Will Kodi make the Apple App Store?
#1
I have heard Apple didn't want XBMC in the app store but do you think that Kodi Will make it in?
Will there even be an attempt to submit it to the Apple App Store?
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#2
You betcha! Turns out all the technical reasons we keep listing about why this will never happen unless hell freezes over wasn't true, and Apple just plum didn't like the name "XBMC". Tee hee

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

No, there will be no attempt to submit Kodi to the Apple App Store. Apple has never said they didn't want XBMC in the App Store because they were never asked. It has nothing to do with the name. We violate a ton of rules for submission, and to comply with those rules we would have to rip out and nerf a ton of features. We have no interest in creating a nerfed version of Kodi.
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#3
Apple has strict policy towards submissions, means you have to confront everything Appl asks. No one wants a lame version.
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#4
There's also the secondary issue that many of our devs believe that submission to the Apple App Store is a violation of the GPL, so not only do we violate their rules, they also violate ours. This is an important enough issue to enough of the team that even if we threw out our nerfing principles, we STILL wouldn't submit.
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#5
(2014-09-16, 02:54)natethomas Wrote: There's also the secondary issue that many of our devs believe that submission to the Apple App Store is a violation of the GPL, so not only do we violate their rules, they also violate ours. This is an important enough issue to enough of the team that even if we threw out our nerfing principles, we STILL wouldn't submit.

I wouldn't call that a view held by the over-all team, otherwise we wouldn't have the open source Official XBMC iOS remote on the iOS App Store :)
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#6
(2014-09-16, 23:57)Ned Scott Wrote:
(2014-09-16, 02:54)natethomas Wrote: There's also the secondary issue that many of our devs believe that submission to the Apple App Store is a violation of the GPL, so not only do we violate their rules, they also violate ours. This is an important enough issue to enough of the team that even if we threw out our nerfing principles, we STILL wouldn't submit.

I wouldn't call that a view held by the over-all team, otherwise we wouldn't have the open source Official XBMC iOS remote on the iOS App Store Smile

That's actually less of a problem, because we own and control all of the iOS code, so for the purposes of licensing, any issues with the App Store can be overcome by dual licensing if necessary. I think we actually even wrote that into the remote license. Something like, "the is gpl except in any way that would prevent it from being submittable to the apple App Store."

We don't have complete ownership of the XBMC source code, so we can't do the same thing.
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#7
In general, Apple sucks Wink
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#8
(2014-09-17, 00:21)natethomas Wrote:
(2014-09-16, 23:57)Ned Scott Wrote: I wouldn't call that a view held by the over-all team, otherwise we wouldn't have the open source Official XBMC iOS remote on the iOS App Store :)

That's actually less of a problem, because we own and control all of the iOS code, so for the purposes of licensing, any issues with the App Store can be overcome by dual licensing if necessary. I think we actually even wrote that into the remote license. Something like, "the is gpl except in any way that would prevent it from being submittable to the apple App Store."

We don't have complete ownership of the XBMC source code, so we can't do the same thing.

Aaah, I see. I thought maybe you meant it was from a "boycott apple" kind of perspective ;)
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#9
(2014-09-17, 00:39)schumi2004 Wrote: In general, Apple sucks Wink

We only have a few Mac OS X developers, but at the last two XBMC Developers Conferences, half the team was using Apple Macbooks. Most of the other half was using Thinkpads, and one of the Thinkpads was running OS X.

Apple, like any company, does many things we don't like. I wouldn't say "Apple sucks", though. Not by a long shot.
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#10
Generally most people (including developers) are confused about GPLv2 and what is actually mean and what has been tested in the courts of law. The main point about GPLv2 is to provide everything, as source code, that is required for someone to re-create the App/binary from scratch. Actually installing and running such an App is why GPLv3 came about as it covers a hole in the GPLv2 license. Installing and running is implied in v2 where as it is explicit in v3.

The best example of GPLv2 vs GPLv3 is TiVo, they were forced to release their GPLv2 kernel and userland source code. BUT as their binaries were signed, this prevented unsigned kernels/userland from loading and running. You could build it but not replace and run it. TiVo won, FSF caved and created GPLv3 to fill the hole.

Given this, using GPLv2 code should be perfectly ok under the Apple App store model provided the source code and build info is public. GPLv3 is not ok under the Apple App store model.

Personally, I'd be more concerned with the flood of Android thieves and parasites coming out of the woodwork to highjack the source code, make hacks for their devices and ignore requests for source code. The Android ecosystem seems filled with such clowns. Such behavior seems much more rare under the Apple iOS ecosystem, I wonder why ?
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#11
@NedScott if i would have time for devcon this year you would see my newest hack - mavericks running on a hp elitebook with ivy bridge Big Grin (yeah i had to upgrade *haha*)
AppleTV4/iPhone/iPod/iPad: HowTo find debug logs and everything else which the devs like so much: click here
HowTo setup NFS for Kodi: NFS (wiki)
HowTo configure avahi (zeroconf): Avahi_Zeroconf (wiki)
READ THE IOS FAQ!: iOS FAQ (wiki)
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#12
Rather than argue in uncertainties, here is the actual legal argument why the gpl2 and appstore policies don't mix. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/no...store/8046
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#13
(2014-09-17, 11:51)natethomas Wrote: Rather than argue in uncertainties, here is the actual legal argument why the gpl2 and appstore policies don't mix. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/no...store/8046

However "VLC for iOS" by VideoLAN is in the appstore today.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-ios.html
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#14
Not wanting to go OT but out of interest, are there any plans to submit Kodi to the Google Play store for Android devices?

I've never checked out their requirements (but given some of the apps out there, I doubt there are that many :p)
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#15
(2014-09-17, 12:56)Swifty Wrote: Not wanting to go OT but out of interest, are there any plans to submit Kodi to the Google Play store for Android devices?

yes there is interest
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