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Linux Used To Make "Star Trek, Nemesis"

Mike McCune writes "The "Linux Journal" has a nice article about the switch from Irix to Linux at Digital Domain and the use of Linux in 'Star Trek, Nemesis.' I guess this means that Linux is finally ready for 'The Enterprise.'"

44 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. No by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 5, Funny

    ``I guess this means that Linux is finally ready for 'The Enterprise.'''
    No. It means the Enterprise is finally ready for Linux.

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  2. Data... by coryboehne · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder if Data runs on an advanced version of the Linux kernel... It would explain his lack of humor....

    1. Re:Data... by kalidasa · · Score: 5, Funny

      My idiot friend recently installed RH 8 and jumped on IRC with a client rinning from root. It gave him the verbatim "Running IRC from root is stupid" message, and he wouldn't shut up about it for the next few weeks: "Linux called me stupid"

      Gee, artificial intelligence in Linux. If only there were natural intelligence in users.

  3. Grooooaaannn! by RavenDarkholme · · Score: 5, Funny



    I guess this means that Linux is finally ready for 'The Enterprise.'

    Urge ... to ... KILL ... rising.

    For that, you should surely be PUNished.

    1. Re:Grooooaaannn! by Linux+Freak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That urge can be fought. We're human beings with the blood of a million savage years on our hands! But we can stop it. We can admit that we're killers...but we're not going to kill...today. That's all it takes! Knowing that we're not going to kill...today!

  4. The deeper meaning of switching from Irix to Linux by Frothy+Walrus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When companies switch from Irix to Linux, it means one of two things:

    * they bought new SGI workstations, which run Linux, OR
    * they couldn't afford SGI workstations, so they bought other Intel workstations with Linux.

    It's not an amazing breakthrough jump. It's just that SGI barely sells Irix machines anymore.

  5. proves that once you have the application by zenst · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The only thing that holds ANY OS or hardware back is applications. Given how well and cheaply a cluster of linux box's can be put together its only a matter of time before people start adopting it. Also the like of MQSERIES (now part of websphere unfortunatly) are available on linux and offer a very simple way to migrate legacy CICS applications or parts of from expensive mainframes, and in a reliable assured way.

  6. yet another movie using a linux cluster.... by wuchang · · Score: 3, Interesting

    maybe you guys should post articles on movies that don't do their CGI with a Linux cluster (along with their cost of production).

  7. Ho hum, whatever.... by Profane+Motherfucker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here's the deal: a switch from IRIX to Linux doesn't mean a fucking thing. They've switched from one variant of Unix to another. What was gained in the end? A net gain overall for Unix of not a fucking thing. Zero.

    If they switched from Windows- or Mac-based machines, then this would be legit. Other than that it's meaningless in the sense of Linux is Taking Over.

    That's all fine and great that it makes for a good story, but if the point is to claim that somehow people are realizing the benefits of Unix-derived operating systems, then it means squat.

    1. Re:Ho hum, whatever.... by jimmy_dean · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If they switched from Windows- or Mac-based machines, then this would be legit. Other than that it's meaningless in the sense of Linux is Taking Over.

      Mac OS X is more Unix than Linux is...Linux is only a clone of Unix functionality and style. But jump forward in time to today and Linux is very much doing its one thing - blazing new trails in speed, stability, and of course acceptance of a free OS in the enterprise sector of business.

      --
      -> Sometimes, you just gotta break free from the shackles of proprietary code.
    2. Re:Ho hum, whatever.... by spitzak · · Score: 5, Informative

      Linux has replaced a significant number of NT machines at Digital Domain, both on the desktop and in the renderfarm. The machines are not being bought to replace Irix machines, they are being bought instead of Windows machines. And they are being bought for Linux itself, not because Linux is cheaper (each machine has a W2K license because they are dual-boot in case we need a huge LightWave render, and we pay for RedHat, so they are more expensive!).

