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Steve Jobs: an open source pioneer? You bet

By | October 6, 2011, 8:22am PDT

Summary: Steve Jobs: an early open source pioneer? You bet. Mac OSX is based on Darwin, an open source OS made available by Apple in 2000 that incorporated code from NextStep, BSD and other free software projects, Wikipedia notes. Darwin still lives on in the form of PureDarwin and other derivatives.

One wouldn’t think of Apple’s Steve Jobs as an open source pioneer.

But he was.

Apple’s 10-year-old Mac OS X is a closed source operating system with open source components.

It is based in part on Darwin, an open source OS originally developed by Apple in 2000 which incorporates code from Jobs’ NextStep, BSD and other free software, according to Wikipedia.  The BSD code in MacOSX, for example, includes the process model, network stack, and virtual file system, the web encyclopedia also notes.

Here’s how Wikipedia describes Darwin’s open source nature:

“Darwin’s heritage began with Next’s NextSTEP operating system,  first released in 1989. After Apple bought NeXT in 1997, it announced it would base its next operating system on OPENSTEP. This was developed into Rhapsody in 1997 and the Rhapsody-based Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999. In 2000, Rhapsody was forked into Darwin and released as open-source software under the Apple Public Source License (APSL), and components from Darwin are present in Mac OS X today.”

In July 2003, Apple released Darwin under version 2.0 of the Apple Public Source License (APSL), which the Free Software Foundation (FSF) approved as a free software license. Previous releases had taken place under an earlier version of the APSL that did not meet the FSF’s definition of free software, although it met the requirements of the Open Source Definition.

OF course, most of the core attributes of Mac OSX and iOS are proprietary and no one would lump it in the open source category.

More: Violet Blue: The spontaneous San Francisco Apple Store Memorial for Steve Jobs | Perlow: Jobs made me think different | Farber: He thought different | “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” | CBS News: Wozniak on Jobs | CNET: A Jobs timeline | ZDNet Steve Jobs memories | CNET roundup |Buzz Out Loud Live | Techmeme | Apple statement

Efforts by Apple to engage the open source community in the development of Mac OSX essentially failed.

The OpenDarwin project, for example, founded by Apple and Internet Systems Consortium in 2002 in an attempt to unify open source programmers and Apple, shut down four years later.

But Darwin the open source operating system is still kicking. There are other Darwin derivates out there, including PureDarwin, an open source OS launched in 2007 that is based on Darwin that incorporates X11, DTrace and ZFS.

As noted by Wikipedia, “parts of NeXT’s software became the foundation for Mac OSX, which, together with iOS, is among the most commercially successful BSD variants in the general market.”

Mac OSX is not one of those BSDs that is generally available and open source, and nor is it likely ever to be.

But Steve Jobs’ early use of BSD and development of Darwin were key endorsements of the open source project concept and the open source development model that tilted public and programmers’ opinion in favor of open source.

Jobs was perhaps the earliest, most influential technologist in the world to give open source a nod, and the open source community can be grateful for that.

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Topics

Steve Jobs, Apple Macintosh, Apple Inc., BSD, Darwin, Apple Mac OS X, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software, Apple Mac OS, Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney is a Boston-based writer who has followed the tech industry for almost two decades.

Disclosure

Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney owns no stock in the companies that she covers. She holds a 401K that is managed by Morgan Stanley.

Biography

Paula Rooney

Paula Rooney has covered the software and technology industry for more than 20 years, starting with semiconductor design and mini-computer systems at EDN News and later focused on PC software companies including Microsoft, Lotus, Oracle, Red Hat, Novell and other open source and commercial software companies for CRN and PCWeek. She received a silver award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors in 2005 for her profile on Linus Torvalds and edited and co-authored "Partnering With Microsoft," a book about Microsoft's channel published by CMP Publishing in 2004. Rooney graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1997. In her off time, she enjoys scuba diving, sailing, sun worshipping, running, reading, surfing (the net) and hanging out with her family. She resides on the shores of Scituate, Massachusetts.

