Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 12:53:36 -0800 (PST) From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Boston Globe Article (fwd) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10112131252270.5761-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu>
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Boston Globe / December 13, 2001 At the core of Apple's OS X By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Columnist, 12/13/2001 You expect a few surprises on a visit to the headquarters of Apple Computer Inc. But Jordan Hubbard? What's he doing here? The same thing he's been doing for the past decade: trying to take over the world. Or at least the part that uses desktop computers. Hubbard is one of the leaders of the open-source software movement, along with guys like the legendary Linus Torvalds, cocreator of Linux. Their goal is to supplant traditional software with powerful programs that come with raw computer code and programming tools, so skilled users can modify the software themselves. Hubbard was one of the founders of the FreeBSD project. Like Linux, FreeBSD is an open-source version of the industrial-strength Unix operating system. Serious computer engineers generally think that FreeBSD did a better job of it than Linux. Indeed, a number of major commercial Web sites, including Yahoo, use FreeBSD on their computers. Meanwhile, there's Apple, with its closed, secretive software design and its relatively toylike point-and-click interface. No self-respecting open-source geek would touch these products with a barge pole. So seeing Hubbard with an Apple employee ID clipped to his jeans was something of a shock, like seeing Ken Starr in a Victoria's Secret commercial. Apple must have offered millions to get him, right? Wrong. ''I wanted to come here,'' Hubbard says. ''I asked them.'' Indeed, he practically had to beg for the job, slogging his way through three months of interviews. But slog he did, all so that he could have a hand in developing the newest version of Apple's operating system, OS X. As we noted last week, OS X is basically a version of Unix, gussied up with an elegant and powerful user interface. That counts for a lot, as any Unix or Linux user knows. Even the best Linux desktop designs, such as KDE or Gnome, are crude by Mac standards. But Apple was the first to market a personal computer that let the user control everything merely by dragging icons around on a screen. The older versions of the Mac OS were just as closed and proprietary as Windows. All the code was locked in a black box. Apple would give programmers ''hooks'' that let them execute various operating system functions, but they couldn't really get at the raw code itself. That changed with OS X. Apple built the core of the new operating system from bits and pieces of various Unix versions, including FreeBSD. This set of core functions, known as Darwin, was then freely published by Apple. To be sure, a lot of Mac functionality is still closed, especially its elite user-interface code. But the most basic elements of the operating system are as accessible as Linux or FreeBSD. Think of what that means. For all the massive pro-Linux hype of recent years, it's mostly used to run Web servers and low-cost supercomputers. Hardly anyone puts it on a desktop. Suddenly, there's a mostly open-source Linux-line operating system with a superb user interface, with a target market of 25 million faithful Macintosh users. After seeing a preview of OS X last year, Hubbard felt like an early Christian after the conversion of Emperor Constantine. ''I said, hallelujah!'' he recalls. ''This is what I've been waiting for the past 20 years ... I never thought about working for Apple before, and now I was saying, `How do I join?''' Apple needs converts like Hubbard to help the company bust out of its niche markets and resume a role in the mainstream of computing. Hubbard and his colleagues in Apple's software development department are pitching OS X as a better Linux, one that bridges the distance between the crude software of the open-source world and the glossy, top-quality stuff that Mac users have long taken for granted. Want to do graphic design in Linux? There's the open-source product GIMP, but the graphics industry is standardized around Adobe Photoshop. By next year, there will be an OS X version of Photoshop; there probably never will be one for Linux. You'll never see a Linux version of Microsoft Office; the OS X version is available at CompUSA. Meanwhile, Linux buffs will be able to modify their favorite programs to run on Mac OS X. And they can write new ones. OS X comes with an extra CD that most consumers will toss aside as useless. Not so the gearheads. The disk is full of programming tools to help them write their own OS X applications. Only a tiny handful of customers will ever do so, but it only takes a few to produce a new hit product. Remember that the original Mac caught on only after an outside company developed the first desktop publishing program to run on it. The OS X team is trying to cultivate the next great killer application. Indeed, Richard Kerris, an Apple software development executive, calls their programming tool kit ''our little secret weapon.'' Hubbard says the ability to write code that could run on 25 million Macs will appeal to the egos of open-source coders. ''We love to see our name up in lights,'' he says. But some open-sourcers are openly scornful, including Eric Raymond, the guy who coined the term ''open source'' in the first place. Raymond, president of the Open Source Intiative, says that too much of Apple's core technology remains shrouded in secrecy. ''OK, OS X is nice, it's a step in the right direction, but why should I put a lot of effort there, when I'm already working with a fully open system?'' he says. ''I don't care about that closed-source crap.'' Hubbard responds with a laugh and a jab at fellow gun-buff Raymond: ''The only thing Eric and I agree on is that the .45 caliber is a fine choice of weapon.'' Hubbard insists that the Mac will get open-source software to consumers' desktops faster than all the open-source software projects ever dreamed up over a six-pack of Jolt Cola. When he worked on FreeBSD, Hubbard knew his work would be appreciated only by a handful of fellow geeks. ''In the Apple space,'' he says, ''I can do things I can explain to my mother.'' Which, come to think of it, is a good principle for would-be world conquerors: Keep it simple. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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