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USENIX Technical Program - Abstract - USENIX 99

Open Software in a Commercial Operating System

Wilfredo Sánchez, Apple Computer, Inc.

Abstract

Apple Computer has been working for the past couple of years to build a new and modern operating system to advance the Macintosh platform. The Macintosh platform, developed at Apple, while strong in many areas (in particular human interface), lacks the solid and modern foundation best exemplified in current variants of the Unix operating system. Apple acquired NeXT Software, Inc. in early 1997 largely in order to gain NeXT's experience in making an operating system based on a modern foundation which also had made advances in user interfaces, programming models, enterprise software, and other areas in which Apple was not traditionally strong. Thus began the development of Mac OS X Server, Apple's server operating system offering, which is also the basis for parts of Mac OS X, which we will be rolling out later in 1999.

This session will discuss this new foundation: the "Core Operating System", which is largely based on software which was developed at the University of California at Berkeley and Carnegie-Mellon University, and was made freely available with open licensing terms. In addition much of the Core OS utilizes software available from the present-day BSD efforts, the Free Software Foundation, M.I.T., the Apache Group, and countless other groups and individuals who create and publish software under open licenses.

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Last changed: 13 Mar 2002 ml
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