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Comment by jasonjei | Hacker News Reader

Apple says they intend to open-source the file system in the docs.

Open Source: "An open source implementation is not available at this time. Apple plans to document and publish the APFS volume format when Apple File System is released in 2017."

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It says they plan to document and publish the volume format but nothing about the source code of the implementation. It being "not available at this time" doesn't necessarily imply that it will be available in the future.

I'd imagine the implementation will show up in the next appropriate XNU kernel release.

Neither the format nor implementation of Core Storage is documented by Apple. Near as I can tell not even an fs magic number is documented, i.e an offset and a signature that makes it possible to identify Core Storage physical volumes.

Just like they promised to open source FaceTime and iMessages? Apple has a history of making false promises in regards to open sourcing products.

I don't recall any promises around iMessage, and FaceTime fell victim to patents.

My understanding was that FaceTime and iMessage weren't open sourced because of issues related to a patent troll (VirnetX IIRC). I'd be interested in hearing from others that are more familiar with the situation.

Not only that, but apparently Steve Jobs decided to just say that on stage and while it had been discussed a bit it wasn't the plan and came as a total shock to the people involved.

Or perhaps concern with having to deal with 3rd party iMessage/Facetime clients while at the same time trying to maintain a high level of security. Apple doesn’t want anything to tarnish the security reputation of these products.

> FaceTime

They got sued heavily for it. They had to completely change the implementation and it became a non-P2P video chat.

Not sure why you're being downvoted.

Too many fanboys I guess. I would hope the community is more enlightened than that.

Because it's just kind of lazy and incorrect, that's why.

Apple did promise to open FaceTime, and was promptly sued – that's why it's not open. AFAIK there was no promise to open iMessage.

My apologies for the unwarranted cynicism, I was not aware.

> Apple has a history of making false promises in regards to open sourcing products

No, not true at all. iMessage was never promised, mentioned, or even hinted at being open source. Also, on the FaceTime from they said that the underlying protocols would be submitted to standards bodies as an open standard - that's a completely different things from open source. And the reasons that Apple didn't wind up doing that are well known (lawsuit from patent trolls).

Sounds like you have an axe to grind or only listen to people who do...

Source of the quote is this page:

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/content/docum...

Releasing a new filesystem is already surprising. And they plan to open-source it. Huh.

Would it be wishful thinking to hope Microsoft would follow suit by open sourcing ReFS?

Free software and patent-free or whatever some lawyers call "open"?

They said "publish the APFS volume format". So that can mean just documentation and not code at all.

Published code doesn't mean 'open' either. You need rights to the code, not merely access to it.

That's awesome.

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