The key significance of this news is that, as far as sending a message
to our politicians is concerned, since our isles are very aggressive in
trying to woo the filming-making industry here, we can now emphatically articulate that Linux should not and cannot
continue to be ingored.
Linux is critically important to us because it can become the keystone to build the kind of industry that is most suitable
to our isles. And it will mean "jobs"--Real jobs, Good-paying jobs, pollution-free jobs, and jobs that will work well with our tourism industry.
Our politicians should know that, by teaching our kids Linux in schools so that we can provide a large pool
of locally available skilled labor, it will become a critical selling point
for us to attract movie companies to produce films here.
(I remember reading an interview of George Lucas, who mentioned that a good part of
Star War Eposide II was done in Linux also.)
"The Walt Disney Company, the doyen of animation studios, is joining
Hollywood's embrace of a technological upstart -- the GNU Linux
operating system.
"Disney's animation division is announcing today that it plans to use
Hewlett-Packard
<http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=HPQ <http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=HPQ>>
workstations and data-serving computers running Linux for digital
animation work in the future.
"The Disney move is the latest commitment by major studios and
special-effects houses -- including DreamWorks SKG, Pixar Animation
Studios, Industrial Light and Magic and Digital Domain -- to Linux,
which is a variant of the Unix operating system that is distributed free
and under terms that allow programmers to fine-tune the software.
"Movie animation is a rarefied niche market for computer technology. The
studios have deep pockets, legions of technical experts and plenty of
financial incentive to get just the right look and detail in movies like
"Shrek" and "Monsters Inc.," since the payoff for a box-office hit can
be enormous."
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/18/technology/18LINU.html?pagewanted=print&position=top <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/18/technology/18LINU.html?pagewanted=print&position=top>
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