Associated Press, 03/17/99
CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Steve Jobs delighted high-tech types yesterday by
making Apple Computer Inc. the first major computer company to release the
programming secrets behind an operating system to software developers around
the world.
Apple's move, while limited to its software that runs central computers,
gives a big push to a movement to use the Internet for enlisting volunteer
programmers and speeding software development. This ''open source'' method
also is used for Netscape's browser software and the Linux operating system
for business computers.
In contrast, companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc.
jealously guard blueprints to their software to surprise rivals with improved
features.
Apple will continue to keep secret its operating system for the Macintosh
personal computer, at least for now.
''We're putting our source code and the intellectual property out there
for everyone to see,'' Jobs, Apple's interim CEO, said at a conference at
Apple headquarters. Source codes are the typed instructions that programmers
create to direct computers to execute software.
Jobs made the announcement while unveiling a $499 operating system,
called the MacOS X Server, for use by schools, small and medium businesses,
and departments within larger companies.
The source code package behind the system is dubbed ''Darwin,'' said Jobs,
because ''it's about evolution.''
The system will work on most new Apple computers, but is being packaged
with the new Macintosh Server G3, a $4,999 unit that links many computers.
Jobs said Apple will watch how the server source codes are used and would
like to open codes from more systems.
Eric Raymond, president of a group of programmers called The Open Source
Initiative, said Apple's decision to share its newest code will ''shake up the
computer industry. We in the Internet hacker culture want to have access to
these source codes and Apple really gets it,'' he said.
