Apple WWDC and open-source software

[Darren Weber]

On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 10:33 AM, Boyd Waters <bwaters at nrao.edu> wrote:

> > Has there ever been any discussion or promotion of open-source software
> at
> > WWDC?
>
> Two years ago, I attended WWDC. One of the lunch talks was for
> "Science and Mac Developers" -- they wanted to talk about
> (proprietary) HPC for biotech, but I wanted to talk about the huge
> role that open-source software plays in science.
>
> The talk organizers said that they would get back to us on that.


Yea, right!


> There was a great deal of confusion amongst the attendees regarding
> the terms of Apple WWDC and ADC non-disclosure: most thought that we
> couldn't even talk amongst ourselves!


No kidding.  In this very email, I'm always having to cross-check my impulse
to speak freely.

I spoke to a few guys and even heard some complaints about the ADC.  Even if
your a paid-up member of the iPhone enrollment program (for app releases),
you can't ask or say anything about iPhone SDK 3.0, even on the ADC mailing
list.  A few guys found that VERY frustrating - they felt left in the lurch
about resolving some simple programming dilemmas.

The WWDC is the first meeting of my life where nearly all the presentations
were given by a company and nobody could say anything about it outside the
meeting - that's no secret.  So much for liberty and fraternity in the great
US of A.  If you want to make a buck on the back of Apple's stuff, just sit
down, shut up, and listen.  Then pay Apple a pretty price for the privilege
to distribute your work and always remember that Apple will take a little
cream off your cake.  Moreover, they can take the entire cake if they want
to - your work is Apple's work.  Basically, iPhone development can turn you
into a little grease monkey for the Apple media empire.

Now that Apple has forums on its ADC site -- where everyone on the
> forum is covered by a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) -- that would be
> a great place to push for more recognition of open-source software at
> WWDC.


I expect this will be a failure, but one can only hope.  I expect Apple to
exploit open-source software as much as possible, even at the expense of an
open-source philosophy (I interpret this in the context of the philosophy
behind the FSF).  As much as I appreciate and admire the way that Apple
adopts and pushes open-source platforms and open standards (I do like having
darwin at my fingertips), I retain and profess a healthy scepticism, maybe
even cynicism, about any large commercial software corporation.  I ask
myself a couple of questions.  Why does OSX leverage BSD?  Why does Apple
push LLVM?  They are open-source, without restrictive licenses.  I expect in
years to come that Apple may try to drop GCC and GDB, if possible.



> Another thing we should do is email the appropriate Software
> Evangelist for science or open-source.


Yea, but who is that?

Take care,
Darren
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