Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 11th Sep 2009 14:15 UTC
One of the main new features in Apple's new Snow Leopard operating system has been released as open source. Apple has released the code of the userland portion of its Grand Central Dispatch technology under the Apache License, version 2. Mac OS X also has kernel support for Grand Central Dispatch, which is also released as open source via the XNU project. While we're at it, let's take this opportunity to look into exactly what Grand Central Dispatch is.
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Member since:2006-11-18
Member since:2005-07-24
No problem for BSD systems, a BIG problem for Linux since it uses GPL which is compatible only with itself.
Not entirely: the Apache 2.0 license is generally considered to be unidirectionally compatible with GPLv3. This means you may take Apache2.0-licensed code, combine it with GPLv3-licensed code, and publish the result under the GPLv3. You may not publish the result under the Apache2 license, though.
http://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL-compatibility.html
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/#apache2
However, only the libdispatch part is Apache2-licensed: the kernel part (xnu) is under 'APPLE PUBLIC SOURCE LICENSE', and I haven't checked whether that's GPL-compatible. Moreover, the Linux kernel is GPLv2, not GPLv3, and whether GPLv2 and Apache2 licenses are compatible afaik is under dispute.
So libdispatch can be included in GPLv3 userland applications, and xnu can be included in the kernel if the 'APPLE PUBLIC SOURCE LICENSE' is GPLv2-compatible, which is might be.
Member since:2008-12-26
Anything like this in linux or BSD systems? I guess now that they have released it as Open Source and under the Apache License, they will find a way into the other systems. Any problems adopting them into the kernel for GPL or BSD licensed systems?
IIUC they didn't release the kernel bits, just the userspace lib. In any case, GCD isn't really that special and it should be a piece of cake to implement from scratch, even.
Member since:2007-07-27
IIUC they didn't release the kernel bits, just the userspace lib.
rtfa:
Mac OS X also has kernel support for Grand Central Dispatch, which is also released as open source via the XNU project.
@ raboof: apples public source licence isn't compatible with he gpl. but the xnu-code won't be of any use in kernels which aren't reated to xnu or at least mach anyway. the concepts used will probably be more interesting than the code.
Edited 2009-09-11 17:06 UTC
RE[2]: In Linux/BSD ...
by PlatformAgnostic on Fri 11th Sep 2009 17:05
in reply to "RE: In Linux/BSD ..."
Member since:2006-01-02
Member since:2007-10-15
Member since:2008-10-04
Anything like this in linux or BSD systems? I guess now that they have released it as Open Source and under the Apache License, they will find a way into the other systems. Any problems adopting them into the kernel for GPL or BSD licensed systems?
Ummm...Why would they want to?
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Member since:
2006-03-29
Anything like this in linux or BSD systems? I guess now that they have released it as Open Source and under the Apache License, they will find a way into the other systems. Any problems adopting them into the kernel for GPL or BSD licensed systems?