[rodalpho]

XBMC uses tons of external open-source code. It was built on the shoulders of giants. One of those developers is certain to complain sooner or later.

[davilla]

Also, jailbreaking in the future will be much more difficult. We are waiting for a unthethered jailbreak on 4.2.1. for months now which was very hard to accomplish. I bet that with version 4.3, or maybe 4.5 Jailbreaking as it is now, would be almost impossible (the unthethered variant).

Not true, if you actually look at the jailbreak release pattern, A jailbreak for a previous comes out when a new iOS version comes out. The JB devs wait until they can examine the new release to see if Apple plugged a hole, then they use that hole for the previous iOS version. The only reason why there is not an untethered for 4.2.1 is the wait for 4.3 to drop.

With the coming of the iPad 2 I bet they removed the security breach which exists in the A4 chips. Therefore, it will be a long time before we can jailbreak again, thethered or unthethered for that matter.

The A4 CPU/GPU/RAM package has nothing to do with jailbreaks. It's the software code in iBoot and above.

[Ned Scott]

VLC was recently removed from the iOS appstore due to licensing conflicts with the GPL.

Even if apple accepted XBMC, the license is an insurmountable obstacle to distribution on non-jailbroken devices.

There's actually a lot of disagreement on that. Several people believe there is no actual licensing conflict, while others say otherwise. When Apple sent notice about the app being taken down they never mentioned the GPL. Instead they said to talk to the VLC dev (Remi?) in order to resolve the issue. This suggests that Apple is simply playing it safe in this specific situation, rather than if Apple has actually come to a conclusion about GPL compatibility with their own App Store terms.

There are several alternatives to VLC on the App Store that use ffmpeg code that have existed even before VLC got submitted. They are still on the App Store to this day. I'm sure someone could go and find several other examples. If you check in settings > general > about device (IIRC) you will see that Apple uses GPL code in iOS itself.

VLC asked for themselves to be removed. One thing you really can't pin on apple.

One developer did. Most of the VLC team wanted the app in the App Store. The code, binary, and support forums were all hosted on the VLC website, despite the app itself being submitted by a 3rd party.

[pecinko]

It currently accesses private API's to get hardware accelerated playback (which is why it works so damn well) and that's something which is a nono according to AppStore policy.

OK, we'll see what the future will bring.

Forums are overcrowded: "Most users ever online was 1,334, Yesterday at 20:28" :-))

Could only imagine what would happen if Xbmc gets to App store someday :-)

[pecinko]

The appstore does not work with GPL, since apple is the only one having powers over distribution this is not ok in GPL. Android for example is in this regard since you always have the option to install an app even if its not in the market.

Some may consider jailbreak being a way to install any app but its debatable at best if thats OK in GPL. Personally I don't care if its arguably ok to put it in the app store, I don't like the idea that Apple does not have a GPL ok store and dont want to support them (which is what you do if you find loopholes to put the app in the store).

I can imagine this to change in some content over time, but I'm afraid will never see another App store/repository.

Others may disagree, but I also don't think that has anything to do with Apple being anti open source company. They are trying to provide some comfort and hassle free way to install apps and one central repository is a logical way.

[topfs2]

I can imagine this to change in some content over time, but I'm afraid will never see another App store/repository.

Others may disagree, but I also don't think that has anything to do with Apple being anti open source company. They are trying to provide some comfort and hassle free way to install apps and one central repository is a logical way.

It has nothing to do with it being one central repository. One app store is fine with GPL given that you can install an app even if its not in the store.

Like ubuntu you have the repositories, even if you couldnt alter repositories as long as you can download a .deb and install it thats fine GPL wise (this is how android does it, you cannot add repositories but you can install the apk). Obviously if you can install any app there usually will pop up other apps which behaves like the app store though but thats not the point.