      Although we still have lots of Irix machines around we use them only because their cost is zero (since we already own them). Believe me Irix is not even considered in any consideration for purchases. We also have a lot of the SGI 320 NT workstations, which were a huge mistake, neither W2K or Linux work right on them. It was a direct competition between Linux and Windows and Linux won.

      We could not consider Mac until OS/X came out. I understand it is quite popular at other places, and if our software is ported (which should not be hard) I think it will be popular at Digital Domain. Unless Linux GUI is improved considerably in the next 2 years it may find itself pushed back into the renderfarm and servers and off the desktop by OS/X.

    3. Re:Ho hum, whatever.... by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · · Score: 4, Funny

      What sorts of specific things about the linux GUIs (KDE? Gnome? The widget sets?) compared to OS X are a problem?

      KDE, Gnome, the widget sets. Yep, that pretty much covers it. ;-)

      --

      I write in my journal
    4. Re:Ho hum, whatever.... by Thagg · · Score: 3, Informative

      > Linux has replaced a significant number of NT machines at Digital Domain, both on the desktop and in the renderfarm. The machines are not being bought to replace Irix machines, they are being bought instead of Windows machines. And they are being bought for Linux itself, not because Linux is cheaper (each machine has a W2K license because they are dual-boot in case we need a huge LightWave render, and we pay for RedHat, so they are more expensive!).

      IIRC, there used to be a very strong pro-NT camp at Digital Domain. They were tireless and strident in their belief that anything Unix could do, NT could do better, claiming that the success of Titanic, for example, was due to NT. Or some such rot.

      Fortunately, most of them decamped to form a company called Station X. There they continued to sing the praises of NT right up until the time they went out of business.

      Digital Domain has been in the vanguard of those using Linux in visual effects for quite some time; and has been an inspiration to me and others in the industry. As they write quite a bit of their own software, they were able to adopt Linux sooner than most other companies who relied on commercial systems -- although now almost all of the commercial visual effects packages run well on Linux.

      thad

      --
      I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
    5. Re:Ho hum, whatever.... by Phroggy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Maybe the CLI environment is more UNIX than Linux is, but the kernel is Mach, the GUI is Quartz, and the APIs are Carbon and Cocoa.

      That said, being able to type "crontab -e" and having it open in BBEdit is pretty amazing. ;-)

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  8. The big question by Fembot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can it automaitcaly re-modulate the phase buffer to route power to the primary shields without someone having to crawl through dark monster infeseted tunnels?

    1. Re:The big question by cioxx · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes. With a kernel patch codenamed "Omega 9".

    2. Re:The big question by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 5, Funny

      ``Can it automaitcaly re-modulate the phase buffer to route power to the primary shields''
      Nope. The manufacturer refused to release specs for the hardware, so no driver has been written yet. Reverse engineering is in progress, though.

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    3. Re:The big question by RPoet · · Score: 4, Funny

      Leela: I didn't wanna leave them either, Fry, but what were we supposed to do?

      Fry: Well, usually on the show, somebody would come up with a complicated plan, then explain it with a simple analogy.

      Leela: Hmmm... if we can re-route engine power through the primary weapons and reconfigure them to Melllvar's frequency, that should overload his electro-quantum structure.

      Bender: Like putting too much air in a balloon!

      Fry: Of course! It's all so simple!

      --
      "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
    4. Re:The big question by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Funny
      "Can it automaitcaly re-modulate the phase buffer to route power to the primary shields without someone having to crawl through dark monster infeseted tunnels?"



      No but emacs can.

  9. Ready for the Enterprise by Kong+the+Medium · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought,Linux was ready for the enterpise since Kernel 1.7.0.1-D.

