Bruce Perens has written a response to Apple's Public Source License (APSL). The essay discusses reasons why the license does not consitute an open source license (ala the Debian Free Software Guidlines (DFSG) or the Open Source Definition (OSD)). The essay has been endorsed by the Debian Project Leader (Wichert Akkerman), and Ian Jackson, president of SPI. Many people, including myself, feel that one of the biggest threats to the free software community is almost-free software.

Frostking writes "According to the homepage of the Xanim author, Apple has prohibited Sorenson, the makers of the codec used in the Starwars clips among other things, to license the codec to anybody else, including Mark Podlipec the Xanim author. "

Steve Bergman sent us a link to a Linux Today Article that talks about claims that MacOS X Outperforms Linux running Apache on machines under $5k. What do you think? Anyone have some numbers?

Several people followed up the today's earlier apple Open Source article by pointing us to Apple's Official Website on Open Source. Features Yet Another License, the Apple Public Source License but requires a login to get much more than the license and a faq. Update: 03/16 07:52 by CT : Virtually unrelated, thanks to darren wilson, the original creator of the crystal apple icon there.

Palmer Halvorson writes "A Wired story reports that Apple will annouce a partial open source OS strategy tomorrow during an "Apple Event" from their Cupertino Headquarters. "

An anonymous reader sent in a link to a bit at LinuxPPC that says that MacWorld will ship LinuxPPC in the April issue of their magazine. Anyone have a circulation number on that?

cswiii writes "In case you've not heard, Apple's been putting legal pressure on two teens who registered "appleimac.com". This latest story mentions Apple's most recent action to date -- registering a copycat domain, that is actually an old domain that one of the kids used to own. " Who knew that apple was less mature than a couple of 16 year olds? Thats just to funny. Update: 02/25 05:58 by CT : as with most of the best jokes, this was a hoax. Funniest thing I've seen all day.

Breakdown writes "About a month ago Slashdot reported on Steve Godun attempting to get Bell South to provide ADSL service to any type of Macintosh. At the time Bell Atlantic released a statement saying that by mid-February they hoped to have some sort of Macintosh ADSL solution. The mid-Feb. date has come and gone and Godun has ended his crusade. You can read his 5th and final installment of articles relating to his Mission. "

Kelly McNeill writes "Here's a cool column that asks Why not use the Linux kernel as the basis of OS X? I think Apple would ship way more boxes running Linux than OS X server. " I've heard a lot of rumor rumblings on this topic. I don't think its all that far fetched.

This is a total rumor, but it is interesting to think about. Bart van der Ouderaa writes " There is talk about a buyout of Pixar by Disney. While this isn't really that suprising, Steve Jobs is rumored to have pitched Apple as well. According to the article, Disney is going to buy both Pixar and Apple in a multi-billion dollar deal. In this deal CEO of Disney Eisner would be stepping down ( for medical/personal reasons and becomming chairman of the board at disney) while Steve Jobs would become CEO of Disney. Details are expected this week. Will the next iMac feature two giant ears ? "

XBS writes "It seems that Macs are not quite Y2K compliant. They are hardware compliant, but software wise not quite. This is research done by Pedagoguery, which makes a Y2K-testing tool for the Mac. So if you open a file with dates that only contain 2 digits,that does a 'StringToDate' routine currently interprets '89' as 1989. Next year it will interpret '89' as 2089. The rule of thumb from Pedagoguery said. "So, after the year 2000, most Mac applications will work correctly, as long as you don't open any files that contain dates." "

Juan Fernando writes "Mac OS Rumors is reporting that Apple's long anticipated OS 10 Server (formerly known as OS X Server which is formerly known as Rhapsody) has reached Golden Master, and should be available mid-month thru the Apple Store."

Rustless Walter writes "In a series of articles starting here, John Martellaro discusses how Linux represents a threat to Apple's OS market share, but claims that, after Linux has peaked, Apple will be the next wave. Martellaro is a Linux user, and has experienced NT's instability firsthand. Some of his predictions make sense, but he seems to be convinced that people care more about what their computers look like than how well they work. " Hmmm...hasn't Apple been the next big thing for a while? Or was that Java? I always get confused.

LinuxPPC has posted LinuxPPC Live 4.0, which boots Linux from HFS-formatted (not HFS+) drives. The Windows-equivalent has been Slackware's ZipSlack, which boots Linux from FAT32-formatted drives.

TDO writes "According to this story, developers are trying to work around the $1 per port apple tax on fire wire.Check it out.. " The gist is that developers are going to create a backwards compatible version without Apple Intellectual Property. But it'll take a few years.

netstat sent a link to iMacFloppy.com which (get this) allows you to send virtual floppy disks to other iMacs! Assuming it's connected to the internet! But they won't discriminate against PCs! Apparently attaching files to email is much to complicated. Thank god for virtual floppies. The best part is that this site is 'designed for an iMac'. What a gas. Funniest thing I've seen all day.

David Jao writes "According to this news.com story, Apple computer has begun charging a $1 license fee for every FireWire port that is manufactured. This means an extra $1 is charged for every port in the back of a computer, every port on a device, and every link in a device chain." This article talks about how this is probably not such a hot idea on Apple's part. Royalties on a technology that still isn't really accepted yet?

An anonymous reader wrote in to say " You'll remember John Carmack's recent .plan file, which is mostly devoted to a commentary about Macs, both the OS and the hardware. David Every of MacKiDo fame has written an interesting response in today's column. You might also want to check out the quote by John Norstad (near the bottom of the main page) for a good laugh. "

pavewrld sent in a couple of links. The first is over at MacWorld Online and announces the new PowerMac G3's, which look similar to the iMac. The second announces the new iMac's, which now come in a variety of colors. Also in Apple news, NikT wrote in to say that Mac OS X server was announced, and it will include Apache and BSD 4.4. Finally, Ethan Butterfield wrote in to let us know of Steve Jobs' keynote address at MacWorld Expo. Apparently Apple has licensed OpenGL from SGI, and John Carmack demoed Quake 3 Arena on one of the new G3's. You can read more at Macintouch. Phew! With MacWorld Expo going on, the Apple news is nonstop.

Bob_Dobbs wrote in to tell us that there are major rumors that the next Macs should actually do Playstation Emulation. Requires a G3, but it's not like many people are buying Mac Classics any more. H: Sounds like Jobs will be announcing this officially tomorrow. Very cool. Update: 01/05 12:23 by S : Here's some more info thanks to Narbo: Connectix' press release confirms the story, and lists the games you can play on it.