Why Apple is evil: Banning some open development

Apple’s removed GNU Go from the App Store, as the GPL (which it is licensed under) conflicts with some of Apple’s requirements for the App Store.

I’ll note that this is completely legal, and in fact, to keep distributing it, Apple would have had to change their policies.

I’ll also note that I generally dislike the GPL, and even more so the zealots that think the GPL should be mandatory. The GPL does take choice away.

However, that doesn’t mean that writing restrictions that prevent GPL software from being used on the iPhone isn’t evil. If people want to use the GPL for their software, they should be allowed to.

Source: The Register


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.