Apple Computer this week underlined its recent strategic move to embrace - if gingerly - the rapidly-growing open source software movement by altering two controversial clauses in its Apple Public Source Licence (APSL) for parts of its new OS X Server computer operating system.
And, in a gesture that will place pressure on rival products by Microsoft and Real Networks, Apple said it would make its popular QuickTime Streaming Server software open source as well. The software allows Web users to view video in a live "stream" broadcast from a server across the Internet, rather than having to wait for the full video program to download.
Additionally, during the European launch of OS X Server in London this week , Apple UK emphasised the company's commitment to open standards - software and hardware standards which are not controlled and licensed by a particular manufacturer.
"We've embraced open standards," said Mr Stan Ng, worldwide server product marketing manager for Apple US, speaking at the British launch. "There's great open source support. We want to leverage the knowledge base that's out there."
The open source movement is a computer programmer-led initiative to make publicly available the source code for applications - the basic language in which computer software programs are written. Anyone can then modify or extend the capabilities of the software and search for and correct bugs. Because this approach encourages thousands of programmers to collaboratively work on a piece of software, open source-engendered programs such as the operating system Linux tend to be extremely stable and versatile.
In March, Apple decided to release the source code of some parts of OS X Server, in a project it has named Darwin. The move was unusual for a software manufacturer, but analysts believe Apple hopes its software will benefit from the input of many programmers and encourage more developers to write programs that will work with Apple software.
For Apple to retain a viable share of the computing market - a share that remains below 10 per cent despite the huge success of its consumer machine, the iMac - the company needs to have a healthy range of third party software available. Since the March launch of Darwin, more than 20,000 developers had registered at Apple's Darwin site and there have been in excess of 160,000 downloads of Darwin components, according to Mr Ng.
Apple is clearly seeking some of the cachet currently associated with the open source initiative, which in recent months has seen a surge of support for Linux in particular, and which has received backing from mainstream technology companies like Intel, IBM and Hewlett-Packard.
Analysts believe Apple's move to make its QuickTime Server software open source has the potential to cause a significant shake-up in the expanding multimedia streaming technologies market.
While Microsoft, with its NetShow product and Real Networks with RealPlayer, already have a head start in the sector Apple hopes developers will be lured by QuickTime's open source code to incorporate QuickTime into new products.
In addition, Apple will not charge sites which use QuickTime Server software to stream content to Web users, unless they have incorporated QuickTime into a commercial product.
Even then, QuickTime Server will cost £349 sterling (€530), while Real Networks charges sites up to $10,000 (€9,441) for streaming content.
Analysts believe the arrangement greatly increases the likelihood that content creators will choose the QuickTime format, which will again help spread its adoption.
