Josh OngLast week, Harald Welte of GPL Violations called out Apple for a delay in releasing the source code for WebKit in iOS 4.3. Welte's complaint was picked up by IT World on Monday in a report also highlighting the more than two month delay. Apple released iOS 4.3 in March and iOS 4.3.3 last week.
The Cupertino, Calif., iPhone maker is obligated to simultaneously release the binary and source code for WebKit because it uses code licensed under the Lesser GNU Public License.
"It cannot be a simple oversight, as multiple inquiries have been made to Apple by interested developers. However, the source code yet has to be released," wrote Welte.
As noted by TUAW, Apple released the code for the iOS 4.3.3 version of WebKit on its open source resource site late Monday.
Given the recent public calls for the release of the source code, the timing of the release prompted speculation that Apple had waited until developers complained before releasing the code. Some internet commenters have suggested that the iOS team's source code release policy is to do nothing until someone complains. Apple reportedly took six months to release open source portions of iOS 4.1, waiting until prominent jailbreakers Comex and Saurik complained about the company's non-compliance.
However, John Gruber of Daring Fireball speculated last week that the delay may have had "something to do with the introduction of the Nitro JavaScript engine for MobileSafari, and the security implications of granting MobileSafari — and only MobileSafari — an exception to the system-wide ban on marking memory pages as executable."
iOS 4.3 brought Apple's Nitro JavaScript engine over from Mac OS X, resulting in performance more than twice as fast as previous versions of Mobile Safari.
Apple's delays have prompted comparisons to Google's decision to temporarily close the Android 3.0 Honeycomb source code. In March, Google closed availability of the Honeycomb source code for "the foreseeable future" because the software wasn't ready for smartphones. Android chief Andy Rubin responded to criticism regarding the decision by promising that the code would be released once the Android team finished porting features from the tablet-specific release to smartphones.
-m.jpg)
Wesley Hilliard
Charles Martin
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
23 Comments
Given the recent public calls for the release of the source code, the timing of the release prompted speculation that Apple had waited until developers complained before releasing the code. Some internet commenters have suggested that the iOS team's source code release policy is to do nothing until someone complains. Apple reportedly took six months to release open source portions of iOS 4.1, waiting until prominent jailbreakers Comex and Saurik complained about the company's non-compliance.
The notion that recent complaints triggered the release when develops have been complaining for awhile seems to be a post hoc, ergo propter hoc coincidental correlation.
For WebKit in iOS 4.1 did no developer complain for the first 6 months? I find that improbable.
... Apple's delays have prompted comparisons to Google's decision to temporarily close the Android 3.0 Honeycomb source code. In March, Google closed availability of the Honeycomb source code for "the foreseeable future" because the software wasn't ready for smartphones. ...
yet Apple has gotten far more flak than Google has even though Google's "violation" is arguably much worse.
yet Apple has gotten far more flak than Google has even though Google's "violation" is arguably much worse.
In what universe?
From TUAW:
.....
the GNU Public License (GPL) and, a close cousin, the Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL). The details of how these work are very complicated (and often maligned), but the overall principle is actually quite simple: If you give someone a copy of a program licensed under the GPL or the LGPL, you have to also give them a copy of the source code if they ask for it.
.....
Most of Android is under the first type of license, which is why Google could choose to not release the Honeycomb code. The people who wrote KHTML, however -- some of them bedroom programmers working on their own time, remember -- didn't want to get ripped off, so they licensed it under the LGPL. This means that when Apple took the project and built upon it, WebKit was also required to be under the LGPL -- and hence, under the letter of the law, any user of an iOS device should be entitled to a copy of the source code.
In what universe?
No one expects Google?s non-search products to be that good, thought out, or reliable. Apple is like the smart kid that gets scolded for getting an A-, whilst Google is the dumb kid that gets the pizza party just for getting C.
No one expects Google?s non-search products to be that good, thought out, or reliable. Apple is like the smart kid that gets scolded for getting an A-, whilst Google is the dumb kid that gets the pizza party just for getting C.