Slashdot Mirror
Open Source Gets Its Own TV Show
ChocLinux writes "A South African organisation has produced what it claims is the first television series dedicated to promoting open source software. The first episode of the show included an interview with Richard Stallman, who founded the GNU project, and Robin Rowe, who runs the Linux Movies Group, which promotes the use of Linux in Hollywood."
Smallest audience share ever. Maybe it can get on CNBC after McEnroe.
Most FOSS advocates don't need to watch a TV show promoting FOSS, they already use FOSS as much as they can. People who are not FOSS advocates won't bother to watch. Even if FOSS advocates did want to watch, they would probably rather do something on the computer than watch this TV show.
...is the show itself open source? Can I re-edit the show?
The more press the better. Maybe even more organizations and companies will switch over now... surely it seems like this will sway a lot of people, now that it's getting such veneration. Hopefully, it will air in the states, too. I would definitely watch it.
where the Linux source gets its first period?
It is tentatively titled "When Penguins Attack"
On todays show "Configuring your TV to run open source Beowulf software" "In Soviet Russia Open Sources You!" "But can it play OGG?" "Welcoming our Open Source bearing Geek Overlords!"
Guaranteed to jump the shark in Season Six when Stallman opens a taco stand.
I think a link to the shows own homepage might be a good idea, here you go: http://www.go-opensource.org/go_open/
^^
...is it Free? Can I download it (and where's the .torrent)?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Can someone stick this series on eDonkey or set up a torrent ?
No g-news is good g-news unless its Gary Gnu's.
Go not unto/. for advice, for you will be told both yea and nay (but have nothing to do with the question)
I can already see the line up: 10:30 PM - Barely Legal Slackware Camp 12:00 PM - Debian Does Slackware 1:30 PM - Little Redhat Riding Hood XXX series
I would say that The Screensavers used to advocate open source as well as Call for Help every now and then.
Of course they didn't preach it like a zealot, but I think they did promote it nicely.
Sorry Tux, but you receiving awards at the Oscars? Please nooo....
I say slashdot bring back Geeks in Space (yeah that's right, I found the old school link).
The first episode of the show included an interview with Richard Stallman, the man responsible for GNU/Linux
Richard Stallman is the man responsible for GNU/Linux? Linux uses a lot of GNU programs in userland, but to call him "the man" responsible for GNU/Linux?
He's responsible for Emacs and the movement, but not GNU/Linux as a whole by any stretch...
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Announcer: [whispering] He's really close now, but does he know it...? This is the third time his attention has gone to that object constructor... oh, he's getting that look in his eyes... his time's running short... can he make it eleven weeks in a row?
Geek [looks up from the computer screen]: Uh... I think, um, maybe the way IDataHandler::IDataHandler() is written right now... it, uh, might lead to an operation on a null pointer later on?
[A Siren goes off, balloons fall from the ceiling]
Announcer: And our reigning champion does it AGAIN! A special thank you to our challenger, who really kept it close this week. We'll be RIGHT BACK with the bonus round, but first, a word from our sponsors...
[cut to a noose hanging from the ceiling]
Voice-Over: Life boring? Feeling like THIS is in your future?
etc.
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
Richard Stallman is -
a) A famous Hollywood actor
b) A male supermodel for Soviet Jeans
c) The 'grandfather' of the Free Software Movement.
Open source TV would be great, as long as there aren't any Windows ads
...it actually looks like a fairly high percentage of geeks prefer to use a computer. No, it's true! In fact, I hear a lot of them hang out around some...slashed dot, or something like that?
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
Or a torrent to the show in our sigs? (you gotta think more open source)
Microsoft see this challenge head to head with the release of their new suspense-thriller "Installing XP SP2".
It's an exciting time folks.
Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing an editor and a MTA.
The Turkish Technology Channel had a weekly show on Linux; I did an interview there a while back when I was in Turkey. It seems to be now defunt, or at least I assume as much from this page which I can't actually read...
It should be titled something like "An Alternate View" and not be preachy about open source but just show practical examples of what open-source applications are out there and how people are using them.
