My apps ChatSecure [1] and OpenWatch [2] are fully open source as well.<p>1. <a href="https://github.com/chrisballinger/Off-the-Record-iOS" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/chrisballinger/Off-the-Record-iOS</a><p>2. <a href="https://github.com/OpenWatch/OpenWatch-iOS" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/OpenWatch/OpenWatch-iOS</a>
Open Source applications in iOS are nice for developers to help them build better applications, but given iOS is such a closed locked system, it is meaningless for users. A part of the open source idea is that users can know and have some control over the software that runs on the hardware that belongs to them. As long as iOS remains a locked proprietary walled garden owned by Apple and carriers, open source on iOS is meaningless to them. Maybe we've all just given up on that idea though.
Not sure it's really relevant, but I happen to have open-sourced a "dummy app" which was originally intended for educational purpose.<p>If some are interested : <a href="http://alexiscreuzot.com/ColourLove/" rel="nofollow">http://alexiscreuzot.com/ColourLove/</a>
The obstacle to open source adoption has always been economics, not usability. (Give them paychecks, and the usability engineers will come.) While it's possible to have a successful business model with FOSS, it's typically much more difficult or less lucrative compared to the product/appliance model, and too often completely unviable to make a living.<p>The curious paradox of Apple's walled garden is that it creates an opening to put every line of code on GitHub, yet be confident that the vast majority of customers will still click "Buy Now" rather than downloading elsewhere for free. It may not include Freedom Zero, and so is far from ideologically pure, but the ecosystem still gains the benefits of transparency, trust, and iterative improvement from open source.<p>Outside of certain niches, the market is clearly not gravitating towards FOSS on its own; if the politics of computing is important to us as a culture, it probably needs to move forward in the form of consumer protection laws and antitrust litigation. But in the meantime, FOSS would do well to use the App Store and make the best of a bad situation.
This is a really interesting idea. iOS and submitting to the app store has always seemed high friction task. This takes reduces both of them by having a fully baked app that I can just modify.<p>The promise of shipping code to the app store is a bit more tenuous as we have to bank on the developers packaging it up and sending it up to the app store.
The missing example for platforms with lots of open source apps is Android.<p>No platform should artificially restrict development and the freedom of running any app. iOS deserves its lack of open source apps, in a way.
It was 4 years ago when I developed a iOS ImagePicker in my free time which I knew I would use in a app at work, just to be able to open source it. And it was the right move, seems like many people liked and used it: <a href="https://github.com/jeena/JPImagePickerController" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jeena/JPImagePickerController</a> even got a couple of job offers because of it (back then there weren't that many iOS developers in Sweden)
The WordPress iOS app is also open source: <a href="https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPress-iOS" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPress-iOS</a>
I spent some time moving UIKit over to blocks without resorting to swizzling or using external dependencies like libffi.
Needed to get that off my desk and ship smaller things.<p>This looks nice!
This is a great step-- I note that you chose to open source after your were on the store. As a well-known company, was that to prevent pre-release copycats?