Apple Announces Swift 2, Open Source for iOS, OS X and Linux

The news would be big if Apple was trying to create a cross platform language and tool set, like what Microsoft is doing. But they are not. While someone might adopt Swift for their own platform development (like Linux) you are not going to get Google or Microsoft using Swift, well maybe Google, but I am still sure at some level Apple would forbid that from happening.

If Apple wanted wider adoption then they should have made Swift for Visual Studio on Windows. There is like 1000 to 1 more people developing on Visual Studio, including ALL the enterprise and professional development that is on that platform. But then Microsoft has already taken care of that with Visual Studio 2015 and Xamarin support to build native iOS apps right in Visual Studio.

In fact Microsoft will do more for Apple then Apple is doing for themselves by opening up Swift. Having millions of developers with access to native iOS development on Visual Studio 2015, including a new Visual Studio client for OS X, is already way more exposure then Swift has gained to date. I can easily see far more professional and enterprise apps being developed on Visual Studio, targeting all platforms, then Swift still being used largely to cater to proprietary development for iOS and OS X.

But, even among my friends that develop on OS X, iOS, they don't use Swift themselves, say its nice but years away from being great.

The big news was Microsoft offering native iOS developent on Windows with Visual Studio 2015. This will do more to open up iOS development to a wider core of developers then Swift will ever be capable of.

There is a lot of misinformation in this post...

First off, Swift is open source now. That's not just a phrase, that comes with a set of rules meaning no, Apple can't prevent Google from using Swift if its open source.

Being open source means if Microsoft wants to adopt it in to Visual Studio they can, this isn't something Apple can do, they do not own Visual Studio and can't force Microsoft to adopt their stuff in the same way Microsoft can't up and develop .Net for Xcode.

This is major news—just what many people were asking for. By bringing the language to Linux, Apple's finally tailoring Swift to beyond just their own users! Adoption's going to skyrocket, although I still haven't learned it yet :D.

Apple's finally tailoring Swift

I see what you did there

Btw, Apple just merged the two Developer memberships for iOS and OS X into one. If you were a member of one, now you are a member of both, at the 99$ annual price.

Why Swift 2 and it's open source?

Notice how they did not mention adoption rate of Swift. Those I trust have told me it's adoption level has been very low. I know one guy fried from his job using Swift due to the instability of the language leading to release dates.

They tried the high road academic PARC types to come up with a next generation language and they fell short. The elimination of header files created way too much combining overhead than anticipated. Also the amount of pushback for even inside Apple was more than anticipated.

what are you talking about? can you post links to sustain your claim that Swift usage is very low? and that you know a guy who was "fried" from his job because, Swift?

Yes, he was fired for using Swift. MacRumors does not site their sources inside Apple. That affirms that I have no obligation to site mine.
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I call ********, how do you get fired for using a new language unless that WASN'T what you were supposed to do? His superior said to him "I know you've been using SWIFT like we told you to...so you're fired"? Come on.

Once again Swift news is tucked into one of the blogs instead of front page news. This is a much bigger deal than 95% of the stories usually on the front page. Plus we can't even get a proper article about it. I guess it's off to Ars Technica for me...

This is absolutely great! Chris Lattner apparently wanted to open source Swift but he wasn't sure if he could make that happen. Glad to see it has.

I'm especially happy about Linux support as well.

Once again Swift news is tucked into one of the blogs instead of front page news. This is a much bigger deal than 95% of the stories usually on the front page. Plus we can't even get a proper article about it. I guess it's off to Ars Technica for me...

I never agree with people complaining about MacRumors reporting. It is just annoying... But... man I agree with you on this one. Swift is such an important contribution from Apple.

What is the best way to learn Swift 2? I've got some experience with HTML and PHP.

Some people like Udemy. Some of the courses are decent for a beginner. Read reviews before buying. I don't believe there is any S2 on it yet. You may also find a course in iTunesU. Mileage may vary.