Apple extended the courtesy of meeting with me one day after my column on the closing of the OS X x86 kernel source code was published online .
To sum up Apple ’s expostulation , they felt I had given a year - old story a wise coat of key and sensationalized it for an audience that was n’t affect by it . Yet no story is more timely , or more broadly relevant , than this one .
The coming together started sliding downhill when Apple asked , “ Has anybody ever write to you about this ? How many multitude actually recompile their oxygen X kernels ? ”
I do , for one . I rattle off some of those groups that value open source in its fullest sense . I included academe , high - carrying into action and high - throughput calculation experts , and shop that want to roll in system - level enhancements before Apple gets around to box them .
Apple pushed back , enounce that as eclectic as my readership is , the subset I described is only a “ fraction of a fraction ” of the oddball ( Apple ’s word ) who are my regular proofreader . Issues that matter to so few , and to me , should n’t be projected to a larger hearing in 48 - full stop eccentric . I go on the defensive attitude whenever a vendor advise that any fate of my readership is an underclass because of its identification number . It is our fraction of a fraction that is the bellwether for the next leading edge . My readers do n’t gaze at my torch or pack others ’ . They ’re too busy lighting new ones .
It chance on me as funny that anyone at Apple could fail to connect with that nonpareil or see its economic practicality .
Before unadulterated riches and success , Steve Jobs was the poster boy for that misunderstood fraction - of - a - fraction to which my erstwhile handlers referred . Jobs was odd homo out for being imaginative , curious , persistent , fearless , self-opinionated , and unsatiable . These element make an innovator . Jobs progress a company , then a finish , and then a product line that mull the future he was sure would unfold , and he was determined to get there first . Jobs had the audacity to deport as though his dreams represented the sure future , and he was blessed with just enough money , forbearance , and raw materials ( including open informant ) to prove his spot . Those in his employ and the tiny fraction of estimator owners who were Mac user thought that innovation was a hell of a fine base for a company . Financial analysts were solid in their judgment that creation was a fine way to take a company to hell .
The Mac platform is an overflowing field goal of raw materials for groundbreaker and Maker of all stripes . It ’s what Steve Jobs would fantasize about if he still solve out of his garage , and you could bet that he ’d be bloodless to find that the vender locked some portion of his chosen platform behind a logic gate without a word of notice or account .
I ’m not so much concerned about the single issue of Apple ’s sandbagging its open source commitment for six calendar month ( and enumeration ) . The inwardness will open up again , this tempest will fade away , and I ’ll be happy for it . What will continue to concern me so deeply is that Apple call back it would be OK , that nobody would comment or care , if it back - burnered its commitment to keep its open source Darwin OS in lockstep and binary compatibility with OS X.
I noticed .
My story got such blanket attending because lots of masses — whose identification number well surpass that fraction of a fraction who would monkey with or pile up an OS kernel — understand why breaking a promise , and saying nothing about it , matters . It ’s not about codification . It ’s about character .
