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.
- View the full text of this paper in
HTML form.
- If you need the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it from Adobe's site.
- To become a USENIX Member, please see our Membership Information.
|