Apple Defends Open Source Initiative

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March 24, 1999 (5:53 PM EST)

By Lisa Picarille & Malcolm Maclachlan,

Cupertino, Calif. -- Apple Computer has gotten a rough reception to the world of open source.

Less than a week after Apple released portions of its new Mac OS X Server as open source, the company was rebuffed by three leading open source figures with multiple concerns about Apple's code release and licensing plans.

Speaking with TechWeb after the Apple shareholders meeting here Wednesday, Apple's senior vice president of software development Avie Tevanian defended the release. He also said the open source version of Mac OS X Server -- called Darwin -- was being well received. Since its release March 17, he said, more than 16,000 developers registered with Apple for the open source code, and more than 100,000 components were downloaded.

"That far exceeded my expectations," said Tevanian.

Tevanian's comments come in the wake of a paper entitled "The Apple Public Source License-Our Concerns," which was posted online over the weekend by three noted open source figures: Bruce Perens, co-founder of the Open Source Initiative, Ian Jackson, president of the group Software in the Public Interest, and Wichert Akkerman, the leader of the Debian project, a non-profit development group that did one of the first releases of Linux.

The paper brought up three main criticisms of Apple's License, or APSL, which developers must sign in order to use the code. The most serious charge was that Apple reserved the right to cancel a developer's license without recourse, which could cause a company to lose months of effort. The paper also notes that future development depends on Apple, not an independent development group, and the release includes large amounts of code originally produced at universities and already available for free.

Eric Raymond, an open source advocate who consulted with Apple and endorsed the release, quickly jumped to Apple's defense. He said that much of the trio's criticism was based on a faulty reading of the document. Raymond also said the Open Source Initiative, a group he co-founded, demanded and received a number of changes in the APSL before launch.

Tevanian said Raymond had a great deal of input in the creation and revision of the APSL. He also added that the process has been educational for Apple -- the company has learned just how many divergent opinions there are across the open source community.

"I guess we are finding out that there are many open source spokesmen, but Eric owns the Open Source Initiative trademark," Tevanian said. "We think the license is aggressive and a bold move on our part. There seem to be several factions in the open source community, and while we may not be pleasing them all we think we are being good open source citizens."