FreeBSD and Mac OS X

fluca1978

fluca1978

Hi all,

I'm just curious to understand what is the truth behind the OS X partnership with FreeBSD. I heard different versions, some that tells that Apple stolen the code and haven't pushed back anything, some that due to Apple FreeBSD 5.2 was a great success, some that states that Apple has kept only the userland of FreeBSD. Anyone can explain me better or point to some reliable article about what happened and why, among others BSD (and OSs), did Apple choose FreeBSD? It will be an interesting piece of history.
 
This question comes up quite often. Short, short version.

Apple used the Mach microkernel and added some bits from FreeBSD-5 to it to create XNU (the kernel of OS-X). They also used some parts of the userland tools. Those sources are fully available as Darwin. They didn't have to release those sources but they did it anyway.

Apple didn't 'steal' anything. The BSD license allows this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top