Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/09/04

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Mac vs. Windows - way OT
From: Eric Welch <eric@jphotog.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 00:25:32 -0700

Apple has it's own license, which has been approved by the Open Source 
community.

Darwin, the underpinnings of OS X (BSD Unix on the Mach kernel) is 
fully free and anyone can download it and run it and change it and 
contribute to its development. The only part that is proprietary is the 
interface Aqua. Quartz is PDF. Rendezvous - which is their 
implementation of Zeroconfig networking is free for anyone to use. They 
use Java that is cross platform, Kerberos that's open source, etc. etc. 
etc.

Microsoft Windows is completely proprietary except for what they've 
taken from Open Source - such as the TCP/IP stacks.

I was objecting to the characterization that what distinguishes OS X 
from Windows was it was proprietary. The exact opposite is true.


On Wednesday, September 3, 2003, at 10:40  PM, Jeff S wrote:

> The General Public License (GPL) is probably what most
> people are thinking of when they think "Open Source",
> and the core of OS X is absolutely, positively not
> GPL'd. This is the license that gives Mr. Gates fits:

Eric Welch
Carlsbad, CA
http://www.jphotog.com

Never miss a good chance to shut up.  - Will Rogers.

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