    --
    ... whenever a text is transmitted, variation occurs. This is because human beings are careless, fallible, and occasiona
  10. pfff by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    Rendering pretty pictures is oh-so-boring. I'd like to sit in front of a mic at a console, utter the command "Make it sew!" then watch a beowulf cluster of Singers make the whole crew wardrobe in 4 minutes, including the time needed for Troi's custom boob expansion panels.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  11. Does this mean there is less chance by dubbayu_d_40 · · Score: 4, Funny

    of it crashing at the box office?

  12. One of the first big movies to use Linux was... by BoomerSooner · · Score: 4, Informative

    Titanic. It was on the cover of Linux Journal back in 98/99 or whenever it came out. At the time I was astounded at what they did. Now it's getting redundant (as are these articles).

    Don't go to their website though. It's slower than crap.

    1. Re:One of the first big movies to use Linux was... by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What's so "astounding" about it? Linux is just an operating system. It runs programs. It provides disk I/O. It does not do rendering. It's the applications that do anything "astounding".

      In other words, all this really proves is that the operating system is pretty much irrelevent for this sort of work, not that Linux is particularly suited to it (other than being inexpensive).

      --
      Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
  13. This isn't where SGI/IRIX shines by mikael · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Moving a renderfarm to a Linux cluster isn't surprising. Since rendering is an "Embarrassingly parallel" computation and AMD/Intel has more FLOPS/$ compared to the MIPS processors, this is expected. When you need to pass a lot of data between processors, you'll need one of those Origin 3000 servers with 1000 processors. Linux can't do this yet.

    What is interesting though, is that they moved the workstation applications from SGI to Linux. I didn't know that the SGI hardware was lagging behind that much.

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  14. Hmmm by fizban · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess this just give more validity to the "Microsoft as Borg" line of thinking...

    and giving plenty more tag-lines to Linux PR - "Who's handling your Enterprise software these days? Linux, where no company has gone before."

    Urghh.... Must... Stop... Stupid... Puns... Kill... Timothy... for... starting... it...

    --

    +1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.

  15. Re:I've said it before... by tortap-0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "so please cut the bullshit and post real news stories"

    You are new to slashdot, right?

  16. Worst pun EVER! by DarkVein · · Score: 5, Funny

    Allow me to present this as timothy should have.

    Mike McCune writes "The "Linux Journal" has a nice article about the switch from Irix to Linux at Digital Domain and the use of Linux in 'Star Trek, Nemesis.' I guess this means that Linux is finally ready for ------[Pun censored, humanity saved]."
    --

    I'm as mimsy as the next borogove but your mome raths are completely outgrabe.

  17. Re:The deeper meaning of switching from Irix to Li by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reason SGI is probably selling less Irix machines is that Linux is available, cheaper, and does what buyers want.

    No. Five years ago, SGI was selling fewer IRIX machines because Windows NT was available, cheaper, and did what buyers wanted. Two years ago, it was because Windows 2000 was available, cheaper, and did what buyers wanted. Last year it was Linux. This year it's Mac OS X. Who knows what it will be next year?

    The fact that Linux is displacing IRIX in a lot of cases says much more about SGI than it does about Linux.

    --

    I write in my journal
  18. Re:./ away by Textbook+Error · · Score: 4, Funny

    btw...anyone know if it would be possible to ./ data?

    Uh, no. You see, web servers are from real life. Data is a character on a TV show.

    --

    Nae bother
  19. Re:The deeper meaning of switching from Irix to Li by dcavens · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm not sure if that's true. Looking over SGI's website, they don't seem to sell ANY linux based workstations any more. Only the Fuel and the Octane2 (both IRIX/MIPS machines.)

    They do have a yet-to-be-released NUMA Linux system based on Itanium, but it probably shouldn't be thought of as a workstation.

    I'm guessing you're probably right though that "SGI barely sells Irix machines". Not sure how many they're selling, but they're still cettainly losing money.

  20. Re:I've said it before... by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · · Score: 3, Informative

    An in terms of enterprise acceptance... ...it's irrelevant. Movie special effects are not what people mean when they say "the enterprise." If you want to talk about Linux in the enterprise, you're going to have to talk about productivity and messaging and stuff like that. Stuff the average white-collar business drones need.

