[nylug-talk] Read it and weep.

[Chris Knadle]

On Monday 30 July 2007, Brian Gupta wrote:
> On 7/30/07, Chris Knadle <Chris.Knadle at coredump.us> wrote:
> > > On 7/30/07, Brian Gupta <brian.gupta at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > http://www.cups.org/articles.php?L179+I0+T+M10+P1+Q
> > > >
> > > > Apple forked CUPS, and has managed to close source it in the process.
> >
> >    So they're giving themselves an exception to make proprietary printer
> > drivers [for OS X only] without releasing the code for them, even if
> > they're based on sample or existing filters that are already in CUPS.
> > Hmm. 

> First, it's not just printer drivers. Second, Apple has a very poor record
> of playing nice in the Open Source community. Take a look at
> Konquerer/Safari and Darwin.  http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200602/apple.html

   I'm familiar with these ongoing disputes with Apple.  :-(  These issues 
really suck.   I consider the situation with Apple and Darwin to be a good 
example for discussion of benefits/drawbacks of BSD vs GPL licensing.

> Because of how they handled khtml, Safari code and khtml code are
> completely incompatible, and can't be merged.

   Yeah, the KHTML team were complaining that Apple was rushing the 
programming work and making some poor choices.  The KHTML team decided to do 
it the right way instead of the rushed way, and I think they clearly made the 
right choice.

> They now have full rights to incorporate external contributions into their
> closed source fork. They also have complete freedom to close source
> anything related to CUPS, not just drivers. (~"But not limited to drivers")

   They can, but if they're smart, they wont.  Just because it would be legal 
doesn't mean it's a good idea -- if they do, they'll likely loose their 
current developer base to a fork of the project.  They've stated that the 
code is going to remain GPL2/LGPL2.

   I'm still with you on your concerns.  The track record for Apple Inc on 
these open source matters speaks for itself.

   -- Chris

-- 

Chris Knadle
Chris.Knadle at coredump.us