Re:Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the Uni...
by commoner on Thursday January 30, 2020 @09:06PM
(#22198324)
Apple made the MIT-licensed zsh the default shell in macOS over the GPL-licensed bash precisely to avoid the GPL.
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT208050
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20090193
Apple has historically been hostile to the GPL. Remember when Apple removed the GPLv2-licensed VLC from the App Store in 2011?
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/01/vlc-for-ios-vanishes...
VLC didn't return to the App Store until the iOS version was dual-licensed under the MPL 30 months later.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/07/vlc-media-player-ret...
Re:Apple delivers a new redesigned Maps for users in the Uni...
by chipotle_coyote on Friday January 31, 2020 @12:40AM
(#22199394)
I don't think what you're posting is inconsistent with the observation the person you're replying to made -- Apple is hostile more specifically to GPL 3, which a lot of companies seem to be (rightly or wrongly). IIRC, a lot of GPL-licensed stuff that came with OS X, like bash, just stopped being updated by Apple when it moved from GPL 2 to 3; moving to zsh lets them keep their default shell up to date while also keeping whichever execs/lawyers have decreed "Thou Shalt Not GPL 3" happy.
Also, IIRC, Apple doesn't have a policy of prohibiting GPL-licensed software from being in the App Store, but rather, the FSF's own interpretation of the GPL is that its terms are incompatible with the App Store's terms.
I also don’t see how it is consistent with their behavior. For example, Apple wouldn’t need to change anything to bash to make its latest version run on MacOS. Yet, they don’t ship it.
On the other hand, the argument that they don’t avoid the GPL in general, but specifically GPLv3 because of legal concerns is consistent with their behavior. They shipped the latest GPLv2 licensed bash for years, but avoid any GPLv3 licensed version.