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Date:      Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:36:29 +0100
From:      "Julian H. Stacey" <jhs@berklix.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Cc:        Nerius Landys <nlandys@gmail.com>
Subject:   Re: Apple & FreeBSD relationship 
Message-ID:  <201103101536.p2AFaTdF029838@fire.js.berklix.net>
In-Reply-To: Your message "Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:14:12 PST." <3A385E2B-76F8-45D0-84F5-7783848BA5EE@mac.com> 

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Hi questions@,
Original question from Nerius Landys <nlandys@gmail.com> :

> Basically I have some cash sitting around.  I'm thinking of investing
> part of it with a company that I believe in.  Apple came to mind.  You
> could say that I'd like to judge Apple's moral character before
> investing money with them.  Does anyone know how Apple reciprocates to
> FreeBSD?  After all a lot of MacOSX is borrowed from FreeBSD.  I am
> not seeing Apple's name on this page:
> http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/sponsors.shtml .  Are there
> other ways in which Apple might be reciprocating?

Apple has always enjoyed its dedicated customer base.  
	(Many computer companies have liked to keep users locked,
	eg Burroughs Algol extensions limiting emigration, IBM PC
	hardware patents on hardware clones, Microsoft & its tricks,
	Sun Java being logged, licensed & not anonymous ftp, &
	mobile phones locked to providers, etc).

Apple have used BSD, employed some BSD people, & contributed to whatever,  

But ...  Considering an Apple PDA, I asked questions of an Apple enthusiast
	~ 3 months back eg: I'd like to code on FreeBSD, & mabe
	cross compile, or just vi on FreeBSD then rdist / rsync or
	nfs + amd mount to my [maybe Apple] slim device, & have ssh
	rlogin csh/ bash gcc bsd-make,  etc on the slim device, &
	share screens under X etc ...  is that possible, free &
	easy ?  Answer received: No, You'd need an Apple with OS cracks
	that voids the warranty 
Didn't seem so BSD friendly to me.

Disclaimer/Disclosure: I have no past, present, direct, indirect,
  employment, trade, investment, with Apple or [PDA etc] competitors.

-------------

Aside, On Disclaimers::
	Chuck Swiger wrote:
	> Hi--
	> 
	> #include <std/disclaimer.h>
	> 
	> It wouldn't be considered appropriate for Apple employees or contractors (well, outside of the folks working in investor relations, perhaps) to try to persuade someone to invest in a particular company because of which open source projects Apple might be contributing towards.  In another context, someone from Apple who was familiar with those contributions might be free to discuss them, but they would generally be expected to not identify their affiliation with Apple to avoid unduly influencing other people or creating a real or perceived conflict of interest.
	
	To not declare affiliation for fear it might tilt perception of
	recipient, would be misguided.  A disclaimer such as 
		"I work for XYZ. I do not speak for XYZ."
	would suffice.  One declares affiliations to be fair to
	recipients & safeguard oneself. Recipients are informed,
	can draw their own conclusions, & not roast one for
	undeclared interest :-).  Examples:

		http://www.ofcom.org.uk/about/how-ofcom-is-run/ofcom-board-2/policy-on-conflicts-of-interest/

			Section 6:
			"PROVIDED ...................... there is full
			transparency about any such interests."

		http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldcond/code.pdf
			P3
			"a full list of Members' financial and other
			interests is published in the Register of
			Lords' Interests."

		Probably more here etc:
			http://www.transparency.org/
			http://ethics.senate.gov/fd.htm

Cheers,
Julian
-- 
Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultants Munich http://berklix.com
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