> Last thing we want is for other companies like GitHub to think, "wow Apple was right, maximum engineering secrecy by default is the way to go."
Well, "maximum engineering secrecy" would be not releasing the source code to XNU. Apple is very secretive overall, to be sure, but not in this one respect.
I'm glad that XNU's source code is available—it lets you do a number of neat things. I wish more was available, but I'll take what we can get.
By extension, I don't support the idea that there's no point in releasing source code if you can't also release documentation and review outside pull requests. Making a tool available to the public is always better than hoarding information. All the other stuff is even better, but code is code.
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All of that said, I recognize that for Github specifically, releasing code and not engaging with it might be a bad look, because their product is a code sharing platform. I don't think that applies to most companies, though.
Well, "maximum engineering secrecy" would be not releasing the source code to XNU. Apple is very secretive overall, to be sure, but not in this one respect.
I'm glad that XNU's source code is available—it lets you do a number of neat things. I wish more was available, but I'll take what we can get.
By extension, I don't support the idea that there's no point in releasing source code if you can't also release documentation and review outside pull requests. Making a tool available to the public is always better than hoarding information. All the other stuff is even better, but code is code.
---
All of that said, I recognize that for Github specifically, releasing code and not engaging with it might be a bad look, because their product is a code sharing platform. I don't think that applies to most companies, though.