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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
reginebautista 7th Nov
freepuzzlegameonline.com / full-house-design.com

Free Puzzle Games
House Design
View in thread
0 Votes
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WebKit
tk_77 6th Oct
There's also WebKit (core of Safari and Chrome) which was a fork of KHTML and is (still) very much open source. http://www.webkit.org/
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OpenCL is Apple's invention, too, which Jobs decided to make open sourced
DeRSSS 6th Oct
@tk_77
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GNU Compiler Collection also still Free Software
joaovrsa2 6th Oct
@tk_77 Apple is too kind... (/sarcasm)
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
linuxforhumanbeing 7th Oct
@joaovrsa2
+1
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
matiasgerlich@... 6th Oct
@tk_77

I think i goes in this way: you start as an "open source" and you end it as a patent troll. That's the main story for Steve Jobs. He died as a patent troll.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
reginebautista 7th Nov
freepuzzlegameonline.com / full-house-design.com

Free Puzzle Games
House Design
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And then, CUPS
Dietrich T. Schmitz * Your Linux Advocate 6th Oct
Which Apple now owns copyrights to and maintains.
0 Votes
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
k0d3gear 6th Oct
@Dietrich T. Schmitz I guess we are all doomed then.
0 Votes
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
joaovrsa2 6th Oct
@k0d3gear There's always the option to fork if it comes to that, but that would ruin the "C" in CUPS.
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Apple should thank the OSS model
The Linux Geek 6th Oct
OSS superior design helped apple become the #1.
Now Apple has to return the favor and drop all the lawsuits against android OEMs that is open sourced too.
And of course GPL iOS source code or adopt android for iPhone.
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Now Apple has to return the favor and drop all the lawsuits against android
Cynical99 6th Oct
@The Linux Geek
You make me laugh.

Android stole the technology and those profiting should pay up. Apple spent boatloads developing it and deserves their due.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
raging_monkey 6th Oct
@Cynical99 Android stole nothing, apple got mad when google launched android right after google helped apple making google maps for iPhone 1.. Btw no technology in iPhone is truly revolutionary, I had a touch phone several years before apple made the iPhone. Just because you made a chair and I make a better one does not justify that I should pay you. It's called competition benefit from it.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
k0d3gear 6th Oct
@Cynical99 .... you are a fool. Its not rocket science. A simple fusion of what already existed before it. Or did Apple steal that technology too? Like they did with the Mac, the mouse, etc?
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
joaovrsa2 6th Oct
@Cynical99 Define "the technology".
Remember, there is a difference between "new technology" and "technology mainstream public was not sold on yet".
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
marthill 6th Oct
@kod3gear,
Except that Apple paid Xerox a million dollars in pre-IPO shares for access to their IP. Apple didn't steal from Xerox. In contrast, Google and Android vendors paid no-one anything and are now paying the price.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
HypnoToad72 6th Oct
@Cynical99 - lastly, both sides, other sides, every sides will "innovate" at every turn.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/214268/20110915/top-10-android-features-ios-5-impersonated-apple-iphone-5-ipad-ipad-2-iphone-3gs-iphone-4-ipod-touch.htm

Nobody in real life wants to innovate because all these companies would rather sling lawsuits at each other and Apple was notorious for their part in that as well.
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still laughing
Cynical99 6th Oct
@raging_monkey and others
you still make me laugh. You have convinced yourself that Google is a wonderful company that spends billions for your benefit. Poor fools.

Defend Google at your peril. They are the new Microsoft.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
mtelesha 7th Oct
@Cynical99 "Android stole the technology" Um you know Android is older then iOS? "Google purchased the initial developer of the software, Android Inc., in 2005"
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2005/tc20050817_0949_tc024.htm
Also no one has shown any code that is stolen from Apple. Apple was never first in any market and you just shown yourself a ignorant fanboy happy

The only bases of Apple anger is you don't own patents from the 1980s and 1990s. It is not that technology was stolen. Also the other side is cosmetic design which again is not stolen it is a copyright issue unless you are a German judge.
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@mtelesha
baggins_z 7th Oct
The android you reference wasn't anything like what you see now. It, and the phones it ran on, looked like Blackberrys (the phone to beat in those days). After iPhone came out, shazaam, all of a sudden Android, and the phones it ran on looked like iPhones.
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Most companies 'steal'
Rabid Howler Monkey 7th Oct
@Cynical99 Google's problem, given the current software patent landscape, was that their patent portfolio was too small. This link describes how Sun Microsystems dealt with patent threats from Apple and Microsoft:

http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/

We'll soon find out whether Google's pending purchase of Motorola Mobility and purchase of IBM patents helps. But, Geez, what a chunk of cash!
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
UStupidKid 8th Oct
@Cynical99
Patent troll like Apple and Jobs will not tell ya which patents android violates. if they tell you the patent number, you will find those patents ridiculous and "common-sense".
This is probably why you cannot name some of the technologies Android have stolen from Apple.
There is no.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
Jimster480 10th Oct
@Cynical99 Apple spent alot developing those technologies? Do you even know what they are suing for? All the patents are BS, and they didn't develop any of them and most of them, they weren't even the first ones to use such an idea. Maybe you should get your facts straight first.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
aep528 6th Oct
Riiiight...

