Steve Jobs: An Open Source Pioneer? You Bet

One wouldn’t think of Apple’s Steve Jobs as an open source pioneer. But he was. Apple’s 10-year-old Mac OS X is a closed source operating system with open source components.It is based in part on Darwin, an open source OS originally developed by Apple in 2000 which incorporates code from Jobs’ NextStep, BSD and other free software, according to Wikipedia.  The BSD code in MacOSX, for example, includes the process model, network stack, and virtual file system, the web encyclopedia also notes...

...Mac OSX is not one of those BSDs that is generally available and open source, and nor is it likely ever to be. But Steve Jobs’ early use of BSD and development of Darwin were key endorsements of the open source project concept and the open source development model that tilted public and programmers’ opinion in favor of open source. Jobs was perhaps the earliest, most influential technologist in the world to give open source a nod, and the open source community can be grateful for that...