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Television Media

Linux Screenshots on Level 9 247

Posted by michael from the boob-tube dept.
bradipo writes "I was watching Level 9 for the first time and I thought I saw a glimpse of a linux desktop, so I kept watching. Sure enough, they were using Linux as the computer that a couple of kids were using to view NASA documents, etc... I captured as many as I could with my nifty tv capture card. It looks to me like they were using Enlightenment or WindowMaker or possibly both together."
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Linux Screenshots on Level 9 More

Linux Screenshots on Level 9

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  • http://themes.litestep.com/page-files-themes-a.sht ml
  • but what is Level 9? Am I the only one who's never heard of it?


    -------

  • The titlebars looked like Enlightenment. The icons on the right side look like gkrellm [gkrellm.net], a system monitoring app. I have no idea how they got the WindowMaker clip to display if that really is E managing the windows, though.
  • That doesn't mean it's *right*.

    With Slashdot's newer, larger user base, there are more and more people coming to the site that aren't Linux advocates, but people just plain interested in the things that drive "nerds" today (cross-platform compatibility, coding in general, tech toys for fun, etc.)

    I have had this discussion with Rob before, and while I understand that it is "his" site, it has become much bigger than "his" views. He has every right to post sites that only have to do with Linux. He also has every right to alienate a small but vocal minority that feels Linux isn't the only "cool thing for Nerds" out there.

    Me personally, for a good 3 months early on when I stopped being an AC, I deactivated Rob's stories from the Slashboxes (you can do this). I was tired of the Linux proganda garbage. Problem was, Taco does occasionally post a "good" story, one that doesn't have to do with mainstream Linux acceptance. I turned his stories back on, but I usually just peruse right by most of his front-page posts.

  • just a guess but they are probably using Litestep [litestep.net] as well.it would be the easiest way to get the screen shots in director.

  • e.themes.org picked this up, also (Score:3)

    by Zoyd ( 13778 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @09:24PM (#669249)
    e.themes.org [themes.org] picked up this story, also. According to them, both Enlightenment running the BlueSteel theme and Window Maker are visible in the scene and their conclusion is that it is a composite.
  • The icons mean nothing. That's Enlightenment. If you look at the window borders, thats classic E, and the icons along the left are spaced too widely to be either WindowMaker or afterstep, and are more consistent with the location and spacing of the dock used in E :)

    ------
    http://207.168.234.207/
    Vinnland - A country of True Freedom.
  • I work on the show, and it is FreeBSD.

    If we get the slashdot effect, we will happilly switch to linux !!

  • Yeah, but did you notice the "by accessing this site you are agreeing to the terms of use" which shows up at the bottom of upn.com's front page?

    Not half as annoying as the fact that it autoloads the main page. So is that message more like "By having flash and JavaScript on your browser, you are agreeing to the terms of use"?

    Don't mind me. I'm just a little crabby today...

  • I'd guess that getting zip drives to work with Solaris is certainly feasible, since the campus computer labs at MIT have zip drives on some of the Ultra 5s...
  • Look at the buttons in the lower right corner of the LCD's case. It's pretty clear to me that this is an IBM LCD.
  • Seeing how computer people on tv are almost always dumb they would then not know the sheer benifits of :
    FreeBSD (tm).
    Therefore they must be feeble minded Linux users conforming to the GNU niche.
  • Obviously MS is a low value proposition in artistic department :-)

    They wanted to show computer nerds, so they needed something exotic. MS Windows wouldn't cut it. If this system is also a good eye candy then the choice is obvious.

    It is also good for BSD and Linux - free advertising!

  • Actually...
    yeah, I would rather have seen an Imac with wmaker.
    And then I could listen to all of you confused people discuss that one. No doubt people would think someone striped out the mac and built an x86 machine with the shell. and all kinds of crazy things just to say it was linux.
    But no.
    I would be willing to bet that that is an sgi machine anyway.
  • Just a note, but that's for sure, not an E-450... an E-450 is a.) purple, grey and black and b.) quite a -bit- larger than a couple of breadboxen ... that case in Enemy of the State is what holds an Ultra-10, or a few of the other Ultra series workstations...
    Not to mention that it clocks in at just over 200 lbs =o)

    Quick link: http://www.qassociates.co.uk/sun-products/servers/ enterprise-450.htm

    just FYI
  • and Felicity, where some guy uses some program called zztop.exe to reformat his hard drive

    Actually you can find this program on most dells. Running it will restore the factory installed image of windows. I have done it a couple of times. (Tech Support)
  • Hmm, I wonder if they use *nix to avoid payments to M$?
  • In the early 90's a couple of Amiga magazines in England (Amiga Format and Commodore Abu^H^H^H User) made a big deal about it and asked people to write in when they saw an Amiga on TV.

