Slashdot Mirror
Disney Switches To Linux For Animation
EEEthan writes: "It looks like Linux is really the next big thing for movie graphics houses. The New York Times is reporting that Disney has switched over to Linux-based HP workstations for animation. Although Disney has historically been known for their hand-drawn animation, this is a big move to Linux for what might be the world's most famous producer of animated films."
Even if Disney were evil it's not like they were a vampire and Linux is the karmic equivalent of holy water. Linux use is growing because of purely economic reasons. With Linux you get a lot of bang for your buck, and migrating from commercial UNIX is relatively straightforward. That's all that should be read into this particular switch. The folks at Disney added up the numbers and realized the same thing that pretty much the entire animation and special effects industry is realizing. Switching to Linux will save them time and money.
Try to find any self respecting production studio that uses a Windows box for anything more than basic editing.
If they ARE using a desktop machine (instead of a dedicated box or something like an SGI workstation), then it's probably a Mac - simply because the Mac has MUCH better tools than windows.
I haven't heard much about Linux desktops being used in animation/post production before, but it's nice to see it happening. I'm wondering how the tools they're using stack up against Mac and Windows equivalents (both with and without price in the equation).
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
I hope that is what this means. I seriously want more large companies to be convinced that it is worth thier time to release stuff for linux. If macromedia ported all of thier software over to linux, I could finaly get rid of my windows box!
Sigs are out of style, so I'm not going to use one...oh wait..
I very much doubt if Disney cares about Good or Evil, at least as it applies to platforms. They simply decided it was more cost effective to get their next round of upgrades from HP instead of SGI.
Disney isn't going with Linux because they agree with the GNU or Linux worldview. They are going with Linux because they can use it for free, as in beer. When you consider the cost over hundreds or thousands of workstations, it adds up. Especially when Microsoft's starting to get all crazy with their forced subscription model. Something like that could cost Disney millions of dollars per year in their animation department alone, not including IT & Legal costs associated with making sure everything is "in compliance".
Disney doesn't give a fuck about OSS ideals, they just want free-beer.
Linux is a tool. Thats all it is not nessary a force of Good or Evil. All it dose is take requestest and decided to do them or not. It is great for the spread of the wide useage of Linux at disney is using them but. Still linux is just an OS a tool to get the job done. It is like calling a Craftman Hammer a force for good and a Stanly Hamer a force for evil. One may work better then the other but it is still a tool and not a religious Icon. I suport Linux and Hope for its growth It is a nice OS compared to some of the others out there. But still it is a tool and not a political party or a religion that some people make it seem to be.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
But in the near term, as the Hollywood experience shows, Linux is gaining at the expense of proprietary versions of Unix.
In my opinion, while the adoption of Linux by large corporations (like Disney) affirms the validity of Linux for professional uses, Bill Gates is clearly not losing any sleep over this one, as the article notes. As much as I'd like to see a decrease in dominance by MS led by Linux, I'm not so sure I'd like to see less choices in *nix OS's in the process.
Linux at home
The real Webmaven is user ID 27463. I don't rate an imposter, because my ID is such a lame-ass high number.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
For better or worse, the trend is clear. There may ultimately be a showdown between Microsoft & GNU/Linux, but long before that, all the independent UNIXs will die. SCO, is comatose, IRIX is badly wounded, HPUX and AIX will be put out of their misery by their masters. The only healthy corporate UNIX is Solaris. It'll be the last to die, and it'll be bloody. So yes, Linux & *BSD may finally challenge Microsoft, but not before paving the battlefield with all other possible competitors. Personally, I liked IRIX, especially the way it handled multimedia. Too bad...
Oh you mean a company that takes public domain material (or at least claims it's public domain), uses it to make movies and then works like hell to make sure its own work never appears in the public domain?
That would be Disney.
Just this morning I was reading about how Disney is starting to loose money on their animated films. The story is on the front page of todays WSJ and it lays out what the price/performace ratios of the last few movies were.
From the article:
The Lion King 1994
Production Budget: $50 million
U.S. Box Office Take: $312 million
Hercules 1997
Production Budget: $100 million
U.S. Box Office Take: $99 million
Tarzan 1999
Production Budget: $150 million
U.S. Box Office Take: $171 million
The Emperor's New Groove 2001
Production Budget: $100 million
U.S. Box Office Take: $89.2 million
Lilo & Stitch
Production Budget: $80+ million
U.S. Box Office Take: Unknown
Of course it could be because of the declining quality of these movies, the only one I've seen is Lion King, which was a pretty good flick IMHO. I wonder if the lower TCO argument of Linux is starting to kick in a little bit. This will be interesting to see.
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
Just because free software is important to you, doesn't make your issues with Disney more important than all the problems of millions around the world who face real loss of liberty due to corporate evil.
Just because some poor schmuck is worse off than me it doesn't mean that I am not allowed to fight for a better world for me. Granted a lot of people suffer injustice because of real evil empires, but that doesn't mean we should all let the lesser evils (you know who *couch* MS *couch*) reign freely on their turfs.
Let me fight the evils I can see and actually feel I can fight (not win against, but at least fight). Then you go and fight the ones you feel you must fight. Maybe on each of our scenes we can make the world a better place, but I cannot fight all the evils at once, and definitely not the biggest ones.