Apple publicly acknowledges contributors to iCloud

Apple has published an extensive list of third-party software that it's been using in the making and running of its iCloud service, including contributions from Google and Facebook.

Apple has now publicly acknowledged the many software developers whose work has been used under licence to make iCloud work. At least some of the information has been available before to developers, but now the 116 contributors are acknowledged in a publicly accessible support document.

Running to 39 pages in PDF and some 22,000 words, the new acknowledgements page consists of all the licence agreements allowing Apple to use this software.

The software itself ranges from fonts used in the service to functions such as Javascript libraries, including Google's Closure Library and the jQuery Foundation's separate one. While Apple does not disclose which precise elements it uses from these libraries, Google's one is intended for functions ranging from animation and user interface controls to server communication and text editing.

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Alongside predictable names such as Google and Adobe, the new document also acknowledges some surprising contributors. Gaming company Electronic Arts is credited, as is the Financial Times newspaper, and Facebook.

The Facebook elements have nothing to do with the social media site's own services. Rather, it's at least in part another collection of Javascript functions. The JavaScript Infrastructure Team at Facebook has separately described some of its functions as helping developers write efficient code.

Apple publicly published the acknowledgements page this week, some of the software it references pre-dates iCloud. While Apple introduced the cloud service in 2011, certain portions of its tools, such as those by Adobe, date back to 1990.

The publication may possibly have been prompted by Apple's recently joining the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation is a group of companies aiming to improve cloud services and advancing standards across the industry.

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9 Comments

ravnorodom 720 comments · 8 Years

About 5 years ago

Why not? Instead of reinventing the wheel.

MacPro 19838 comments · 18 Years

ravnorodom said:

Why not? Instead of reinventing the wheel.

That said I hope they are quietly doing exactly that in the background.

randominternetperson 3095 comments · 8 Years

MacPro said:

ravnorodom said:

Why not? Instead of reinventing the wheel.

That said I hope they are quietly doing exactly that in the background.

I don't. Why should Apple invest time and money in core foundational technologies they can get for free or very cheaply which have industry support and will evolve over time? Companies have to be strategic and careful about what they build rather than buy.

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

MacPro said:

ravnorodom said:

Why not? Instead of reinventing the wheel.

That said I hope they are quietly doing exactly that in the background.

Steve Jobs was very clear about how Apple shouldn't "think different" for its own sake.

From Q&A session at WWDC 1997:
(start at 9m:22s)
Jobs: "I think the wisdom here is not say that we gotta invent everything ourselves […] I think this whole notion of being completely proprietary has really hurt us. […] There's a lot of smart people that don't work at Apple, too."
Some Guy: "The only thing I'd like to add is that Apple be perceived as different otherwise we're just like everybody else."
Jobs: "No, I don't think it's good that Apple is perceived as different. I think it's important that Apple is perceived as much better. If being different is essential to doing that we have to do that, but if we can be much better without being different then that would be fine with me."

PS: In true Jobs fashion the "Think Different" campaign launched later that year.

https://youtu.be/GnO7D5UaDig?t=563

seanj 322 comments · 16 Years

“jQuery”?!?! I hope that’s one from the pre iCloud days that they’ve since dumped. Most of the functionality is native to JavaScript these days - am implemented better there. Anything else can be found in smaller, more tightly focussed libraries.