS over the last few years.

They haven't been removing GPL code actively, they decided not to take the risk of using GPL version 3 software, so they've let the respective versions of bash, rsync etc. linger at their last released GPL version 2 releases.

E.g. Git is on GPL version 2 still (and probably forever), and Apple continues to update that in a relatively timely fashion.

Apple just switched to zsh, which is not GPL other than a few optional shell functions. Expect this trend to continue.

The App Store came after the GPL. Also, Apple could let developers opt out of the restrictions.

But they don't, and that's what this conversation is about.

You attributed the incompatibility to the GPL. Apple created the incompatibility. Apple could easily fix it. The FSF can't change existing versions of the GPL.

Apple doesn't say it directly, but the way how they deliver apps to devices incompatible with GPL licensing terms.

See for example https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/6109/is-it-possibl... .

Free Software Foundation says that GPL is not allowed in AppStore and they may request GPL software to be removed from App Store. https://www.fsf.org/news/2010-05-app-store-compliance

Apple has been slowly phasing out GPLed software from their own software, such as Catalina's migration from Bash to Z Shell, but even writing third party apps with the GPL has apparently been problematic in the past: https://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/07/18/vlc-for-ios-will-retu...

The issue is that the Apple dev ecosystem creates encumbrances that prevent users of GPL binaries from relinking them. That is a GPL violation and such binaries are not compliant with the license.

Someone should probably tell VLC if GPL is disallowed, since they have been shipping across tvOS and iOS for years.

I think VLC core had a large amount of code rewritten, to change the license (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4787965), which required a large effort from the VLC team.

They don’t- it’s the FSF restricting developers freedom. Not Apple.

How? I'll debate FSF ethics as much as the next guy, but they clearly state they want end user freedoms such as the freedom to modify the application you use. Apple clearly doesn't want that if you use specific GPL versions.

This is an Apple problem, not FSF.

End user freedoms but not freedoms for the person who actually creates the code.