I'm not an Apple user. The reason I've spent the last year and a half developing an open source solution to support Apple devices is because it is a challenge and is profitable. I view myself as a sort of technological mercenary. I go where my skills are needed.
I don't own a personal mac laptop, nor do I use an iPhone. If Apple gave me a macbook pro and an iPhone I wouldn't use either. ( other than to develop software that requires those )
I do though believe in making required technical things easier for others. It is a good feeling making something possible with IOS devices that hasn't been done as open source previously.
Creating and testing IOS apps isn't something that will cease to be just because hardcore developers dislike the closed Apple ecosystem. The people who fund Apple, in my opinion, aren't hardcore geeks. They are the normal folk in the world.
My only request to Apple is to please listen to what the developers want and provide some of the information I need so that I can in turn improve the development experience for the developers that are already paying into their ecosystem.
Sitting on your high horse saying "I don't like the way big companies function" doesn't pay the bills or convince anyone you are a good engineer who will stay professional regardless of your personal feelings.
1. If the work is ultimately for a company you are working for fulltime and getting paid from the start. This is the case with IOS support for DeviceFarmer. I work fulltime for T-Mobile. I am thankful to them for allowing the majority of the resulting software to be open sourced. The reason they allowed it to be that way, and wanted it from the start, is so that we can benefit from users using the software, finding bugs, and reporting them. There have been contributions from the open source community to it as well that have been very helpful.
2. By providing paid support for an open source project. There is a great need right now for someone ( and/or many someones ) to work with companies to get DeviceFarmer setup and working well for their needs. I do this a little bit on the side myself, but it is tricky because I don't have much time remaining after my day job to do so, and I have to be careful not to let it become a conflict of interest.
DeviceFarmer as a entity is a collection of key personnel who have been maintaining OpenSTF. I believe all of them are fulltime employees of various companies that use it internally and contribute to it to address their own needs. I joined the core team as a result of writing IOS support for it ( I say "writing", despite also porting in a large chunk of IOS support from other open source contributors; mrx in specific )
Right now DeviceFarmer isn't a legal entity. There is no company or non-profit currently. It is just a bunch of developers cooperating. We have considered creating a non-profit company for it, but it has not been done yet. The members of the group are spread out internationally.
The original main author(s) of OpenSTF formed the company HeadSpin out of it, and offered it as a commercial project. Very recently the company collapsed as a result of internal corruption, but the project itself lives on. Really they had abandoned OpenSTF 2-years ago anyway. The rebranding to DeviceFarmer instead of OpenSTF is to move the project to being open and no longer restricted by HeadSpin.
HeadSpin themselves refused to ever accept contribution of IOS support into the OpenSTF project, because IOS support was one of the main differences in their commercial offering. They refused to ever open source that portion of OpenSTF. Forking the project was necessary to allow this. Essentially the entire community has moved to the fork and abandoned OpenSTF. The crumbling of HeadSpin sealed the deal and OpenSTF is essentially no more.
Another option than creating your own legal entity is to join a fiscal sponsor of open source projects, like Software Freedom Conservancy, Software in the Public Interest or one of the other open source foundations:
I don't own a personal mac laptop, nor do I use an iPhone. If Apple gave me a macbook pro and an iPhone I wouldn't use either. ( other than to develop software that requires those )
I do though believe in making required technical things easier for others. It is a good feeling making something possible with IOS devices that hasn't been done as open source previously.
Creating and testing IOS apps isn't something that will cease to be just because hardcore developers dislike the closed Apple ecosystem. The people who fund Apple, in my opinion, aren't hardcore geeks. They are the normal folk in the world.
My only request to Apple is to please listen to what the developers want and provide some of the information I need so that I can in turn improve the development experience for the developers that are already paying into their ecosystem.
Sitting on your high horse saying "I don't like the way big companies function" doesn't pay the bills or convince anyone you are a good engineer who will stay professional regardless of your personal feelings.