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Star Wars Prequels Media Movies

Linux at Industrial Light and Magic 285

Nicholas DePetrillo writes "Linux Journal has a big story about how LINUX is being used in hollywood, specificly at Industrial Light and Magic with some GREAT screenshots and a very descriptive article with configuration details." Word has it that their rendering farms have gotten even bigger since this article was published.
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Linux at Industrial Light and Magic

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  • Graphics are great (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ObviousGuy ( 578567 ) <ObviousGuy@hotmail.com> on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @12:10AM (#3683965) Homepage Journal
    Action is great!

    Music isn't bad!

    Acting is pathetic.

    No amount of eye candy will ever make the prequels worth watching as standalone movies.
  • by Burgundy Advocate ( 313960 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @12:16AM (#3683992) Homepage
    Remember everybody, if you like the article then please buy the magazine! The articles, while provided free of charge, do not magically appear.

    If you want more great articles like this, support Linux Journal. I know the idea of paying for something might go against some people's sensibilities (information wants to be FREEEEEEE!!! and such), but remember that in real life people need to eat. Please don't let the fine people at Linux Journal starve. Buy a magazine.

    Please. Do it for the authors.
  • Great News (Score:1, Insightful)

    by saden1 ( 581102 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @12:18AM (#3684003)
    Have a question for everyone: What would happen to the gaming world at large if Sony was to start developing games for Linux? Would developers support Sony? Would Linux gaming become a very viable option? How would it impact windows gaming?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @12:23AM (#3684022)

    Man, if the Linux world has to get down on its knees and beg for money like this, it is doomed. That's one of the most degrading posts I've ever seen. Sheesh, man, stop crying and pull yourself together.

    Is it too much to ask that Linux Journal provide value in exchange for money? I don't see PC Magazine going broke. I don't see Dr. Dobbs going broke. I don't see a lot of magazines going broke.

  • by Real World Stuff ( 561780 ) <real_world_stuffNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @12:26AM (#3684031) Journal
    Here is older German [linux-community.de] link with additional information.

    "Microsofts recruiting rate gene could do to a wrong, because they purge in view of shrinking customer connection so obviously into panic. There as prestigious customers change as Pixar ("Toy Story") and Industrial Light & Magic ("Jurassic park ", "Shrek") its systems over course around course from Windows or SGI to Linux , and the Unterschleissheimer Dependance of the gate company breaks in nothing different one to take in than the middle class. Really pfiffig."
  • Re:Great News (Score:4, Insightful)

    by handsomepete ( 561396 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @12:33AM (#3684062) Journal
    What would happen to the gaming world at large if Sony was to start developing games for Linux?

    If I had to guess, nothing major would happen except there'd be a few more games for Linux and there'd be a lot of articles about it on Linux Games [linuxgames.com].

    Would developers support Sony?

    Probably, but it depends on what you mean by developers. Hardware (read as video and sound card) developers may try and throw Linux gamers a bone in the driver arena (but it'll be a small, closed source one). Since nvidia already does this and most (if not all) Linux gamers opt for their cards because of it, impact would be minimal. Software developers could care less about what Sony does in the software market. It would probably go down as follows:
    1.) Sony develops games for Linux.
    2.) Other developers develop games for Linux thinking that Sony had some special information.
    3.) Sales aren't immediately stellar, other developers back out and snicker behind Sony's back thinking that they're superior.

    Would Linux gaming become a very viable option?

    IMHO, and don't take this as a flame because I'm a supporter and user of Linux, but I don't think it'll be really great until a brand new/standarized API (a la direct X - so shoot me) is developed (or a current one is seriously overhauled). There's something to be said in an all-in-one multimedia package that doesn't depend on a bunch of other things. Or until there's a working alternative to X which will never happen. *shrug* I'm probably wrong, but that's just my 2 cents.
  • by einTier ( 33752 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @01:35AM (#3684264)
    Am I the only one who thinks it's rather odd that movie companies are pursuing a law that would effectively outlaw Linux -- while that's the operating system running most of their kick-ass render farms?
  • by PotatoHead ( 12771 ) <doug.opengeek@org> on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @02:00AM (#3684334) Homepage Journal
    You know I just thought about that a little. The way the laws are intended to work are subtle indeed.

