By Lisa Picarille,
Cupertino, Calif. -- Apple is embracing the open source movement by offering a free version of its Mac OS X Server operating system.
At a news conference here, Apple interim CEO Steve Jobs announced on Tuesday that Apple is now shipping its Mac OS X Server. The company has made a version -- called Darwin -- that will be available for free.
Mac OS X Server, introduced in January, is a compilation of Apple's now-defunct Copland project and operating system technologies acquired when Apple bought Job's Next Software in December 1996.
Jobs also said Mac OS X Server will be priced at $499 -- down from Apple's announcement in January that the OS would cost $999. A client release of Mac OS X is expected by the end of the year. Jobs would not comment on pricing for that version.
Mac OS X Server is based on the Mach kernel developed by then-Carnegie Mellon University student Avie Tevanian, who is now Apple's vice president of software engineering. The full version of the Mac OS X includes Apple files services, NetBoot, support for the Apache 1.3.3 HTTP server, Apple WebObject's application development platform, BSD 4, 4m, and Java.
The Darwin release will contain three of seven core components of the full-blown retail release -- the Mach kernel, Apache 1.3.3, and BSD 4.4.
Jobs said the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker made the decision to release an open source version of Mac OS X more than six months ago. He said the popularity of Linux and Apache proved the open source model works.
Apple gets it, said Eric Raymond, a board member of the Open Source Initiative. The company has come up with a license that is 100 percent compatible with OSI contract specifications, Raymond said.
By offering Darwin as an open source piece of code, Jobs said he expects users will make modifications that will ultimately help Apple continue to evolve its operating system.
Putting the code out there means developers will be able to build on top of Darwin and create products that they can in turn sell for profit, Jobs added.
Apple's goal was to do the right thing when it came to embracing the open source community, he said.
One analyst said that having OSI board members stand up and assert that Apple's open source license passed muster added credibility to Apple's move.
"That was a very, very important point," said Chris Le Tocq, an analyst at Gartner Group in San Jose, Calif.
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