Post #3299571
2026-06-12 08:09 UTC
The FreeBSD desktop exists, it is called “Mac OS”.
Linus Torvalds used the GPL for his kernel, forcing companies to release the source code if they improve it and distribute it. The main userland was a lot of GPL licensed GNU software for a very long time, with a similar effect.
The BSD folks, on the other hand, decided to give everything away, by using much more “liberal” licenses. Apple took the BSD base, bolted their UI on top of it and gave almost nothing back. That would not have happened if BSD was GPL licensed.
Replies (3)
-
@Wfh@lemmy.zip 2026-06-12 18:27
Well, technically the open source kernel behind all Apple’s OSs is still (mostly) open source. It’s useless as is, but it exists. So yay for BSD licences, I guess?
-
@caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 2026-06-12 20:02
Oh shoot. Is that what’s happening with the MIT licence on projects like the Rust coreutils?
-
@Aatube@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-06-13 15:38
macOS is very much not BSD. it’s its own weird (as in rare, not as in bad) thing that happens to ship a CLI BSD compatibility layer