Re:Apple Open Source
by PaulDavisThe1st on Thursday December 09, 2021 @04:03PM
(#29502894)
>[ ... ] as with medical patents and the like, a proper analysis would have to ask whether it would even have existed if its source code were to be open.
The overwhelming majority of XNU/Mach was created as open source. It is quite unlikely that macOS would exist today if those components had not been created under an open source license.
Re:Apple Open Source
by PaulDavisThe1st on Thursday December 09, 2021 @04:04PM
(#29502905)
> Like I said to the other commenter, the source code for the software being discussed already is available
I was replying to this remark:
> Most users – hell, most developers – do not give a toss about having the source code for software that's shipped with MacOS.
We're not discussing whether the source code for XNU/Darwin/Mach/MacOS itself ought to be open, which is another question entirely. (Obviously everyone would sooner it be open than not open, in a first-order analysis, but, as with medical patents and the like, a proper analysis would have to ask whether it would even have existed if its source code were to be open.)
[0] Or rather a non-moot point, for the pedants.