Apple develops free software
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Hard to believe but true:
https://github.com/apple/swift
We all know that their motivation is probably not ethics and their recently discovered will to respect the users essential rights.
Besides, I guess this new programming language will be mainly useful for developing apps for ios.
But still I think it's interesting (or at least funny) to read.
There was a funny pull request to change Swift's license to GPLv3: https://github.com/apple/swift/pull/17
I know they are trolling, but a permissive license is more ideal for a library. Especially one tied to a programming language to ease integration. Python is a great example as it is still installed by default in Apple's OSX even if its an old version.
Can anyone explain to me what's happening in this thread?
Why do people think of this request as a joke or say that it makes the community look bad?
Why is apple changing the license to gpl so unrealistic?
It is not unrealistic. There even is a great antecedent: since 2006, the Java virtual machine has been distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL and OpenJDK, the official reference implementation of the Java Platform Standard Edition, is under the same license: https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-welcomes-gpl-java.html
It would be great to have Swift GPLed. That said, if Apple does it, I fear it would then make any contributor sign a Contributor License Agreement so that all the contributed code becomes Apple's. That would not be that great then. Indeed, Apple and its partners would still be allowed to distribute technically improved editions as proprietary software. That is the business model called "open core". Oracle does that with MySQL (under the GNU GPL too) for example.
Anyway, that disgusting business model is of course possible as well with a permissive license. Except that anyone can release a proprietary edition in that case. With a GPL license + a CLA, only having Apple and its partners (because, thanks to the CLA, Apple can distribute Swift under another license to them) allowed to do "open core" would still be an improvement in my humble opinion.
Apple developing libre software isn't new or unusual. There's Darwin, for example (which is basically a bundle of some of the software in Mac OS X). I'm pretty sure Apple is also one of the biggest contributors to LLVM. Of course, though, Apple clearly prefers to keep everything it releases as libre software under a permissive license.
Regarding whether Swift should be under the GNU GPL, I'd say it would be a good thing, but not sufficiently good to make a big deal over. Being under the GNU GPL would just mean people developing proprietary software would use another language. Probably far more productive is to develop some particularly useful libraries for Swift and license them under the GNU GPL.
I'm pretty sure Apple is also one of the biggest contributors to LLVM.
Of course they are, to pull the rug from under GCC to pave the way for proprietary compilers, in other words to create secret architectures that are inaccessible to free software. I fail to see how this is a good thing.
I never said that it's a good thing, only that Apple does it. Swift is no different.
We all know that their motivation is probably not ethics and their recently
discovered will to respect the users essential rights.
Besides, I guess this new programming language will be mainly useful for
developing apps for ios.
But still I think it's interesting (or at least funny) to read. Levitra
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