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Corny yes, but any parallels might make Daniel nervous! ;-)

"but it's slow and unwieldy for the most part"
Isn't everything that Microsoft does slow? At least for the first few years til some competitor makes something better and faster, then MS buys 'em out, hires 'em, or pulls some "Anti-Trust" (the movie) tactic to get the technology and remain a monopoly?
Go ahead... call me a troll. I just have no love lost on anything new from Redmond.

Can't believe no-one has mentioned Antitrust yet... one of the greatest computer & programming movies around.

Linux is used by Milo quite often in this movie

You mean like in the movie Antitrust - where the corporate day-care facility has lego-style workstations for the kids?

T

I saw Antitrust yesterday and of course I went to check out skullbocks.com, skullbocks.net, and skullbocks.org when I got home. It looks like MGM hasn't thought of a good idea for what to host there. (At the time of this posting they have a generic "under construction" page posted at all sites)

Then I had an idea... I wondered what would happen if somebody like Jon Katz posted an open email to MGM with some of the following ideas:

• Use the skullbocks.* sites to promote open source by open sourcing the code to be used behind their "Innovative Digital Media Distribution Website".
• Take some proceeds from ticket sales from Antitrust and donate some to EFF to help support the DVD Case.
• Take some proceeds from ticket sales from Antitrust and donate some to Project Mayo (DivX).
• Post the source code to DeCSS on the skullbocks.* sites.
• Create and seed fund the cerebellum-project. The cerebellum-project would be an open source project to build a server to archive and search digital video. A joint search engine and archive. MGM should also seed the archive by releasing old movies under some audio/video GPL.

Just an open idea. What else can you think to add?

thanx, chaim

I saw Antitrust yesterday and of course I went to check out skullbocks.com, skullbocks.net, and skullbocks.org when I got home. It looks like MGM hasn't thought of a good idea for what to host there. (At the time of this posting they have a generic "under construction" page posted at all sites)

Then I had an idea... I wondered what would happen if somebody like Jon Katz posted an open email to MGM with some of the following ideas:

• Use the skullbocks.* sites to promote open source by open sourcing the code to be used behind their "Innovative Digital Media Distribution Website".
• Take some proceeds from ticket sales from Antitrust and donate some to EFF to help support the DVD Case.
• Take some proceeds from ticket sales from Antitrust and donate some to Project Mayo (DivX).
• Post the source code to DeCSS on the skullbocks.* sites.
• Create and seed fund the cerebellum-project. The cerebellum-project would be an open source project to build a server to archive and search digital video. A joint search engine and archive. MGM should also seed the archive by releasing old movies under some audio/video GPL.

Just an open idea. What else can you think to add?

thanx, chaim

I saw Antitrust yesterday and of course I went to check out skullbocks.com, skullbocks.net, and skullbocks.org when I got home. It looks like MGM hasn't thought of a good idea for what to host there. (At the time of this posting they have a generic "under construction" page posted at all sites)

Then I had an idea... I wondered what would happen if somebody like Jon Katz posted an open email to MGM with some of the following ideas:

• Use the skullbocks.* sites to promote open source by open sourcing the code to be used behind their "Innovative Digital Media Distribution Website".
• Take some proceeds from ticket sales from Antitrust and donate some to EFF to help support the DVD Case.
• Take some proceeds from ticket sales from Antitrust and donate some to Project Mayo (DivX).
• Post the source code to DeCSS on the skullbocks.* sites.
• Create and seed fund the cerebellum-project. The cerebellum-project would be an open source project to build a server to archive and search digital video. A joint search engine and archive. MGM should also seed the archive by releasing old movies under some audio/video GPL.

Just an open idea. What else can you think to add?

thanx, chaim

That is a good point. I think it falls short of hypocrisy, though: it's not as though screenplays are written by teams of studio lawyers. Well, actually, it can be kind of like that. But the studios are sometimes just distributors of a film that was made independently, though that is not the case with this movie. The screenwriter is credited as Howard Franklin, who also has a credit for "The Man Who Knew Too Little", and who directed "Larger than life." These movies sound pretty bad, and I've never seen them. He seems to have some sort of MGM contract and also has random producer credits and stuff. Hmm, actually, there might not be many things closer to a puppet of the studio than Howard Franklin. But in light of his other credits, I think it's more fair to call it "stupid" than "hypocritical" -- it doesn't seem to me that MGM is trying to align themselves with Free Software hackers, which is why the movie is not good Free Software publicity. Howard Franklin probably doesn't know a whole hell of a lot about DeCSS, if anything, and since he's clearly not a Free Software ideologue he'd probably prefer that the studios had their way. It might be hypocritical if the studio'd received a script treatment from someone and then had Howard Franklin develop it and did not give credit to the person who had the idea. At some point one has to separate the film-as-art or film-as-entertainment from the people who made it. RMS might disagree, and I kind of disagree too, but a movie does have value on its own, independent of the circumstances of its production.

