Prolly because FreeBSD is _better_ than linux. On Fri, 2 Nov 2001, Mike Hicks wrote: > "David Blevins" <dmblevins at mediaone.net> wrote: > > > > I've been hearing a lot about FreeBSD since Apple integrated it into the > > Mac OS X. An integration like this doesn't happen over night, I imagine > > that Apple has been funding the project for quite some time. With > > Apple's focus on usability, it's no wonder FreeBSD's user-friendliness > > is a bit of an anomaly. > > > > The first thing I think is "Why FreeBSD and not Linux?" > > Why did Apple pick FreeBSD instead of Linux? Probably because of the > different licenses. Apple made some extensions to the kernel to get it to > work on Apple machines. I guess they ended up releasing the source in the > end (they call the low-level system Darwin), but they could have kept the > whole thing proprietary. > > Legend has it that one of Steve Jobs's other companies, NeXT, made some > extensions to the gcc compiler for the Objective-C language that they > wanted to keep as proprietary. They were confronted and released their > changes, but I'm sure it left a nasty taste in Jobs's mouth. > > I'm not sure if the story is true, but it would explain why Apple seems to > stay away from Linux and GPLed software. In fact, Apple used to support > work on Linux for the Mac (mkLinux, I think, though the `mk' was for > `micro-kernel'), but that quietly went away when Jobs returned to be iCEO. > > Anyway, I'm just bitter that Apple won't let me play Sorenson QuickTime > movies on my Linux box :-p > > -- > _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ ___ _ _ __ I came, I saw, I hid in the > / \/ \(_)| ' // ._\ / - \(_)/ ./| ' /(__ basement. > \_||_/|_||_|_\\___/ \_-_/|_|\__\|_|_\ __) > [ Mike Hicks | http://umn.edu/~hick0088/ | mailto:hick0088 at tc.umn.edu ] >