08/09/2006, 1:20pm, EDT
Wednesday, August 9th
Open-source Darwin? Not yet
Apple is stonewalling open-source developers despite the company's recent release of much of the Mac OS X Tiger kernel source code, according to Proclus, administrator of the GNU-Darwin Distribution. "In order to have a free and open source (FOSS) [operating] system, two things are necessary. First, all the necessary source code must be obtainable by anyone, and second the system must obviously be bootable in order to use it," Proclus told MacNN. "Darwin OS is not bootable without the AppleACPIPlatform driver, which is closed source [and proprietary] at this time."
Proclus said the team needs more information about building kernel extensions, and volunteered to help Apple in that area. The developer also expressed the need for the GNU-Darwin Distribution to see the source code for the AppleACPIPlatform driver -- which is necessary to boot the current Darwin OS -- or to receive a replacement driver. Apple replied, saying that it could not make the requested sources available.
"From a certain standpoint, it is a joke to release the kernel source code without releasing the AppleACPIPlatform driver," said Proclus. "As a result, people are getting disinformed now."
The AppleACPIPlatform is a fundamental hardware driver which is loaded at boot time. The driver is required before Darwin can be a FOSS operating system again, according to Proclus, and any claim that Darwin is again FOSS would be misleading at this time.
"Either Apple can release the source code for this one driver, or a new replacement driver can be built by the developer community. Obviously GNU-Darwin would like to see that happen."
The GNU-Darwin Distribution predates OpenDarwin as a distributor of Darwin-related software and sources, pledging to continue operations despite OpenDarwin's recent closure.
"We would like to maintain concurrency with Apple's version of Darwin, so that we can better serve the Apple community by providing our free software offerings to them, both now and in the future," said Proclus. "We provide many thousands of free software packages in addition to the operating system and source code. We also make a point of educating and helping people understand software freedom and open source."
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There is no value in Darwin being a standalone free operating system. The last 5 years have shown that. There is definite use to software developers having source access, but that goal has already been met.
Whine somewhere else.
Steve Jobs: Someone call up Proclus and ask him about Open Darwin! If he's not there call 31337 h4x0r or someone like that.
or get 99.99999% of their platform as OSS and reap the benefits of webkit, bonjour, etc.
Apple pushed Darwin as a complete operating system that actually booted and people invested their time in it. They took their time releasing the Darwin source, failing to explain why (obviously they don't mind losing open-source developers on it) and now apparently they release it without the necessary bits to boot - the "majic [sic] key" if you will. That's news-worthy.
Darwin does boot. You need the use the apple suppled driver. This driver contains apple's DRM code and therefore can not realisticly be open source. So I state my point again this is not news worthy and it is very missleading to day that Darwin is not open. And once again all ask the question: "Why does anyone need the source to this driver?"