    Y'know, I remember this too. I seem to recall a bunch of folks in the States getting all excited because an Amiga ("Amy," as they were calling it) showed up a few times in Miami Vice. Except it had been painted black. At least it wasn't painted those fruity pastel/neon colors.

    Come to think of it, fat lot of good that seemed to do for the Amiga platform...

  • Yeah, what I want to know is - was the show any good?

    Did they do a decent enough job creating an illusion to drive the plotline, or did it get caught up in technicalities? Was it empty-headed and dumb, like the Net, or did it carry some amount of storytelling, suspense, and plausible sci/tech like X-Files?

  • Yeah, it's windowmaker, and the buzz has been floating around for half a year since promos started getting aired. Here's [vidiot.com] an mpeg of the show's lineup, and you can clearly see it's at least some variant of unix, probably linux.
  • however, they have cool links to 2600 and al.
  • Well, if that's Gkrellm please slap me!
    The vesion I'm running has solid colors for the histograms!
    If someone has hacked it to have transparent or gradient like (gawd, what about transient persistency for modem activity... drool!) please blow a horn!

  • The point is they still used images from a Linux system© Whatever was being used to actually display it - it came from a Linux box in the first place©

  • Those captures wasn't enlightenment...
    They've worked around the win98 source...

    - [grunby]
  • they are supposed to be super elite computer guys. They MUST be using BSD. Probably Openbsd. Thats what i would guess.
  • Watch Kurt Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House" failed series. In the version of Fortitude, a NeXT Cube is describe as a "supercomputer". And check out Mission Impossible (1st movie): The OS being used is a OPENSTEP/NEXTSTEP/MacOS hybrid. Graphic designers take inspiration from what they use. Graphic designers design tekn0-leet interfaces for hacker type shows. You can tell some dude took a WindowMaker snapshot and made it look k3wl. See the GNUStep logo?
    --
  • This is no big deal. We do it in the movie production business all the time. It's a hell of a lot easier to have either a scripted sequence playing or a full screen video image playing than it is to have an actor learn how to use a computer with such authority that it looks authentic. Even then, for some of the things you want to show, modern computers just aren't fast enough.

    This is especially true if you're doing a tracking shot and want something to happen just as the computer screen is coming into view. Most movies and tv shows were you see computer action, there's some guy sitting down beneath the sound stage firing off the video animations when the director cues him.

    Usually, though, when you see a computer, you can't tell which OS it's using, because it's easier to have the machine run FakeOS than to get a real company's PR department to OK their product being shown used to kill a bunch of people or break into a bank vault. Since Linux (or other Free Unixes) have generous licenses, this isn't an issue, I'd think.
  • I think it's rather arrogant to assume that these screenshots depict Linux. They could be produced on just about any Unix or even OS/2. But people here see WindowMaker and assume it is Linux. That annoys me.

    Brian Smith

  • What I identified ... (Score:4)

    by dbarclay10 ( 70443 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:36PM (#669273)
    From the screenshots, here's what I gather:

    They are using 'gkrellm', a nice system-monitoring panel/applet-type thing. I always have at least one running, usually two. I havn't seen that particular theme for it, but it looks *real* nice.

    Along the left side were tiles that looked like a Window Maker dock. I imagine they were putting minimized/hidden apps on the same side, because generally a Window Maker dock doesn't double in size in a short period of time.

    I sure *looked* like Enlightenment, but I don't think Window Maker and Enlightenment can co-exist in the same session. So, I don't think that the Window Maker dock-like thing was a real Window Maker dock. I have NEVER seen a Window Maker theme that had titlebars on the sides of windws, nor have I seen a Window Maker theme which has more than two title-bar buttons. The left-hand-side dock-like things might have been some form of Enlightenment's IconBox.

    Conclusion:

    Wicked! :)

    Dave
    'Round the firewall,
    Out the modem,
    Through the router,
    Down the wire,

  • [OT] Re:Slashdot ISN'T the same as it was (Score:5)

    by fwr ( 69372 ) on Saturday October 28, 2000 @04:42AM (#669274)
    If you feel that way, then leave. Just because more people that have different views start to go to the site and look at the pages does not mean that Rob, or anyone for that matter, has to modify their likes and dislikes or beliefs and dis-beliefs (hmm, what's the opposite of beliefs, whatever).

