While Apple has long emphasized that it has made significant contributions to various open source projects, many of its technologies are clearly in the closed source camp. However, the Cupertino tech giant has now started Posting the source code for the XNU kernel that powers its flagship operating system on GitHub.

XNU, which actually stands for “XNU is Not Unix,” belongs to the Unix-like kernel used by macOS (including all previous versions) and iOS. By exposing the kernel code, Apple will help developers more easily understand how their devices and higher software layers work with the kernel. It’s unclear exactly how much this will help developers, but it’s likely to be part of an effort by Apple to attract more developers.

The Source code is based on the Apple Public Source License 2.0, which is actually a fairly strict License; Developers may need to look at the details before they can introduce the kernel code for this release into their own projects. You can learn more about XNU kernel building and testing through the GitHub library.

Making address: https://github.com/apple/darwin-xnu

In addition, during the holidays, I recommend a book about Apple’s engineering culture called once upon a Time. The book traces the dream to its source: the Macintosh computer development team in an obscure corner of Apple. Mackintosh’s development began in 1979 with a dream project and ended in 1984 with a breakthrough that wowed the industry. The author, as a member of Apple inc., faithfully Chronicles the history of apple inc., giving apple aficionados a glimpse into the birth of Macintosh. If you read this book from the perspective of a manager, you can learn a lot of thought-provoking management methods.

Happy holidays!