In light of Antitrust's website, one might again cry hypocrisy, what with their (very vapid) interviews with maddog and Miguel. But that's just the work of somebody in the MGM's web department. An organization the size of a studio has all kinds of people working for it, and it's pretty simpleminded to say that the entire movie is bullshit just because people at the top are doing a terrible, terrible thing. At the very least it has entertainment value. When I said I clapped without noticing, I meant to suggest that it was a mindless kind of fun, though empty of real ideological value.

For those who still can't see where they all fit in, look at http://www.antitrustthemovie.com/production_synaps e2.html. For those who can't be bothered clicking:

Several other innovators in the computer world contributed to the film, particularly several big names from the open-source software movement - which advocates free access to the codes for all computer programs. The consultants include Linus Torvalds from Finland, creator of Linux, the most established name in open source software; John "Mad Dog" Hall of Linux International; and Miguel de Icaza from Mexico, originator of Gnome, another open source operating system.

Several key industry figures also make brief appearances in Antitrust. Scott McNealey, C.E.O. of Sun Microsystems, presents an award to a young software programmer played by Yee Jee Tso. Tim Lindholm appears as a programmer whose work is pirated. And Miguel de Icaza presents the Grace Hopper Award, an actual programmer's award, to Ryan Phillippe.

So there ya go.

The link is here. (See the last paragraph at the bottom of the page).

Claiming it is Linux just by GNOME is highly erroneous.

Absolutely! In fact, according to the "about the production" section on the movie's website, Gnome is an entire operating system! Wow!

(See last sentence of second paragraph on this page) - "Miguel de Icaza from Mexico, originator of Gnome, another open source operating system." (emphasis mine)

Claiming it is Linux just by GNOME is highly erroneous.

Absolutely! In fact, according to the "about the production" section on the movie's website, Gnome is an entire operating system! Wow!

(See last sentence of second paragraph on this page) - "Miguel de Icaza from Mexico, originator of Gnome, another open source operating system." (emphasis mine)

Anyone know what 'skullbocks' are? I'm assuming I'm just not hip/tech enough to know what this means. ;-)

Good point, however, someone else already pointed out that their treatment of linux is a bit different than other films... that is, they actually mention it!

I haven't had a chance to research the movie much, but maybe the director is a linux (well, unix/gnome) buff and thought "hey, it'd be cool to use this in a movie instead of that obviously fake stuff everyone else has!". A minor point to most people, but it does (or could) raise the film up a bit more in the minds of geeks like us.

Even if they are doctored images, why are they doctored to look like the real thing, instead of the bastardizations that are normally seen, with 2" fonts and big flashing access denie messages? Seems to me if they were going to fake it they could make it look a lot cooler than the default gnome desktop...

Has anyone checked out the special features page on antitrust's website? Now I gotta go see this movie.

Just because it's running GNOME doesn't necessarily mean its underlying OS must be Linux. It could just as easily be Solaris, NetBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, FreeBSD, HP-UX, or any other platform which GNOME runs on. Claiming it is Linux just by GNOME is highly erroneous.

While what you said is true, there is more proof on the site that leads towards the idea of it being linux underneath. Specifically, if you look at www.antitrustthemovie.com/special/special.html, you find that they mention linux quite frequently. The would seem to lead to the conclusion that it is, in fact, linux underneath.

Of course, this doesn't prove it, but it does supply fairly strong evidence to that end.

*shrugs* I could be wrong. :P

The AntiTrust movie's website has an interview with everybody's favourite linux guy Joh "Maddog" Hall with questions like "What is Linux and what does it do? " and "What is open source?" Check it out, it is interesting watching and can only be good for getting the word out there.

The AntiTrust movie's website has an interview with everybody's favourite linux guy Joh "Maddog" Hall with questions like "What is Linux and what does it do? " and "What is open source?" Check it out, it is interesting watching and can only be good for getting the word out there.

John "Maddog" Hall

Miguel de Icaza

ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.

John "Maddog" Hall

Miguel de Icaza

ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.

I personally found it humorous that the movie's producers seem to be aiming for the geek market, but apparently ommitted a Linux version of the screen saver. Think someone will throw a fit about this? :)

ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.

From what I can tell, it's a fictionalized description of the history of Microsoft... errr... I mean a software company where they will do anything to get ahead.

Most interesting for Slashdot readers in this movie's site is that the extras page links to interviews with Jon 'Maddog' Hall and Miguel de Icaza . (Unfortunately, they're in Quicktime format.

From what I can tell, it's a fictionalized description of the history of Microsoft... errr... I mean a software company where they will do anything to get ahead.

Most interesting for Slashdot readers in this movie's site is that the extras page links to interviews with Jon 'Maddog' Hall and Miguel de Icaza . (Unfortunately, they're in Quicktime format.

From what I can tell, it's a fictionalized description of the history of Microsoft... errr... I mean a software company where they will do anything to get ahead.

Most interesting for Slashdot readers in this movie's site is that the extras page links to interviews with Jon 'Maddog' Hall and Miguel de Icaza . (Unfortunately, they're in Quicktime format.