    That was the whole premis of the "sale" of Slashdot.org to Andover.net, and now VA*Linux. Rob would never have sold it if he didn't keep complete editorial and content control over the site, or so he says. Now you are expecting him to change the types of stories that are posted just because more people that don't happen to understand the whole "thing" behind Linux are coming to the site? Unbelievable. If he came out when the deal was done and said "Well, everything is pretty much going to stay the same now, but when our userbase starts including more non-Linux finatics we are going to start changing the types of stories we post and such. I hope you understand and will continue to come to Slashdot.org in the future, but that's the financial reality of the situation." He would have been slaughtered!

    Again, unbelievable. I was going to post this anonymously, because I know it's way off-topic, but this is truely how I feel. If I get mod'd down to nothingness then so be it, but this is just rediculous. I just wish that those people who don't like these stories either learn to live with the wide range of content management choices available in your preferences or find some other place to go and stop making offensive comments and/or demands that we should change just because there are more of you. And, as it might be construed from the complainer's post, if you were one of us and you have this attitude then I'd have to think hard to determine whether you really were one of us or were just following the trendy thing while it was new and never really supported the position. If so, go away!
  • Considering the budget concerns of most WB shows, it's not surprising they'd be using a free system.

    Now if they can only divert that saved money over to Moesha...

  • When I saw that, I thought, "Enlightenment? How much RAM does he have in there? Somebody ought to switch him over to Sawmill."
  • well put
  • It's new Windows that got stolen and hacked! :-)

    --------
  • Actually, I think that most movie and television shows use macs because for one their odd refresh rates dont mess with cameras as much as a PC.

    Also, most of the writers use macs, as well as most people who are somewhat creative (artists, directors, musicians) they rather deal with something that they know, than deal with something that they dont, but alot of other people do.

    Think of this. How many times have you seen them do something with those macs, that are just the opposite of what would actually come from a mac. Most people dont know how a mac operate, so they dont notice. but if they see a mistake on a windows machine, they automatically know that its a faked screen.
  • he was making a joke
  • Actually... while I like to keep track of appearances in the media of our lovely little favorite operating system and it's accompanying software suite, I have to say, that Linux appearing in the media is now not the big thing it used to be.

    Linux has grown up. It's no longer the little rebel operating system that it was. I see instances of Linux on TV a lot of the time - sure, it's a good thing, but not the event that it was. I'm happy to click the link and see what I missed.

    It really makes me feel old to see people with /. userids in excess of a hundred thousand talk about the "good old days"...

    I do think that the Slashcode could really use a re-vamp, compartmentalising many of "factions" into their own areas to save the rest of us from these silly shouting matches. "Browsing at 2" no longer seems to work...

    *sigh*
  • Actully, AT&T uses OpenStep 4.2 in their cellphone distibution centers, not linux.
  • The central computer was a box with LED's on it. It looked like a Thinking Machine though.

    And in the book, it was a Cray Multi-XMP (page 116 - I got lucky and opened to it!)

  • Re:You weren't looking closely enough (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Ugh, that's not a penguin, that's the BSD Daemon!

  • It seems strange that Slashdotters have more to say about Linux showing up in some minor TV show than about truly new images from another world [slashdot.org]. Which is more important in the scheme of things?

    Just my $0.02.

  • Some of you may not know this, but companies pay BIG money to have their products placed in films. Whether it is a cigarette, alcohol, or vehicle (which are some of the biggest advertisers).

    Remember that film companies are businesses just like any other business. If they can make money through some form of advertising, they will. Next time you watch a movie notice how conspicuously some shots of products are. It is advertising pure and simple.

  • Linux huh? (Score:5)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:19PM (#669291)
    Just because it uses a window manager DOES NOT MEAN IT'S LINUX!
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Whoo Hoo! (Score:3)

    by bellings ( 137948 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:21PM (#669296)
    Yeah! Now Linux has props! Now we can stick it to The Man! 'Cause once its been on Tee Vee, it becomes real!

  • As if YOU remember the old slashdot (Score:5)

    by Anne Marie ( 239347 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @08:04PM (#669297)
    This place has really gone downhill recently.

    Maybe you don't remember the old slashdot. Let me remind you. It looked something like this [slashdot.org]:

    Contributed by CmdrTaco [slashdot.org]
    on Wednesday October 21, [1997] @10:10
    from the movin-on-up dept.
    ascott@pacbell.net [mailto]
    sent me a link to This article [wcmh.com].
    It's another excellent example of the kind of
    amazingly cool press that Linux is getting from
    the media. We're approaching critical mass
    people. I'm still waiting for that PC Magazine
    cover story though.

