CNET News: Will Real Feast Where Apple Failed?

" Many have compared RealNetworks and its establishment last week of the Helix open-source initiative to Netscape Communications, which in 1998 was the first significant software company to put its proprietary product into open-source development, only to languish.

"But among the three major streaming media competitors, Apple Computer was the first to make the leap to open source--a move that also offers something of a cautionary tale for the curative powers of such efforts.

"In April 1999, a month after it established the Darwin open-source organization that would give birth to its OS X operating system, Apple revealed the source code to parts of the QuickTime streaming format and invited developers and companies to use and disseminate it..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• ZDNet: Open Source Play for Real?(Jul 24, 2002)
• The Register: Bruce Perens on Real's Open Source Gambit(Jul 22, 2002)
• RealNetworks Announces Helix Platform, Open-Source Universal Media Content Project(Jul 22, 2002)