They could pick a SourceForge "Project-Of-The-Week" which would hopefully serve the dual purpose of helping someone find a solution and recruiting developers to bring along projects that need a bit more attention.
It wouldn't have to be the flashy projects either, simple stuff like the Meeting Room Booking System could be presented and how users have taken this and applied it to airplane bookings, class schedules, etc etc.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
That means no commercials because there is nothing to pay for?
Open source is free as in speech, not free as in beer. So in all likelyhood there will be commercials.
It would be refreshing to see people become comfortable by giving others credit for what they did instead of overstating the case. Linus Torvalds started writing the Linux kernel (which is not an operating system). Years before Torvalds began his work, RMS started a social movement called the free software movement, he began the GNU project, and (to make GNU a reality) he started writing a number of programs including GCC and Emacs (now GNU Emacs to differentiate it from XEmacs and the other Emacs variants).
Digital Citizen
I guess they're hard up for programming in South Africa.
Also coming soon, EMACS the show.
Be warned, you'll need to map Ctrl-Alt-Meta-Play to your remote in order to do anything useful with the show.
Vi pundits have also announced their own show. This one will automatically re-map all of the keys on your remote so that each key will have an unidentified cryptic function whose purpose is not revealed even after pressing the button.
Once the show starts, the viewer is greeted by a blank screen. This blank screen will remain indefinitely until the user figures out the remote-key combination to quit the program. Don't mess up, because then you might not be able to quit at all!
In order to actually watch the show, you will have to press an unidentified button on the remote which will allow you to watch the show.
One
Line
At
A
Time
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
A Creative Commons license would probably be more appropriate for a T.V. show, even if the show is mostly about GPL.
;)
Don't forget to install your mozcc extension in your Mozilla based browser so you can determine the creative commons license status of the web page that the T.V. show is on
Signatures are a waste of bandwi (buffering...)
I'm not saying that RMS wasn't worthy of an interview... just that stating the facts incorrectly is bad.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
It seems that it will eventually be on their web site (or maybe one day Bittorrent). So another http://www.slashdot.org/ article and they'll get every geek imagineable... at least the ones that care about OSS. "Go_Open will be broadcast on the South African television channel SABC 2 every Saturday at 5:30 p.m., but will soon be available for viewing on the Web site accompanying the series."
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
Crickey!! I don't know about you lot, but strewth!, this little overflow bug is one cute little critter 'aint he? Let me just sneak up real close to him, cause I don't want to scare the little guy!
Look at him! Isn't he a beauty!? If you pay close attention to him, you'll notice that he has this small opening on him where, if attacked, he will defend himself by crashing the machine!
We've got to be REALLY careful and quiet in this bug's natural habitat... This little bug's predators could find him, and we don't want to alert them to his prescence!
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Maybe TechTV Canada can buy the rights and broadcast it in Canada, never to be seen by most Americans.
Heh, it's working for Call for Help V2 so far...
Then again, most Canadian-produced shows never get seen by Americans (except for maybe Due South - that one was a real stinker).
/Troll
Yes I know the movie! It was my favorite movie before LOTR ROTK came out. Really unrealistic (cops arrest the guy with no evidence except some video someone made) but I liked it all the same.
Back on topic: I realize that exposure is good for FOSS, but I wouldn't call this exposure. Ratings are going to be complete trash. "People who don't know about their other options" usually don't care about their other options. Furthermore, many people I know have a bias against Linux ("You use Linux? Omg..."), so they are unlikely to watch a TV program about it.
Remember, Richard Stallman loves you. He coded for your sins.
To convert to this great new religion, simply send a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope, stuffed with hundred-dollar bills, to the address on your screen:
...Disclaimer: This retarded comment is not affiliated with, not is it sponsored in any way, by RMS or the FSF. It's just a joke. So get over it, asshole.
Firstly, I don't know who this program was targeted at, but the presenter (who tries to be a comedian) made jokes that are too nerdy for normal people to understand, yet, not funny to the nerd crowd at all.
Secondly, the interview with Richard was not introduced appropriately. One moment we're hearing that Linux is the best because it is open, next moment we hear that Linux is not the best, but only a small part of the bigger vision which is free (as in speach) software. I understand what's cooking, but my girlfriend doesn't.