    Maybe you don't remember what slashdot used to be. Let me remind you. It looked something like this [slashdot.org] :

    Contributed by CmdrTaco [slashdot.org]
    on Wednesday January 07, [1998] @02:50AM
    from the preaching-the-truth dept.
    Another cameo appearance of Linux in a mainstream mag comes to us from
    Amos Shapira [mailto]. He sent in an article at inforworld [infoworld.com] about NT 5.0's hefty system requirements, and how Linux will
    "beat the living daylights out of it" on a system with less than 64 megs of RAM. Flattery
    like that is just the kinda publicity we like to hear.

    Slashdot has always posted little stories glorifying Linux, because THAT'S WHAT ROB LIKES!!! In the old days, if it mentioned Linux, then the story RAN and we (ACs) liked it that way. With stories like these, Rob is being truer to his roots than a thousand napster/cuecat stories could ever be.

    It's his damn site, and you're being ungrateful.

  • Re:Linux huh? (Score:3)

    by dbarclay10 ( 70443 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:37PM (#669302)
    They arn't running Window Maker - they're just using icons/pixmaps from the Window Maker distribution. The window manager is most definetly Enlightenment, using the BlueSteel theme. You can tell by the fact that the title bars a) are vertical in some instances, and b) have more than two buttons.

    Dave
    'Round the firewall,
    Out the modem,
    Through the router,
    Down the wire,

  • Used on BBC (Score:4)

    by Aztech ( 240868 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:38PM (#669304)
    The BBC have been using KDE + Netscape for when they demo webpages on TV for sometime now, I've seen it used on Tomorrows World [bbc.co.uk] quite a bit. Linux is used [linuxplanet.com] around the corperation quite a lot apparently.

  • Ding ding ding! Mod parent up! (Score:5)

    by isaac ( 2852 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @08:06PM (#669318)
    This guy's got it. In a past career I worked in Hollywood, and this is exactly how it's done - simple Director program where a keypress or mouseclick triggers the next motion/action. No studio is going to let the actor actually use the box - they might screw up and whoops, there goes a take, $5,000 or more in wasted time.

    -Isaac

  • It's entirely possible that that was, in fact, a Macintosh computer that happened to be running WindowMaker on YellowDog or something.

    --

  • I'm pretty sure it's not Sawfish :) I've used it every day since 0.12, except for a few lonely moments where I used IceWM because I had some bad RAM that needed to be removed temporarily.

    Dave
    'Round the firewall,
    Out the modem,
    Through the router,
    Down the wire,
  • Or they could use efm [enlightenment.org] for desktop management. Windows decoration is *definitely* E with BlueSteel (vertical titles, somewhat thin frame, dark diaginal bars on a title bar, steelish color...)
  • I have to disagree. If you are a production company wanting to mock up a futuristic UI for your hero, you are going to get something to show much faster on Unix than either windoze or the mac for the simple reason that there is so much code availble to tweak and modify. With open source, you don't need to re-invent the wheel, just take some one elses wheel and start whacking it with your hammer :)
  • The point is they still used images from a Linux system©

    That copyright symbol there worried me, until I realized you're one of those people who ends up with copyright symbols instead of periods.
    --
    Obfuscated e-mail addresses won't stop sadistic 12-year-old ACs.

  • Can't be linux.. Gotta be BSD, perhaps solaris. God forbid maybe Irix?

    Hmm.. what else runs X. Could be OS/2, might even be Windows box!

    Look at that.. A computer with a cdrom drive. I bet it's running linux cause linux uses CD's!

  • In short, linux just made a prime-time appearance. Its mad cool. It SCREAMS, yeah, it rocks, yeah, it matters, and YEAH, intelligent uber-hacker type people use it.

    Was the word Linux used in the script? If not, then as far as Joe UPN Watcher is concerned, it's just another computer with a quasi-futuristic interface. Hell, for all Joe UPN Watcher knows, it could be Windows 2069.

  • Not a Real Desktop (Score:4)

    by iCEBaLM ( 34905 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @11:23PM (#669352)
    Just by looking at these images you can tell it isn't a real desktop. I'm going along with another poster who said they were probably made in Macromedia Director just by taking image fragments. Here is why I think these aren't pictures of a real desktop:

    - Every window uses the "Side Titlebar" style, which in enlightenment is only used for some windows where the width is too short and the height is longer.

