Missed by many yesterday due to the fervor of the WWDC Keynote address was an announcement by Apple's Open Source Project Manager, Ernest Prabhakar, concerning Apple and its Open Source initiative.
Mac OS Forge
With the recent announcement of the demise of OpenDarwin.org, Apple has stepped up to the plate and has created Mac OS Forge, a community site hosted by Apple to "support WebKit and other open source projects focused on Mac OS X, especially those looking to transition from OpenDarwin.org." Current projects include the Bonjour, Collaboration (iCal Server), Kernel (XNU), Launchd, and WebKit.
XNU x86 Source Released
Apple has released the source code for the Intel x86 version of the Darwin Kernel, beginning with Darwin 8.7 (Mac OS 10.4.7). While apologies were offered for the delay in releasing the source, no explanation was given. Speculation had begun earlier in the year that Apple was closing the XNU x86 source due to piracy concerns. MacGuides has an introduction to Darwin and XNU for readers unfamiliar with the technologies.
iCal Server Source
As many readers have noted, Apple has indeed released the source for iCal Server (slated to be released with Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard" Server) under the Apache License.
Other Licensing Changes
Bonjour and Launchd projects are now being distributed under the Apache License. The projects were previously relegated to Apple's Apple Public Source License.