That's why OSX comes with so many restrictions and you get sued if you try to run it on non-Apple hardware.

Steve Jobs figured out how to use open source in such a way as to generate outrageous corporate profits from it. Is that really something to celebrate?
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Actually yea:). The key to Open Sources success is for people/business to
James Quinn 6th Oct
@aep528 ... Find a way to make money from said. If not why bother?

Pagan jim
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
k0d3gear 6th Oct
@James Quinn Tell that to Steve Jobs before he died. I'm sure he did it all just to make money. Idiot.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
joaovrsa2 6th Oct
@James Quinn So, there is no difference between using something to make a profit and ruthlessly maximizing profit without regard to the community who made the thing?
You seem to have a very binary worldview.
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@k0d3gear
baggins_z 7th Oct
God spare us from the ignorant. Without money, how do you suppose Jobs was supposed to employ 30,000+ people, order parts, do his R&D, open his stores, etc, etc, etc. Let me guess: you are one of these fools who thinks rich people put their money in a vault and spend all day counting it like scrooge McDuck.
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@joa
baggins_z 7th Oct
So, in other words, open source really isn't free in your mind. You really can't do anything you want with it. The fact is Jobs used BSD and not Linux, precisely because BSD is TRUE open source: you can do ANYTHING you want with it, including making changes, making them proprietary, and making gobs of money as a result.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
k0d3gear 6th Oct
@aep528 Right on. +1
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
libertyguy 6th Oct
Apple used an open source operating system as the base for mac osx because it saved them time and money in the development. I fail to see how this makes Jobs the next Richard Stallman. Jobs was an innovator and veritable marketing genius. That should be enough. Padding his achievements is unnecessary.
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He showed that the Open Source model could be used to
James Quinn 6th Oct
@libertyguy ... Generate revenue. In effect legitimizing Open Source as a usable business tool.

Pagan jim
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Not truely open source when you use it
William Farrell 6th Oct
@James Quinn
and make it closed source. The fact that he started from basic open source software was more from necessity then a glowing endorsement.

What was he going to do? Take someone's closed source OS and build on that?
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
joaovrsa2 6th Oct
@James Quinn That's nothing short of an insult for the people who write and publish Free Software with the hope of keeping computer users Free.
Being attractive to businesses is a collateral effect of making better software, never a goal in itself.
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Hardly the first to do that.
Lester Young 10th Oct
@James Quinn You forgot about Sun. And lots more (including Apple) have benefited from Sun's contributions to Open Source than have benefited from Apple's. Sun's downfall was their lack of savvy on the marketing and licensing end.
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This has nothing to do with Stallman, which is free software advocate, not
DeRSSS 6th Oct
@libertyguy: ... open source proponent (there is significant difference between these two concepts).
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
Michael Kelly 6th Oct
@libertyguy

Don't confuse open source with free software (as in freedom OR beer). There are many, many benefits that can be derived out of open source even if you have to pay for it or if there are redistribution restrictions. RMS's views are derived out of a lack of trust, meaning he does not trust open source software to remain open source unless GPL-like restrictions are placed, and he also wants to force the hand of those who do not open their source. But there is nothing wrong with open source with licensing and distribution restrictions.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
jatbains 6th Oct
@libertyguy I gotta agree with you take open source and use it to make money (TIVO anyone?).
I respect MS more at least they wrote their own kernel!
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
jhammackHTH 6th Oct
@libertyguy Innovator my butt. The only thing he innovated was marketing, and maybe some design ideas. But I would call them all that innovative either.
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Technically ...
jscott69 7th Oct
@jhammackHTH ... Jobs didn't "innovate" marketing, he just applied it to the PC industry years before anyone else was even thinking about it.

And Jobs technical innovations often stemmed from his design pursuits, which always focused on the user experience from the moment they first looked at a box containing a new Mac, iPod, iPhone or iPad to when they open that box, how the machine behaves when you first power it up, and how you interact with it, from day one until the last time you use it. It wasn't always about "inventing" something, it was about applying it in the most practical of ways so that it improved the experience for the end user. If a given solution didn't improve the user experience, Jobs insisted that the experience be improved (perfected?) before the product shipped. And he was a stickler for details, obsessing over colors, sizes, and exact placements.