    --

    I write in my journal
  21. Well someone had to say it. by ath0mic · · Score: 3, Informative


    I guess this means that Linux is finally ready for 'The Enterprise.'

    .. so that only took 300 years or so.

  22. Re:L-Cars Skin by saskboy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Data:
    Captain, I'm unable to complete your command. I mistakenly typed in www.abcnew.com when researching current events, and now my console is flooded by what 21st Century humans called "Pop-ups". They are replicating faster than I can close them. I recommmend a complete LCARS shutdown.

    Captain:
    DAMNIT! I told them we should have installed Adaware at spacedock!

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  23. That makes sense by SensitiveMale · · Score: 5, Funny

    It does seem as if the plot and story were created on a 286.

  24. Re:The deeper meaning of switching from Irix to Li by Loki_1929 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Who knows what it will be next year?"

    I've got money on OS/2.

    --
    -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
  25. Klingons use BSD by Stephen+VanDahm · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which OS would the Klingons use? Klingons have long hair and beards and live in dark dirty rooms, so we know that they're UNIX users. But are they Linux users? They certainly have bad tempers, which means they'd feel right at home on the Linux kernel developers list. But take a look at Klingon ships. They're pretty simple and a little rough around the edges, but at the same time really tough and secure. With these design priorities, it's pretty safe to say that they're running OpenBSD.

    Not convinced? Consider this additional evidence. On TNG, the Klingons are worried that their traditional values are dying. On Slashdot, the crapflooding trolls declare daily that BSD is dying. 'Nuff said. :-)

  26. Not in 2.4.20 by KPU · · Score: 5, Funny

    Quoting the 2.4.20 changelog, "replace end user confusing 'on fire' joke with real info"

  27. Re:introduction... by saskboy · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's been a long code,
    Getting from IRIX to here,
    It's been a long time,
    But Linux time is finally near.
    I see Torvalds dream come alive at last,
    Kissing Irix'es goodbye,
    And they're not gonna hold me down no more,
    No they're not gonna change my mind...
    yadda yadda you get the idea...

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  28. false false false! stop spreading this myth! by Ender+Ryan · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Mac OS X is not "more Unix than Linux", not by any stretch of the imagination. OS X is based on BSD, which no longer incorporates any code derived from original Unices. Therefore, they are both "clones". Mac OS X is a registered Unix, ie. they paid to be able to call it Unix. Linux probably meets the single unix specification more closely than OS X, but no one has paid to have Linux certified as a Unix.

    --
    Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
  29. That explains by notlameness · · Score: 4, Funny

    so by this communities standards, everything trek that has gone before sucks and everything going forward is uber cool because the drawings were rendered on a nice open operating system, using closed source software on closed source hardware to make a movie for profit rather than a closed operating system on closed rendering software on closed hardware .

    Such a fickle bunch.

  30. This just in... by raytracer · · Score: 4, Funny
    Significant quantities of caffeinated cola beverages were used to enable the delivery of effects on Star Trek: Nemesis. Lead technical director I. M. Tyred was quoted as saying:
    If it weren't for Coke, Jolt and No-Doze, there is no way we could have finished this stuff on time. We also credit various snack cakes, particularly those made by Hostess, except for those Pink Snowballs, they suck.
    Industry insiders claim that improvements in snack cake and cola technology will soon make the delivery of films with entirely synthetic cast members possible in the next decade, eliminating the need for traditional actors entirely.
  31. you joke but by IRNI · · Score: 3, Funny

    in the 25th century, the 14.2.22 kernel is used in the warp drive controller. Linus' frozen head was the lead developer on the warp engine software. You didn't think you could get from here to the other side of the galaxy on Windows did you? :)

  32. That explains why..... by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    the Bird of Prey is now a Giant Penguin