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by oautholaf 2926 days ago
Mac OS came from Mach, an open source microkernel from CMU in the 80s. Although Objective-C was originally proprietary, NeXT implemented it on GCC and open sourced it.

The origin of modern MacOS/iOS is definitely open source.
2 comments
ghaff 2926 days ago
Absolutely. My point was that, absent open source alternatives, Mac OS [EDIT: OS X specifically] could have been created on top of a proprietary UNIX. The lack of open source Unix alternatives would likely not have had much of an impact on Mac OS and certainly Apple hasn't taken advantage of the open source development model for Mac OS.
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SeanLuke 2926 days ago
> Mac OS came from Mach

I believe you mean OS X, not MacOS.

Apple could switch OS X to entirely proprietary underpinnings and few customers would even notice. In fact, OpenStep ran just fine on top of NT. [And also on top of then-non-open Solaris].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenStep

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mrunkel 2925 days ago
OS X = MacOS.

Apple confusingly renamed OS X to MacOS a few years ago.

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quadrangle 2925 days ago
obnoxiously, it's actually macOS, not MacOS.
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