Results 1 to 3 of 3
My grandfather and I were having a discussion about Linux, the fact that it is open-source, etc ...
Then we got into the discussion that his Macintosh is Linux-based, but ...
- 01-01-2004 #1Just Joined!
- Join Date
- Dec 2003
- Posts
- 41
Apple OS X License?
My grandfather and I were having a discussion about Linux, the fact that it is open-source, etc ...
Then we got into the discussion that his Macintosh is Linux-based, but that it doesn't appear that the same licensing applies.
If Apple used a Linux based kernel, how are they able to bypass the licensing issues, and not allow their code to be distributed?
- 01-01-2004 #2Linux Engineer
- Join Date
- Jun 2003
- Posts
- 1,113
They wouldn't... Linux is released under GPL, which prohibits use of free software in un-free software (exept LGPL, that eg. GTK+ is released under, so if Apple used GTK+ to build something, they wouldt be needed to release that application under the GPL, but under a proprietary license if they wanted to), but *BSD is released under the BSD-license that allows it. That's why Apple can build off open-source and use it in their proprietary software... Just hope I got everything correct
You can look here for more information about licenses etc:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html
http://opensource.org/index.php
BTW; OS X + is based off BSD
- 01-01-2004 #3Linux User
- Join Date
- Nov 2002
- Posts
- 420
The open source community done all the hard work... Apple cashed in
Reply With Quote 
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts