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posted by martyb on Friday December 04 2015, @06:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the Is-that-you-Jonathan? dept.

Swift Is Open Source

Swift, Apple's hot new programming language, is now open source. It is available (or will be once the web site isn't so overwhelmed!) for Mac and Linux under an Apache 2.0 license.

"Swift is now open source! We are excited by this new chapter in the story of Swift. After Apple unveiled the Swift programming language, it quickly became one of the fastest growing languages in history. Swift makes it easy to write software that is incredibly fast and safe by design. Now that Swift is open source, you can help make the best general purpose programming language available everywhere. "

Apple Open-Sources Swift and Releases Linux port, as Promised

Apple's Swift programming language may eventually replace the respected but arcane Objective C as the native language for OS X and iOS development, but if you don't have a Mac you might be forgiven for not having taken an interest so far.

However, as MacRumors now reports, Apple have now delivered on their promise to open-source Swift and release a Linux port. It doesn't sound as if the Linux port is quite ready for production use just yet, but the source is out there. Does this mean that Swift is now a contender for general purpose programming?

(Note: at the time of writing, the servers at Swift.org are failing to live up to their name.)


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @12:25AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @12:25AM (#272023)

    I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as open source, is in fact, free software, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, libre software.

    Many computer users run libre software every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, libre software which is widely used today is often called 'open source', and many of its users are not aware that it is basically libre software, which guarantees your freedumbs. There really is open source software, and these people are using it, but that is because open source is a superset of libre software.

    t. richard m stallmang

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @02:13AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @02:13AM (#272052)
    Not true. The true difference between open source and Free Software is a philosophical one. There are no licences that satisfy the Open Source Definition that do not satisfy the FSF as being Free Software. The principal difference between the two movements is philosophical: the Open Source movement emphasises the efficiencies achieved from having freedom and openness, while the Free Software movement emphasises the freedom aspect.
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @02:57PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @02:57PM (#272174)

      There are no licences that satisfy the Open Source Definition that do not satisfy the FSF as being Free Software.

      This part is wrong. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybase_Open_Watcom_Public_License [wikipedia.org]