    - Every window also has a right side scrollbar which isn't needed.... why would video windows have these?

    - The second from the top graphic meter displays the same in EVERY shot, there is no variance.

    - The "Access Denied" window is not a dialog window, and also, even tho it is short and displays the entirety of its content, has the right scrollbar.

    Just by looking at it for 30 seconds you can see that it isn't real, the directors or someone just thought it "looked cool" apparently, and took images from it.

    -- iCEBaLM

  • Holy Crap. Take a look at their links! (Score:4)

    by aardvaark ( 19793 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @08:26PM (#669354) Homepage
    Maybe somebody there has freakin' clue! I might actually have to watch this show. Go to their site site [upn.com] , then their "988.2" alt database section. Then for instance go to the "988.28" white hat/black hat section. (It's all sort of a weird flash site, you'll have to wade through it).

    Check out these links there:

    The Hacker Quarterly (i.e., 2600)
    Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Freedom Downtime (free Kevin page)
    Attrition.org

    There are even others. All and all actually interesting links. This leads me to a question:
    &nbsp
    WHICH ONE OF YOU BASTARDS HAS STARTED INFORMING ON US TO HOLLYWOOD!! YOU HAVE SOME ANSWERING TO DO!! ;-)

    Seriously, if they actually are seeking the advice of computer geeks instead of graphic designers, this show might be sort of cool, in a crappy hollywood sort of way. Anybody seen it?
  • Ahh, good point, I hadn't considered EFM. It definetly must be E, though, as well as 'gkrellm'. I wish I knew the name of that gkrellm theme :)
    'Round the firewall,
    Out the modem,
    Through the router,
    Down the wire,
  • Really? Then I am the same guy who spent hours copying pieces of screenshot into Director, just to avoid using the real thing.
  • Personally, I wouldn't trust someone claiming to remember the *old* slashdot, unless they either:

    1) call it Chips & Dips

    2) have a user number under 10K

    3) complained because www.slashdot.org didn't exist

    I *could* have landed a user number in the 2K's, but there was really no pressing need for my commentary on anything that early on.

  • Level 9 home page ... (Score:3)

    by antdude ( 79039 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:48PM (#669364) Homepage Journal
    Those who don't know what "Level 9" TV show is about: Check out its home page on UPN -- http://www.upn.com/shows/levelnine/airdis.html [upn.com]

    It requires Flash I think.

  • You weren't looking closely enough (Score:4)

    by Anne Marie ( 239347 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:50PM (#669366)
    In this [xmission.com] picture, you can clearly see a penguin reflecting off the actor's left nostril. In fact, that's the only reason why that picture was included, since after all, it isn't a picture of the DAMN SCREEN and must serve some purpose.

  • Why it doesn't matter (Score:3)

    by Entity42 ( 67737 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:50PM (#669369) Homepage
    Yeah just think about it before you mod it down ok?

    For Gods sake WOW Linux was on TV!!!!!! I thought this was a news site. Jaysus, get over it!

    It doesn't matter because people are going to use the OS that suits their needs. Be it Linux, Windows, MacOS or God Help Us Os/2 Warp ;)

    It doesn't matter because Linux isn't the be-all and end-all of Operating Systems. Yeah I use it and I like it, it suits my needs but FFS, it's only an OS! There's no need to get excited because it's on TV. If you see people use Macs in Movies and you think it's to make it look like EVERYONE uses Macs let me tell you it's not. It's because Macs have pretty interfaces. They LOOK nice. That's all that matters on the big screen.
    And before you start screaming about Linux yeah I know you can make it look just as purty, but it takes just a lil bit more effort than a Mac. Hey at least they don't use Windows :) hehe

    If you want movies to be realistic then you need to get a grip. Most movies are FICTION. Who cares if some gets a big 'ACCESS DENIED' image when they turn on their computer. It makes for better films.

    This place has really gone downhill recently. Come on guys, ye're getting paid for it now FFS!


    To err is human,
    To really screw up, you need a computer!
  • That looks more like Afterstep to me, but I haven't used that or Windowmaker in awhile. Nah, after looking at it, there are some Afterstep features missing, while the desktop-switching dock button (in the upper-left, with the numbers and paperclip) is definitely as I remember it from Windowmaker.

    Almost as cool as seeing the occasional OS/2 screenshot a few years ago. The computers in the lawyer's office in Primal Fear definitely looked like they were running OS/2.

  • I can see it now... (Score:3)

    by brianc ( 11901 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @07:21PM (#669375)
    ... at some future L9 sci-fi convention:

    "Um, yeah. I have a question for the stars...
    In episode one, you were clearly seen to be
    using WindowMaker, but in episodes 3, 5 and 7
    the computers were configured with Enlightenment.
    Can you explain the differences and reasons
    for the switch???"

    To paraphrase William Shatner on SNL-
    [stilldesigning.com]
    "GET A LIFE! It's just a TV show!"



  • You know, the angel one. Denzel Washington, the computer newbie angel, runs into a computer opens up his heavenly handbook and turns it to a page where the Windows logo is "beatified" :)...

    This movie proves that not all of Hollywood has bitten the apple. Sorry, bad biblical reference, couldn't stop myself.....
  • This brings back memories. In the early 90's a couple of Amiga magazines in England (Amiga Format and Commodore Abu^H^H^H User) made a big deal about it and asked people to write in when they saw an Amiga on TV. One showed up regularly on the Aussie soap "Neighbours", that's the only one I can remember offhand.

    While this story is hardly "News for Nerds" and it certainly isn't "Stuff that Matters", it's kinda amusing to know Linux has made it that far into the mainstream. What next? The Pres on "West Wing" using KDE? ER running their medical systems on Debian?

    What's the betting that the reason they used Linux is so they didn't have to licence a copy of Windows for it... Just a thought... Wouldn't cut much off the overall budget, but a couple of hundred dollars would pay a fair few extras I would think.

    ---

  • Nah. if they used director they wouldn't bother with copying windowmaker and enlightenment. they can just create something real quick.

    chances are, the system monitoring app gives a nice effect of a "live" computer which is why it's used. which is why it ain't director. because it's simply too much trouble.

    maybe with the exceptiong of "access denied"

  • They had both. The consultant's machine was an Apple, but the other consoles in the room were SGIs. The machine in the background was supposed to be a Connection Machine. I was at a SGI conference at the time that Jurassic Park came out. Some of the ILM people who worked on the film were there and talked about what they did for the on-the-set computers. For each console that an actor was sitting in front of, there was a duplicate one behind the scenes being controlled by a geek. They didn't want the actors to have to really type or do any mouse navigation...just pretend to do it.

  • The main topic of /. used to be "someone mentioned Linux somewhere". While that time is long gone, it is still interesting to see it getting more mainstream. /. should not forget its roots.
  • Yeah, I always thought the funniest computer related quote from a film (with the possible exception of some of the lines in Wargames or Sneakers) was:

    "This is *UNIX*! I know this!"

    before a 14 year old girl flies around SGI's 3-D world rendering of the filesystem. About as close to Unix as you could get in a film at the time I suppose. :-)

    Incidentally I almost bought one of those Crimson machines a few months ago for about £400 but somebody else on ebay realised the value of the machine that was the original "Ratz the Cat" on Children's BBC (many years ago) and it went out of my bidding range by several times. Pah!

  • Jurassic Park.

    Both rendered by, and featuring as the island's central computer, an SGI "Crimson" 100MHz MIPS 4000 minicomputer.

    I know, I owned one. SGI sold them in the same configuration used by ILM (minus memory), in a numbered and signed set, as "Crimson, Jurassic Classic" models.

  • Yes, but how does the GPL apply? (Score:5)

    by Dr. Awktagon ( 233360 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:57PM (#669398) Homepage
    Does this mean we can freely redistribute copies of the show? Shouldn't they be distributing source for the theme they used? Hmm, I smell a GPL violation, let's get 'em! We must demand the source code for every actor!

  • "Level 9" Technical dialog (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27, 2000 @07:25PM (#669404)
    From darkphotn:
    "Defrag the CD routers! Reallocate the speaker modules! Hurry, the OS pencil buffer is almost at warp factor seven!!!"

    I think it should be mandatory that every producer who makes a "hacker"-style show should first pass a CSCI class. =]
  • I think this is a valid question and should be moderated up, not down.

    Being excited that linux shows up in a tv show shows the user community's insecurity and proves that it still doesn't have a too significant amount of the market.

    Besides, it could've been FreeBSD, NetBSD, etc. Why does it have to be Linux?
  • Yeah, I was wondering how they got the frame relay to synch with the cameras and allow for replays and all.

    Cool, can you get them to do some OS X next time?

  • Re:Yes, but how does the GPL apply? (Score:3)

    by TrentC ( 11023 ) on Saturday October 28, 2000 @07:23AM (#669411) Homepage
    We must demand the source code for every actor!

    Oh, God help us if Natalie Portman ever makes a guest appearance...

    Jay (=
  • This place has really gone downhill recently. Come on guys, ye're getting paid for it now FFS!

    Yah know, when I first started hanging around on slashdot I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe it was because there was a lot of interesting things going on about 9 months ago, but these days, I have to agree that I am getting bored of stories about "rights online" that should be renamed "pathetic privileges that beverley hills kids think are right - online" and stories about Napster, etc. are all starting to piss me off.

    However, I can understand why this story made it on the front page. I think people might be getting a little over excited about it appearing on some TV show the majority of the world are not going to see, but I see the point. Even I would get excited if Linux or a *BSD appeared in the next James Bond film.

    I still want more stories about guys who've managed to build sentient robots out of an old alarm clock, an Athlon and a few thousand lines of Java. That's news for nerds, stuff that matters. The next lawsuit between two companies is something that normal people worry about, and I really couldn't give a flying fuck about it. Just my 2p worth.

    Incidentally, the story title is wrong. You can't tell if it's Linux - it could just as easily be FreeBSD or indeed anything else on which Enlightenment runs on.
  • Well given that Microsoft is suing Oracle [slashdot.org] over simply talking about how badly MS-SQL sucks, My guess is the the movie legal team decided that using a Microsoft Product on Screen was a dangerous practice :-)

    Besides, Using a Linux/BSD OS means that you've got a system that is reasonably easily reconfigurable to look like almost anything, and is stable like a ROCK.

    This means that you can use 'live' work on camera, rather than fixed screen shots, without having to worry about the system blue=screening on you in the middle of your performance (like happened to Mr. Bill a few years ago)..

    As mentioned elsewhere, you also get a nice-looking display that most of the public is just going to see as 'different', 'futuristic' and (hopefully) high-tech.

    For the 2% of the marked that eats, sleeps and breaths window managers, it's simply gonna be a neat piece of trivia, possibly leading to a bit of free PR for the show [slashdot.org].
    `ø,,ø`ø,,ø!

  • Why it matters.. (Score:5)

    by iamsure ( 66666 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:26PM (#669419) Homepage
    Alot of people are going to ask why this matters. Let me explain.

    Apple has a LONG history of dominating every single media-portrayed computer. Look in any wide-release movie in the last 10 years that has computers as a central or interesting part of the movie, and I guarantee its a mac.

    From IndependenceDay (ID4) to The Net, it was an endless barrage of Apple making it seem like "everyone is using them."

    Bullshit.

    Enough is enough. Its time that when I turn on a show about a group of elite (and I *DONT* mean 1337) old-school-definition-hackers, by god, they should be using something realistic.

    I dont see many security analysts busting out mac's to probe networks, and I dont see many mac root-kits.

    In short, linux just made a prime-time appearance. Its mad cool. It SCREAMS, yeah, it rocks, yeah, it matters, and YEAH, intelligent uber-hacker type people use it.

    Rock on..
  • I don't believe it was arrogance. Had I been using OpenBSD instead of Linux at the time I probably would have submitted something about OpenBSD. I guess I could have said some UNIX like OS. Would that be better... :-)

  • Re:Linux huh? (Score:4)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:27PM (#669431)
    Name one other operating system that uses window managers! I bet you can't even come up with one!

    And don't say Solaris, 'cause Solaris isn't Free Software.

    And don't say BSD either, because I don't like the BSD license, either.

    And it clearly isn't running and of the X Servers available for Windows, because Bill Gates its evil.

    Don't even get me started on the devil himself, Steve Jobs, or the horrible abomination that are NeXT and MacOS X.

    No, only Linux can run a window manager, because only Linux is truly free.
  • i think we've just found a new test for geekdom approval. Mind, you, i don't think that's bad. Just set a bunch of guys in front of a pic of a themed box. what WM is it? what theme is it? extra points if they can name the dock-apps based on the icon.

    for what it's worth, i think it's all enlightenment. You'll notice the dock-apps, but the bottom one is the icon-box that comes with E. I'm sure they just have it tweaked out.

    Although, Level 9 loses brownie points in my book for using one of the default themes that come with E (albeit probably the best one).


    FluX
    After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network

  • Re:Why it matters.. (Score:3)

    by ywwg ( 20925 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @07:06PM (#669440) Homepage
    at the risk of /.'ing my brother's computer, I made a short film addressing this very point.

    Real Hackers [newton.cx]

    It's in the divx codec, which is playable under linux using the avifile program. hnyah [slashdot.org]

  • Director more likely (Score:5)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27, 2000 @07:07PM (#669442)
    Chances are pretty good that someone created that desktop in Macromedia Director. Computer screens are done this way all the time for film and television.

