Things need to change and Apple needs to be seen for what it really is: a threat to innovation and freedom. For as long as anyone can remember Microsoft has been seen as the primary enemy of free and open source software (FOSS).

"The FSF, in it’s timeless crusade to make the world a more free place by spreading the use of free software, has issued a challenge to Apple. It does not agree with the Apple store selling restricted iPhone apps. Apple’s OSX operating system is chalk full of GNU’s free software, so they have their hand very much stuck in the fly paper.

Free Software Movement launched the Windows7sins site. This was just days before Apple released its Snow Leopard OS, prompting a lot of criticisms from some corners of the blogosphere that the FSF is giving Apple a free ride. I simply disagree.

Despite being one of the most tightly controlled technology companies on the market, Apple has a surprisingly complicated relationship with open source. Both of Apple’s flagship operating systems, OS X and iOS are based on Darwin, which is in turn based on FreeBSD.

Attend any computer conference these days and you can expect that almost every giveaway is an iPad. In fact, I recently attended a conference for a Microsoft oriented customer group and the talk of the attendees was Apple and how excited they were to possibly win an iPad from the vendors in the exhibit hall.

Even before Linux was created, Microsoft has been scorned by members of the free-software community. Its products are decried as defective by design, and its sometimes questionable business practices as an obstacle to technological innovation. That’s old news. What amazes me is Apple’s track record for openness is even worse than Microsoft’s.

A great number of new articles about the effects of Apple, Microsoft, and Intellectual Ventures (funded by Apple, Microsoft, and Bill Gates) on Free software

A while back I wrote an article titled Apple – The Competent Danger to Free Software. It got a lot of hits. It also caused a few people to send me emails, one of which called me a traitor to Free Software.

Apple gets a lot of grief for being a net pillager of open source. The company has adopted open-source software into critically important products, yet gives little in return (so the story goes). And yet the Mac gets a lot of love from the open-source crowd. Why? What has Apple done to deserve it?