Open-sourcing Old MacOS Components?
That's one thing that sometimes comes up. I think that it would be nice if Apple would open-source at least some of its cast-off software, so all that effort does not go to waste, and to allow interested volunteers to support legacy software. I would have appreciated it if Apple had open-sourced QuickDraw 3D. But <a href="http://www.quesa.org"; target="_blank">Quesa</a> duplicates most of QD3D's functionality.
However, there are lots of possible reasons why that has not happened:
* Fear of helping competitors or of sacrificing intellectual property.
* Licensed proprietary components.
* Desire to reuse parts in upcoming software.
* Low quality and poor intelligibility of some of the code, such as enough spaghetti logic to supply an Italian restaurant.
* Violations of open-source licenses, especially the GNU and related ones.
* Violations of patents.
* Impolitic comments, like "This crap is here to support Microshit".
* Profanity.
Apple has already done some reusing of old software, by having Quartz support some of QDGX's typographical features, and by reusing the Newton's handwriting recognition in Inkwell in the upcoming "Jaguar" release. So Apple might do more.
Also, some people have a hard time grasping that open source can be valuable for nontrivial software.
The revelation of potty-fingered programmers could be bad for Apple's image, though it has not hurt the image of a certain computer-game company.
However, there are lots of possible reasons why that has not happened:
* Fear of helping competitors or of sacrificing intellectual property.
* Licensed proprietary components.
* Desire to reuse parts in upcoming software.
* Low quality and poor intelligibility of some of the code, such as enough spaghetti logic to supply an Italian restaurant.
* Violations of open-source licenses, especially the GNU and related ones.
* Violations of patents.
* Impolitic comments, like "This crap is here to support Microshit".
* Profanity.
Apple has already done some reusing of old software, by having Quartz support some of QDGX's typographical features, and by reusing the Newton's handwriting recognition in Inkwell in the upcoming "Jaguar" release. So Apple might do more.
Also, some people have a hard time grasping that open source can be valuable for nontrivial software.
The revelation of potty-fingered programmers could be bad for Apple's image, though it has not hurt the image of a certain computer-game company.
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