“APPLE chief Steven Jobs sprang two of his now-customary
surprises when he formally introduced the new Mac OS X Server
operating system.”
“First, he cut the already-announced price of the system in
half.”
“Secondly, Jobs embraced the “open source” software concept,
making major chunks of the core source code available free to
software developers.”
“The Darwin move has made Jobs the hero of the rapidly growing
open-source software movement. Its leaders are now calling for
Microsoft’s Bill Gates to open up Windows source code.”
“So what’s Jobs up to? For one thing, he’s probably been worried
about the amazing progress of the Linux operating system, built
completely on the open-source model.”
“The fast and stable Linux is suddenly bobbing up everywhere in
the corporate world as well as universities: it’s mainly stealing
market share from Microsoft’s Windows NT, but Jobs possibly fears
it could begin taking portions of Apple’s strongholds in the
education and publishing markets. More to the point, he’s probably
also noted many of the best and brightest programmers are deserting
the Mac – and Windows NT – to develop Linux software.”