Thirdly, having an interview with the one of the "great" open source developers of South Africa turned out to be a chat with a guy who downloaded the Nokia SDK and developed a game for cellphones and are now trying to sell it to some distributor.
There's nothing wrong with it - I just expected so much more...
I was dissappointed up to the very end where they did not even number the possible answers to the competition question. Should I SMS '3', 'c' or 'The 'grandfather' of the open source movement'
I'll watch the show this week again - it is followed by an animated version of Mr Bean and thereafter there is the rerun of Malcolm in the Middle...
If it's free as in speech, then you can edit out the commercials and redistribute.
;)
And it will happen, or it would if the show itself was open source, and not about open source
It is being screened on SABC 3 here in South Africa, one of the South African Broadcasting Corporation's three free to view channels. It is entirely free to view, as long as you have a tv license, which you need if you have a TV anyway.
:-)
The first episode will apparently be available for download from the website at the end of this week.
I'm with you on Stallman though - he reminds me of nothing more than a dwarf from some form of fantasy novel. Give him an axe and a scottish accent and there's a career in the diminutive warrior trade just waiting for him
Daar is nie 'n lepel nie
Disclaimer: I'm on it from time to time.
They're lagging a bit on posting the shows, (the only one up so far is the first show from August 2004,) but they're posting more soon.
Yes, looks like it is going to be available for download under Creative Commons at some point!
There will also be a printed magazine on free software in a few months:
Free software magazine
---
There is one South-African channel available on satellite here in europe but it is NSAT.
It seems to be focused on giving information about SA to viewers abroad. Many countries have such a channel.
On the other hand, our own satellite service is filled with European content :-)
I wouldn't be too concerned about not getting much SA TV - the public broadcast stuff does carry a bit of excellent programming, but it's mostly common denominator stuff, which obviously cannot appeal to everyone. Furthermore they are government funded, and a fair amount of public service programming is required (not that I think this is a bad thing.) They also broadcast in all 11 official languages, so the English channel is the only one which would be of use to most Europeans (although maybe the Afrikaans programming could be understood by the Dutch).
Most of our entertainment and documentary stuff is imported, either from the US/Canada or Europe.
Daar is nie 'n lepel nie
Black said that production costs were five million South African rand (about £450,000).
You must be joking... USD to ZAR is currently 1: 5.93346. By my calculation that's either $842,678.639 if you convert from R5 mil, or R2,670,057 if you convert from $450,000
£450000, not $450000.
As it is about open source, can I download the scripts from anywhere and upload my own alterations? Are the scripts under any form of version control? Is there a link to ScriptForge?
-- "Can't sleep, clowns will eat me!"
neat idea I think. G4/Tech TV's Screen Savers is so Windows loving it makes me sick so this show could fill a niche. Although maybe instead of being only about oss maybe the show should be "Slashdot TV" complete with a few talking heads to argue about something in the last 5 minutes of the show to represent the forums here. :)
I'm all happy that there's a new TV show dedicated to Open Source, but I would have hoped they could find a better musical act than Richard Stallman.
This is not my sandwich.
He's richer than most, therefore more visible and vocal... but OSS has long roots over here. We're like Brazil, we "do" things in the open source scene that the rest of the world can only argue about/wish for on ./
We're quite loyal too...most of my friends tried and switched to Ubuntu when it was released...
i can dig it...just choose not to
So when will it start showing on torrentocracy ?
-- Buzh
So far official ratings have put the show at .05% market share, but the OSS community is confident that within 2 years OSS shows will serve the majority of the TV watching public...
Flamebait?
It was supposed to be +5 Funny for chrissakes...
Guess I'll include a smiley emoticon next time...
In Turkey, long time ago (~ 2 years), a TV Program called "Penguenin Gunlugu" (Penguin's diary) boradcasted every week. This program is dedicated only open source, especially Linux.. But this channel (Technology Channel) only accesible with a paytv service "digiturk" (over satellite). I don't see this program, i can't have "digiturk" system. But, editor of this program is my friend Gorkem CETIN.