    Some images were probably captured from Window Maker and sprites were created from them. Its really simple.

    It may well have been a Mac or Windows machine.

  • Enemy Of the State (Score:3)

    by sPaKr ( 116314 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @07:11PM (#669444)
    For those of you with a good eye, you can see a Sun Ultra450 in enemy of the state. Jason Lee (sp?) uses one for video editing that he caputers of birds. In his apartment you see him useing CDE and writes a file to a Zip disk. I have never used a Zip drive on a sun before, but I dont see why the scsi model wouldnt work. The case design of the the computer gives it away as a sun ultra 450, the use of CDE just confirms hes using solaris. Now almost none of my non-unix user friends could remember that, but all of the unix users quickly noticed and commented. I suspect we can be sure that no one that doesnt already notice this to be a windowmaker dock & enlightenment combo will ever know they saw something that they could be using today.
  • It hardly rates as news, except in the most peripheral sense.

    Reminds me of when we (amiga users) got excited that they were using Amigas on Max Headroom.

    We can see where that all ended up.


    --

  • Lol! I know Sawfish starts out with less memory usage, but after a while, it will tend to eat all your swap. Beware of the memory leaks! E doesn't leak like that (not in the latest 0.16)

  • Looks like windowmaker (Score:3)

    by techmuse ( 160085 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:29PM (#669453)
    I see a WindowMaker dock on there. You have to consider why certain things show up on TV though. Last year, there were lots of iMacs, because the colors show up rather well on TV. They're probably using Linux because they can easily customize its appearance, because it looks techy and most people won't recognize it on site, and because anyone who DOES recognize it will think that the show is more realistic because the characters are running Linux.

  • Re:What I identified ... (Score:3)

    by komet ( 36303 ) on Saturday October 28, 2000 @02:55AM (#669455) Homepage
    What I want to know is, has anyone forked off the xdm code for a version which puts up an enormous, flashing, siren-sounding ACCESS DENIED if you mistype the password?

    That's really all we need for a real movie-enabled desktop.

  • Dark Angel (Score:3)

    by smartin ( 942 ) on Saturday October 28, 2000 @02:59AM (#669457)
    Somewhat off topic but does anyone know what system the guy on Dark Angel it using, it looks pretty slick, a lot of use of transparant windows. It also looks functional as I've seen the guy drag stuff around.
  • I can confirm this sighting... The transparencies and themes seem consistant with Enlightenment.

  • Re:What is this, the Mac Evangelista site? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You sound like the same sort of people who get hard-ons 'cause they see a Mac sitting on Seinfeld's table.

    I agree. Its much, much, much more rewarding to get a hard-on every time Seinfeld's bicycle changed from a Klein to a Cannondale and back to a Klein again.
  • ok, what was the setup? WM & Enlightenment or just windowmaker? (the icons on the right were too big tho..)

    are those faked dock apps or real ones? where did you get them?

  • KiboMaster wrote:
    ...in most movies they usually create a blue screen on the monitor...

    That's because with a traditional CRT monitor the contrast would be terrible and if you could see the picture on the screen at all it would have scan shadows. In this case they used an SGI 1600SW digital LCD flat panel [sgi.com] so they might not have had to bother blue screening it.
  • no, you can't just use the clip pixmap and get the clip arrows... look closer: you'll see the clip has the scrolling arrows, arrows that don't appear on the pixmap...

    the windows on the right side are a bit big, and I haven't personally seen a configuration of windowmaker that uses multiple buttons or vertical titlebars, so you might be half right... it uses englightenment and a windowmaker combination...

    unless of course they faked the whole thing (not unlikely, where can I get those interesting dockapps? I don't think they exist)
  • There is not extra looking needed. They are running on window maker. I do not use window maker, but I am pretty sure that it will compile under many systems. There aren't any distinguishing marks on the desktop (like a penguin), therefor you cant assume they run Linux. They would most likely be running Linux, but there is no evidence. Window maker != Linux

  • the average viewer... (Score:3)

    by AtomZombie ( 186233 ) on Friday October 27, 2000 @06:33PM (#669485)
    the average viewer does not look at what os people on tv are using. they don't look at a screen and say, 'i'll be damned, ethel, that ain't windows!' it's cool that an 'alternative' os is being used on tv, but it is not going to shatter the television glass and spill into people's homes. people see it as just another technocyberhyperthingummie. maybe i am being cynical, but i think we are the only ones that cared to notice.

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