It seems that Apple has taken steps to thwart open creativity with the recently proposed new operating system feature called Gatekeeper. I hate to admit it but I saw this coming with the advent of the OS X App Store in the first place. However, the tell is in the difficulty a imposed by the new Xcode availability and licensing scheme.
For those who are not developers or familiar with the MacPorts Xcode provides the OS X glue that enables one to easily create software for the Mac platform as well as iOS devices. The announcement of 10.8 ushered in a new licensing enforcement policy which requires developers to download and install Xcode in such a manner as to agree to the new licensing model. While the announcement of OS X Mountain Lion and the changes to Xcode may be coincidental I seriously doubt it. Apple has pulled this sort of change before and is likely to do it again. In any event with the release of Xcode 4.3 you will have little choice but to agree to the new licensing scheme unless you wish to stop developing software for many Apple products.
Obviously there are other changes in the Apple camp though subtle are worth pointing out. The most important is the distinction that the next version of OS X will be the first not to carry the ‘Mac’ moniker. I personally believe that Apple has finally decided to lift the ban against installation on other manufacturer’s hardware. In fact I believe that this omission is really a shot directly across the bow of Microsoft.
Ars Technica reports, “All Windows 8 systems that meet Microsoft’s certification requirements must use UEFI firmware with Secure Boot enabled.”
It is also my firm belief that Microsoft has shot back with their new UEFI requirement for Windows 8 hardware. This is personally the more troubling of the two changes made by these big players. It means if you are a like myself an Open Source user who does not need Windows or Os X and prefers to run a FREE operating system like FreeBSD or even Linux you may be out of luck on certain hardware platforms. It also means that if Apple does decide to release OS X into the wild, as a way of unhinging Microsoft’s last hold on your digital life, they will find it a little more than difficult.
In the case of Apple their practice is not discriminatory nor monopolistic but Microsoft, however; has endeavored to tread down that ever slippery slope. I expect that we will see numerous anti-trust and anti-monopoly legal battle break out as a result of Microsoft’s stumbling. I can only hope that enough hardware vendors reject the UEFI plan, because it is just plain wrong.
Related articles
- Microsoft Tries to Spin Anti-Linux UEFI Measures, Ubuntu Tablets Possibly Affected (techrights.org)
- Apple Releases Xcode 4.3, Now Offered as App Instead of Installer [Mac Blog] (macrumors.com)
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