Following criticism, Apple no longer touts its open source Swift strategy

Apple was applauded earlier in the month when it announced that Swift, its new programming language, was going open source. Yet despite this bold and much-celebrated move, it didn’t take long for the masses to turn against the Cupertino, California company after noticing that Apple describes itself as “the first major computer company to make Open Source a key part of its strategy.”

Ouch

Developers felt their feathers ruffle upon reading Apple’s remark, which originally appeared at its open source Web page. In fact, Cupertino has listed the remark (below) at its Open Source page for some time, and it seems the page only received mass attention after Swift went open source towards the beginning of the month.

Apple, the first major computer company to make Open Source development a key board of its software strategy, continues to use and release significant quantities of open source software.

Cupertino then changed the comment, updating the text and replacing it with the below:

Open source software is at the heart of Apple platforms and developer tools, and Apple continues to contribute and release significant quantities of open source code.

Apple’s new message at its Open Source page.

Why the change?

Apple has, long before Swift, offered open source releases for years. These have previously included Bonjour, for instance, and its WebKit platform. But that doesn’t mean Apple can call itself the “first” company to focus strongly on open source software. This was always going to be a questionable claim, especially given the lack of evidence offered at Apple’s Open Source page.

Of course, Apple isn’t looking to upset anyone, and so the comment has been silently retracted. Making Swift open source was a move towards inclusivity, and it should continue to be applauded by celebrants of Apple and critics alike.

For more information on the move, check out our original article.