At 1:03 PM -0500 3/21/03, gabriel rosenkoetter wrote:
>On Thu, Mar 20, 2003 at 05:53:45PM -0800, Space Case wrote:
>>  On Mar 20,  3:28am, Rafael Diniz wrote:
>>  >Why Apple doesn't open the MacOS 7.x source code?
>>  >Has anyone sent an email to Apple?
>>
>>  Probably something along these lines:
>>    http://developer.apple.com/darwin/news/qa20011004.html#Source
>
>By which Apple means "our bean counters say we *might* still be able
>to make money off of that code, so you can't have it".

This question was seriously asked and received serious consideration 
when A/UX was abandoned.  A major concern, as I recall, was the 
distraction cost.  If they let the code out then it would generate 
lots of questions which Apple would have to respond to.  That would 
not only cost money directly, but would probably distract engineers 
who ought to be concentrating on the next product to make money, not 
the last one which wouldn't.

In the case of A/UX several of the engineers no longer worked for 
Apple and would have been delighted to help out, but they couldn't.

I think 9 is not as dead as A/UX was.  I also think Apple is right 
that releasing the code has real costs associated with it.  It has 
real PR benefits as well, but they're probably minor compared to what 
Darwin already provides.
-- 
The opinions expressed in this message are mine,
not those of Caltech, JPL, NASA, or the US Government.
Henry.B.Hotz@jpl.nasa.gov, or hbhotz@oxy.edu