Oh, and frankly, a lot of Jobs' design ideas weren't his own -- he had very talented people working for him and he usually gave them the credit in keynotes or product interviews. But people saw him as the man behind Apple, so they attributed designs and innovations to Jobs, whether they were truly his ideas or not.
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Technically ...
jscott69 7th Oct
@jhammackHTH ... Jobs didn't "innovate" marketing, he just applied it to the PC industry years before anyone else was even thinking about it.

And Jobs technical innovations often stemmed from his design pursuits, which always focused on the user experience from the moment they first looked at a box containing a new Mac, iPod, iPhone or iPad to when they open that box, how the machine behaves when you first power it up, and how you interact with it, from day one until the last time you use it. It wasn't always about "inventing" something, it was about applying it in the most practical of ways so that it improved the experience for the end user. If a given solution didn't improve the user experience, Jobs insisted that the experience be improved (perfected?) before the product shipped. And he was a stickler for details, obsessing over colors, sizes, and exact placements.

Oh, and frankly, a lot of Jobs' design ideas weren't his own -- he had very talented people working for him and he usually gave them the credit in keynotes or product interviews. But people saw him as the man behind Apple, so they attributed designs and innovations to Jobs, whether they were truly his ideas or not.

Jobs' genius was in making the whole greater than the sum of the parts. And marketing.
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Er, no. He wasn't.
Facsimiler 6th Oct
Steve Jobs was many things, but an open source pioneer he wasn't. Yes, he used BSD-licensed code in his operating systems - but he didn't give back. Darwin failed as an open-source project because Apple wanted free help, but put all kinds of obstacles in the way of contributors. He never used GNU-licensed code. He never released any major piece of software under an open source (never mind a free) license. (CUPS, and other free Apple software, were acquired by Apple - not developed by them.) Steve Jobs was the epitome of a closed-source, proprietary software baron, who sued everyone he could get away with - not exactly your typical open-source mentality.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
k0d3gear 6th Oct
@Facsimiler 100% true +1
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"He never used GNU-licensed code."
ldo17 6th Oct
@Facsimiler Yes he did. Objective C, the core language of NeXTStep/OpenStep as well as OS X/Cocoa and the i-Platform, is a component of GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection, released under the GPL. So all your Apple developers are using "GNU-licensed code" every time you build something!
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Re: "He never used GNU-licensed code"
Facsimiler Updated - 9th Oct
@ldo17 Apple developers primarily use Apple's Xcode, which is released under a proprietary license and which includes an Objective C compiler that is unrelated to GCC. Objective C is a language, not a product, and it existed before Jobs founded NeXT. Name one commercial product that Apple or NeXT developed using GPL code (and which, under the terms of the GPL, they would have had to release under the GPL license)...
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Re: "He never used GNU-licensed code"
ldo17 12th Oct
@Facsimiler I just checked. In fact they were using GCC until recently, but it appears their current compiler is built on LLVM--which also happens to be an open-source product.
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GNU is not free or open. It's a very restrictive license
baggins_z 7th Oct
BSD is a much better free and open license.
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What nonsense...
Facsimiler 9th Oct
@baggins_z "GNU is not free or open" - are you smoking something illegal? It is clearly both! You can use GPL software freely, without paying licensing fees and without restriction. You can also examine and modify the source code as you see fit. That's both free and open in my book. However, the license does require that, if you modify and then distribute that modified code, that you do so under the same license. That's a quid pro quo arrangement that is both fair and equitable; if you benefited from using the code, you are forced to give back.

BSD is also free and open, but allows proprietary software barons to take the fruit of your efforts for free and distribute it under proprietary licenses that prevent you from even seeing what they did with your code. There's no requirement to give back and, as the original developer, you don't get any of the financial rewards that the proprietary (ab)user of your code received. That is patently unfair, and inequitable, and is the reason that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and others use BSD-licensed code freely while avoiding GPL-licensed code like the plague.

If I'm going to give my code away for free, I know which license I'm going to use.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
statuskwo5 6th Oct
If you are going to cite sources, please don't cite Wikipedia. Personally, I like Wikipedia and use it on a daily basis, but it should NEVER be used as a source. EVER.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
joaovrsa2 6th Oct
@statuskwo5 Wikipedia is a perfectly valid research tool, provided you check the relevant references.
All this anti-wikipedia mentality going around is an overreaction against those too lazy to check their sources.
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RE: Steve Jobs an open source pioneer? You bet
LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222 6th Oct
Apple was smart to go with BSD based code for the license instead of GPL.

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