Apple’s iOS is, without a doubt, an excellent mobile operating system. Apple has been able to make it a hit but the one thing that vexes the developers at large is that Apple’s iOS is a proprietary piece of software. This means that it is not open-source and thus its code can not be explored, or tweaked, by other developers.
A very ambitious project has been launched to produce an open-source version of iOS. This will essentially be a clone of iPhone OS 1 which can then be run across a whole host of different hardware, unlike Apple which runs its iOS on definite kinds of hardware.
The project is being called Project Magenta and is spear-headed by Christina B who is a developer. However, help will be taken from Apple’s open-source resources in creating this clone. For instance, Apple’s open-source operating system is called Darwin. And it was Darwin which Apple further developed to create iOS.
Project Magenta intends to use this very Darwin to create the iOS clone. Darwin originally is a port sitting on top of Linux kernel. It can run on any ARMv7-based chip. Naturally, Christina has plans of furnishing just the basic functionality initially and has no plans of implement any high-level frameworks.
Since it will essentially be an open-source venture, other developers may chip in with their contributions and who knows it may be able to support iOS apps in the coming days. However, the very notion annoys Christina. To her, the ambition of finally running iOS apps on such a software is stupid.
Source: Project Magenta
Courtesy: The Verge
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