    For you and I, Linux would be outlawed. For the Studios, things would work just fine. They have the lawyers to back them up, and they can just use Linux inside their firewalls.

    Since they create the content, it is easy for them to say Linux is ok. Nobody is watching unauthorized copies.

    They just don't want Joe citizen to have a user programmable system that allows programs they don't like.

    Irony indeed.
  • Re:ILM OSes (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TandyMasterControl ( 136043 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @04:55AM (#3684743) Homepage
    It was interesting to see the ILM Director of Research and Development, Andy Hendrickson, say this: "As we get into Linux we're not finding one company to hand-hold. IBM and HP aren't there, yet. But, before Linux it was out of our control and out of control. [Now] we own our Linux problems."

    That's really not a great position to be in, is it Andy?
    I mean, they bought the workstations from fucking Dell but obviously Dell tech support is in no position to aid them on the technology of the OS. Or anything beyond installing a ethernet driver or scanner on Windows, if even that. So about this time I am wondering :Gee wouldn't it have made better sense to buy the Intel hardware or support from SGI (who was trying to get started with Lintel workstations) so you could at least be dealing with people who CAN help with technical issues a linux customer is experiencing?

    Pennywise so often is pound stupid.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @06:24AM (#3684896)
    doesnt anyone else find it a bit hypocritical that
    "hollywood" is making use of opensource and free software while petitioning for its hobbling with the current legislation regarding digital "rights"?
  • by FreeUser ( 11483 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @11:21AM (#3686371)
    Do you watch movies by any chance? Or TV? If so, then shut up, because you're helping to fund these guys...

    This fallacy has been rebutted numerous times.

    The long and short of it is: just because circumstances constrain you to operate within particular boundries, doesn't mean you are in any way wrong or hypocritical in criticizing those boundries, or anything unjust or wrong you find within those boundries. Many of the folk, black and white alike, who criticized apartheid in the United States and South Africa still paid taxes to those governments, watched the television and listened to the radio put out by those governments (or the private corporations profiting from those apartheid systems). Those who advocated communism or socialism still had jobs within those systems, and bought their food, clothing, and housing within those very same systems they so disapproved of. This did not in any way make their criticisms less valid, or make them hyporcrits for having the courage and moxy to stand up and criticize those systems. Quite the contrary.

    Indeed, had reformers throughout history been required to operate within the parameters your troll implies ('you cannot legitimately criticize anything that is a part of your lifestyle!') we would be living no differently from people a thousand years ago. In other words, no reform would have been possible, because no criticism would have been possible.

    I suspect that, were someone who doesn't watch television or movies to criticize the Hollywood Copyright and Media Cartels, you would be the first to say something to the effect of "That's easy for you to say, you don't use their product anyway!" which is, of course, the flipside of the very same logical fallacy you've indulged in here.

    So it is you, not the person you responded to, who really ought to shut up.
  • by mrm677 ( 456727 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @11:48AM (#3686660)
    Linux is not solely responsible for the five-fold increase in speed. Linux allows ILM to leverage the very high price/performance ratio of the x86 microprocessors produced by AMD and Intel. If SGI ported IRIX to x86, then they might not be using Linux. Of course Linux is free, but ILM had to spend many man hours to port their software.
  • Re:Linux or Intel? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Chris Pimlott ( 16212 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2002 @04:51PM (#3689131)
    Of course, performance doesn't suffer when you upgrade from a 5 y/o processor to a new top-of-the-line processor.
    Most of the descriptions about speed up seem to be directly attributable to Intel, not Linux...


    I think part of the point, though, is that it is _because_ Linux is extremely flexible in terms of the wide variety of hardware it will run it that makes it very easy to upgrade your systems and still run the same system. This way, ILM doesn't have to wait for the next SGI systems to come out; if they need more, they can just go out and get it and intergrate it with the systems they are already running since it's all running the same thing.

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