Skip to Content

Apple Joins Hollywood's Academy Software Foundation to Aid in Open Source Support

by

The Academy Software Foundation, a collaborative effort to advance open source software development in the motion picture and media industries, today announced that Apple has joined the foundation as a "premier" member.

apple tv plus promo image
"Filmmakers everywhere use Apple products. We are delighted to welcome Apple as a new member, and we look forward to working with them to ensure that our open source projects run well on Apple software platforms," said David Morin, Executive Director of the Academy Software Foundation.

Launched in August 2018 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Linux Foundation, the Academy Software Foundation is described as "a neutral forum for open source software developers to share resources and collaborate on technologies for image creation, visual effects, animation and sound."

Apple's streaming video service Apple TV+ will feature dozens of Hollywood-produced TV shows and movies. The service launches November 1 for $4.99 per month, including Family Sharing, with a free seven-day trial available.

Top Rated Comments

mdriftmeyer Avatar
85 months ago
Apple has dozens of FOSS based products it supports. The OpenDarwin was taken away to avoid clone hacking on Hackintosh.

OpenGL is in legacy mode and will soon be superseded. Khronos Group knows it and that's why we have Vulkan and Metal on OS X/iOS.

Apple invented OpenCL and still oversees it's evolutionary development.

It merged the best ideas of OpenCL and low-level Hardware programming ala DirectX 12 and Vulkan before either DirectX 12 and Vulkan had emerged--the progress with Khronos Group was stalled and Apple decided not to wait any longer so developed it's best version and it is Metal. We are up to Metal 2.2 now.

CUPS--w/o Apple this printing foundation that is across all platforms would be nowhere near as robust as what is now CUPS 2.3.

Ask FreeBSD how much Apple has contributed back.

Systemd on Linux only exists because of Launchd from Apple.

Clang was funded and invented by Apple.

On and on and on.

Apple is contributing as one of the core creators of AV1.

HEIC/HEVC is pushed to hundreds of millions of seats first by Apple. HEIC/HEVC is the industry standard equivalent to AV1.

ALAC is Open Sourced.

https://developer.apple.com/opensource/

ResearchKit--Open Sourced

WebKit -- Open Sourced has expanded greatly, even with Google forking their own version

Swift -- Open Sourced

CareKit -- Open Sourced

Bonjour -- Open Sourced

All the low end UNIX code is available.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
85 months ago
Say what you will about Tim Cook but I love that he's opening Apple up to third-parties, common standards and open-source communities. Steve Jobs had Apple locked down harder than Azkaban.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ikir Avatar
85 months ago
Apple has dozens of FOSS based products it supports. The OpenDarwin was taken away to avoid clone hacking on Hackintosh.

OpenGL is in legacy mode and will soon be superseded. Khronos Group knows it and that's why we have Vulkan and Metal on OS X/iOS.

Apple invented OpenCL and still oversees it's evolutionary development.

It merged the best ideas of OpenCL and low-level Hardware programming ala DirectX 12 and Vulkan before either DirectX 12 and Vulkan had emerged--the progress with Khronos Group was stalled and Apple decided not to wait any longer so developed it's best version and it is Metal. We are up to Metal 2.2 now.

CUPS--w/o Apple this printing foundation that is across all platforms would be nowhere near as robust as what is now CUPS 2.3.

Ask FreeBSD how much Apple has contributed back.

Systemd on Linux only exists because of Launchd from Apple.

Clang was funded and invented by Apple.

On and on and on.

Apple is contributing as one of the core creators of AV1.

HEIC/HEVC is pushed to hundreds of millions of seats first by Apple. HEIC/HEVC is the industry standard equivalent to AV1.

ALAC is Open Sourced.

https://developer.apple.com/opensource/

ResearchKit--Open Sourced

WebKit -- Open Sourced has expanded greatly, even with Google forking their own version

Swift -- Open Sourced

CareKit -- Open Sourced

Bonjour -- Open Sourced

All the low end UNIX code is available.
Sometimes here you can find post like this from competent user who know what happened, what is happening now and the true reasons of choices. Sadly like this time there are post of whiners, haters and kids who don’t have a clue but pretend to understand how to run a big company and what is right and wrong, but even worst they distort reality based on their delusional experience.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gplusplus Avatar
85 months ago
Executive summary:

Say what you will about Tim Cook but I love that he's opening Apple up to third-parties, common standards and open-source communities. Steve Jobs had Apple locked down harder than Azkaban.
Wrong.

Actually no. Back then, in Jobs' time, we had stuff like OpenDarwin. And it's only gotten worse.
Correct. Also, we had OpenGL.

He is? Where?
A good takeaway question for later.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Vjosullivan Avatar
85 months ago
.
!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
85 months ago
Say what you will about Tim Cook but I love that he's opening Apple up to third-parties, common standards and open-source communities. Steve Jobs had Apple locked down harder than Azkaban.
Actually no. Back then, in Jobs' time, we had stuff like OpenDarwin. And it's only gotten worse.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Unveils Seven New Products

Friday March 6, 2026 11:48 am PST by
Apple this week unveiled seven products, including an iPhone 17e, an iPad Air with the M4 chip, updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, a new Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and an all-new MacBook Neo that starts at just $599. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's A19 chip, MagSafe for magnetic wireless charging and magnetic...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

Apple Planning 'MacBook Ultra' With Touchscreen and Higher Price

Sunday March 8, 2026 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is planning to launch an all-new "MacBook Ultra" model this year, featuring an OLED display, touchscreen, and a higher price point, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Gurman revealed the information in his latest "Power On" newsletter. While Apple has been widely expected to launch new M6-series MacBook Pro models with OLED displays, touchscreen functionality, and a new, thinner design...
MacBook Neo Feature Pastel 1

First MacBook Neo Benchmarks Are In: Here's How It Compares to the M1 MacBook Air

Thursday March 5, 2026 4:07 pm PST by
Benchmarks for the new MacBook Neo surfaced today, and unsurprisingly, CPU performance is almost identical to the iPhone 16 Pro. The MacBook Neo uses the same 6-core A18 Pro chip that was first introduced in the iPhone 16 Pro, but it has one fewer GPU core. The MacBook Neo earned a single-core score of 3461 and a multi-core score of 8668, along with a Metal score of 31286. Here's how the...