Brandon Watts writes for OSWeekly:
Since cell phones can’t just run a traditional desktop operating system, all options had to be explored while developing the iPhone, and I was interested in the fact that Apple’s engineers seriously looked at Linux since versions had already been developed that could run on a cell phone. Despite the attention that Linux was given by the engineering team, Steve Jobs made it clear that he was not about to use another operating system aside from OS X.
Brandon. Apple didn’t ‘seriously’ look at Linux the way you think they looked at Linux. I have no doubt that, when developing the iPhone OSX distribution, they looked at embedded Linux distros to see how they worked, what compromises they made – but you can’t in any conscience think that Apple seriously considered using Linux for the iPhone – and that’s exactly what the Wired article says.
“Since 2002, when the idea for an Apple phone was first hatched, mobile chips had grown more capable and could theoretically now support some version of the famous Macintosh OS. But it would need to be radically stripped down and rewritten; an iPhone OS should be only a few hundred megabytes, roughly a 10th the size of OS X.
Before they could start designing the iPhone, Jobs and his top executives had to decide how to solve this problem. Engineers looked carefully at Linux, which had already been rewritten for use on mobile phones, but Jobs refused to use someone else’s software.”
Only a fantasist would think that Apple seriously considered as the base OS for the iPhone. For one thing, the whole thing is GNU-encumbered. Secondly, they had an operating system that had everything they needed including a kick-ass API. Thirdly, did I mention the GNU thing?
Linux fanboi I may be but I believe GPL/LPGL is definitely overly complicated hence my love of MIT/BSD style licenses
It’s nothing to do with complications (let’s face it, Apple’s legal department is large and they’re so bored they’re making stuff up).
It’s entirely to do with the GPL. Apple is much more comfortable with BSD and APSL. Which is why all of their code tends to be BSD or APSL.