In an era when companies are opening up their technologies to the public, Apple takes a step backwards and closes it’s kernel, out of fear of Mac OS pirates and Mac clones. Although Apple often does not shy away from properitary formats and does not open its technologies to competitors, Apple has been able to get cozy with the academics and open source advocates alike because of it interoperability with GNU/Linux and other Unix clones and because of their perceived contrast to Microsoft in accepting open source and free software.
Users in demanding fields such as biosciences or meteorology do hack OS kernels to slim them down, alter the balance between throughput and computing, and to open them to the resources of a massive grid. The availability of Intel’s top-shelf compilers, debuggers, libraries, and profilers create unprecedented opportunities to optimize OS X for specific applications.
Users that require low level access to the internals of the operating system will now have to move away from Apple and possibly towards GNU/Linux for their low level customizations. But this may be a market that Apple is willing to abandon as they penetrate the mainstream. Their record so far has not been very impressive when it comes to opening access to their technology, but I think Apple has been given the benefit of doubt as they’ve tried to regain the market share they lost in the 90′s. Apple also appeared to be moving in the general direction of openness (using the Konqueror engine for Safari and FreeBSD spin off for Kernel), especially when compared to Microsoft. But now that is Apple closing access to it’s kernel (at least those parts the access the processor), I think this is another red flag that Apple is not planning to update its business model towards openness, as many other companies are doing now, and now I think this demonstrates that Apple is still a company that is driven by making profits by restricting access to technology, locking users and limiting competition and therefore limiting innovation.
I am not saying that Apple needs to become an open source company, but I think the model that restricts users is quickly becoming obsolete, and those who figure out how to make businesses that are not dependent on restricting technology will outlast those seek to lock out users.
I may have spoken too soon about Apple closing its kernel, but this does not necessarily change my view that Apple needs to stop holding its technology so close its chest.
This is the just the beginning for Apple’s relationship to a growing community that demands interoperability.
Alas, Apple has closed the x86 version of their Darwin XNU kernel.